@article {Bartlett7, author = {Joseph W. Bartlett}, title = {Negotiating the Best Valuation and Terms for Early-Stage Investment}, volume = {2}, number = {3}, pages = {7--14}, year = {1999}, doi = {10.3905/jpe.1999.319949}, publisher = {Institutional Investor Journals Umbrella}, abstract = {This article reviews the valuation and terms common to early-stage investments from the perspective of the founder, entrepreneur or other pre-seed money participants. Inexperienced investors and their intermediaries too frequently waste time and money negotiating with a stubbornness inversely related to the importance of the point. Several terms, such as those regarding registration rights and board representation, should yield to the business realities that accompany venture investing. On the other hand, entrepreneurs and others too frequently underestimate the potential for things to go wrong and thus pay too little attention to the form of the investment, employment terms, the definitions of benchmarks against dilution. Only with an informed understanding of the operation and value of each of the deal terms can an early-stage investor distinguish between terms that should be heavily bargained and those that are relatively unimportant.}, issn = {1096-5572}, URL = {https://jpe.pm-research.com/content/2/3/7}, eprint = {https://jpe.pm-research.com/content/2/3/7.full.pdf}, journal = {The Journal of Private Equity (Retired)} }