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Rating: 
Summary: OK Collection of VC Anecdotes & IVP Advert
Review: 'Confessions' discusses the author's personal experience and stories over 18 years as an analyst and recent venture capitalist at IVP.Anecdotal easy-reading unreferenced chapters span: * Life in the bubble- background on Sand Hill venture capitalists, the Internet and Silicon-Valley startups. * People- desirable startup success characteristics including passion & drive, decisiveness, determination, true motivations of founders and leadership/focus/clarity [don't try stretch in too many new areas e.g. market, technology and team]. * Markets- desirable characteristics including large growth market size, needs rather than wants, simple elevator offering description, hype, and fads [e.g. must be technically feasible, proof of paying customers, listen to customer feedback else is fad]. * Business models- desirable characteristics as per standard models, plus focus on NOT licensing, flexibility of model, "faster, better, cheaper" versus "brave new world", costs, distribution models, manage expectations, and keep eye on (cash) burn rate. * Venture capitalists- description of stages (e.g. initial pitch, follow-up meeting, due diligence, partner meeting pitch, deal negotiation & close), VCs are partners, listen to VC feedback. * Entrepreneurs- common mistakes (e.g. hire wrong, think small, tell VC what think want to hear, underestimate competition, focus on money), determination, board meetings, hype, avoid family businesses, and be paranoid. * Fine Line Between Bizarre & Brilliant- interesting ideas including one described as unintelligible (Digital Datawac) which seemed straightforward (should this reviewer be worried?). * And short ending chapters on: The Dumbest Decision I Ever Made; Valuation and More; A View from the Trenches; Five Short Years to a Revolution; and an Appendix primer on financing and valuation. Despite being an easy-read & addressing an interesting subject with basic structuring of IVP material, 'Confessions' ultimately lacks content. Useful for industry newcomers or startups as background material.
Rating:
Summary: Not Quite Appropriate for the Post-Bubble Age
Review: As a General Partner at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), Ruthann Quindlen has seen her share of entrepreneurial ventures succeed - or fall by the wayside. In this book, she describes the world of venture capital as it relates to both the investor and entrepreneur. Most striking are the number of topics discussed in barely over 200 pages of writing. At 36 chapters, this book covers each subject briefly, yet thoroughly, using examples from the "real-world", rather than droll academic jargon. Its rapid-fire structure reads easily and is useful as a quick-reference tool.
Unfortunately, the subject-matter strongly reflects the ideology of Silicon Valley throughout the dot-com bubble - shoot first, ask questions later (profitability can wait). Quindlen accurately identifies the Internet stock-market bubble as a fragile and possibly short-lived phenomenon. At the edge of her writing, however, lies the familiar overly optimistic attitude that drove capital investment into startups with no hope of achieving a sustainable business. Her examples are refreshing, yet nearly all focused on internet technologies that are hardly representative of all entrepreneurs. Many of the lessons are still applicable and important to any fledgling company seeking venture capital investment, but others should be revisited in light of changing attitudes toward the "internet paradigm".
The book is structured well, covering 11 primary subject areas including market identification, business model creation, start-up valuation, and decision making. Each subject area contains a handful of example-laden chapters, guaranteed to help the budding entrepreneur avoid the common mistakes of countless startups. And if providing helpful information for investment-seeking entrepreneurs is the primary goal, examining the life and occupation of a venture capitalist is the essential secondary component. Quindlen discusses her best and worst decisions as an investor, and provides a chapter dedicated to the role of women in the heavily male-dominated venture capital community.
Overall, the content is broad, and many examples are somewhat "touchy-feely". Alone, Confessions of a Venture Capitalist is not useful as a standalone guide for the industry, but this is not its intent. As a primer text, this book is ideal - budding entrepreneurs and seasoned veterans alike will find the examples both useful and enjoyable. Alongside it, however, should sit an arsenal of reference guides focusing on business plan development, financing, and valuation.
Joshua A. Gerlick
Rating: 
Summary: Read the chapter titles and Skip..
Review: If you have had even a minor exposure to startups (worked in one, or a friend has worked in one, and told you several stories), this book will seem like "Obvious, duh!". There are a few interesting points, but very little in the form of enlightening/revealing anecdotes. The book is funny to read after the Internet-bubble has burst. Ruthann is busy trying to say how venture capitalists are most valuable for a company's success, and how the Internet is going to transform everything and how the "new economy" companies need to be valued, etc. You are allowed to spend only half an hour on this book. :-)
Rating:
Summary: Read the chapter titles and Skip..
Review: If you have had even a minor exposure to startups (worked in one, or a friend has worked in one, and told you several stories), this book will seem like "Obvious, duh!". There are a few interesting points, but very little in the form of enlightening/revealing anecdotes. The book is funny to read after the Internet-bubble has burst. Ruthann is busy trying to say how venture capitalists are most valuable for a company's success, and how the Internet is going to transform everything and how the "new economy" companies need to be valued, etc. You are allowed to spend only half an hour on this book. :-)
Rating: 
Summary: Watered down confessions.
Review: Its surprising that the author of this book is a venture capitalist. The information in the book is very bland. Even as a primer I would hesitate to recommend it. A much better book would be e-Boys. The author seems to get lost in her personal bewilderment as to why women do not pursue top executive jobs in the corporate world. Her notion of pursuing market share regardless of profitability is misleading.
The only time this books sparks some interest is when she talks about microsoft.Apparently, before becoming a venture capitalist the author was a software analyst and had a number of candid interactions with Bill Gates. The author has very interesting insights in the software business. However, in the venture capitalist world she fails to shade any light with this book.
If you really want the true cofessions of a venture capitalist get e-Boys.
Rating: 
Summary: IPO: The Book
Review: Ruthann Quindlen has written an authoritative "how to" manual for entrepreneurs. Consider this a "must read" for new companies hoping to raise capital, properly ground their enterprises, and successfully emerge from the difficult start-up phase. Even though her book is mainly instructional, Quindlen certainly has the credentials to write a "confessions" tome. Working in her early years for Alex.Brown and Sons, the investment banking firm, she became Wall Street's first dedicated personal computer software analyst. It was Alex.Brown that took Microsoft public. She later became instrumental in bringing her firm to accept AOL'S Steve Case as a client. Bill Gates phones her for advice. Her husband works with Paul Allen. In Quindlen's current position as a partner in Silicon Valley's Institutional Investment Partners (IVP), she relates stories about the kids who founded Excite--didn't even have a garage! Though all this and more is entertaining, make no mistake about it--this is a business book! Business models, venture capital defined and explaned, how deals are made and valuations decided are all covered. Her book is replete with positive and negative examples every young company should consider. Quindlen has been there, done that, has the t-shirt, and now the book, to prove it.
Rating:
Summary: A Venture Capitalist's View of Starting Up to Make It Big!
Review: The families of entrepreneurs should require those who are about to start or join a start-up to read this book. Ruthann Quindlen writes a "lessons I learned on the way to the poor house" story about what to do correctly with start-ups by showing what can and does usually go wrong. Her perspective is from first hand experience in doing early-stage investing in Internet companies for the firm Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) in Menlo Park, California. You will find that her perspective is unusually encompassing: the pros and cons of the hot-house start-up environment of Silicon Valley; the role of excellent people and teams; the importance of large markets; having business models that allow for prosperity; how venture capitalists work; the role of the successful entrepreneur; the difference between a brilliant and a merely bizarre idea; the dumbest decision she ever made (to pass on investing in OnSale); negotiating with venture capitalists and bankers about valuation; the perspectives of other people she respects on these subjects; and on the Internet as an analogy to the Dutch tulip mania (she thinks the Internet is for real). She has a disaster story to underscore every point she makes. The points are valid, and the disaster stories are pointed and powerful. Based on the business plans I receive for start-up businesses, I would say that more than half of this information will be news to the average entrepreneur who wants to get venture capital, go public, and make it big. The information also matches what my venture capitalist friends tell me, and what I hear at conferences for Internet entrepreneurs. As the book points out, you can learn all of your lessons the painful way in the school of hard knocks . . . or you can listen to what is said here and change your behavior. I recommend the latter. Things move too fast in start-ups relative to the burn rate (the rate at which you use up your money) to make unnecessary mistakes that delay your progress. Overcome your disbelief stall that the way to be a great success as an entrepreneur is to do what you've always done.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun, General Overview of Sand Hill Rd. VC world
Review: This book was a great glimpse into the life of a venture capital investor. What makes it even better is the fact that it is written by a woman - gives a different perspective to the reader. It is a great introduction to the world of VC Financing, and I would recommend it to anyone that wants to learn more about VC.
Rating:
Summary: Stay Away From This Book...
Review: Well, another reveiwer here wrote exactly what I felt reading this book. But this book is so bad I wanted to write a review myself. First of all, the stuff mentioned here is hadly any confessions, they are confused jargon written by a confused person wanting to make some money by cashing on the buzz created by the tech boom and VC world. Second, the book shows us nothing about the high-stakes world of start-up financing, you wont understand how VCs value companies or how they try and build companies. IVP is an old firm and a respected one, reading that the author is from that firm you might get carried away into believing that she knows a lot about the VC world. Nothing! a much better choice to spend your hard earned money would be "Done Deals" or "E-Boys". those books give a better account of the VC worlds.
You can read this book in 30 minutes and you end up learning nothing. Neither from the perspective of the VC (investor) or from the perspective of an entrepreneur. There is one hilarious chapter in the book where the author has to enquire about one of her portfolio companies progress. the only intelligent question she could come up with is "is there any momemtum is sales?" thats all. nothing more, so you dont get to understand what VC look in entrepreneurs, you dont get to understnad how VCs add value to startups, you dont get to understand how companies are valued, you dont get to understand how VC do their exits, basically, you just dont get to understand anything that the books claims to impart you. Nothing, dont spend a cent on this book.
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