Resources to improve your Financial Literacy from Investor Kookai Chaimahawong

This March, we caught up with Investor Kookai Chaimahawong, ESG Partner at UpperStage.Capital and Venture Partner with The51, in our podcast evolution to learn her thoughts on the investment landscape and how early-stage founders can build their financial literacy skills.

Kookai was generous enough to share with us a list of resources she's found helpful.

Listen to the episode and peruse the resources below!

 

Canadian tech news

CVCA

VanTech Journal

The Logic

Betakit

 

Classic books

Zero to One

The Hard Thing About Hard Things

The Lean Startup 

Mastering the VC Game 

(Highly recommended) Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist 

 

Podcasts and web series

Y Combinator Series: How to Build the Future - Y Combinator

(Highly recommended)  A16z podcasts

(Highly recommended)  20-Minutes VC

(Highly recommended)  StartUp Podcast by Gimlet Media 

Acquired 

(Highly recommended) Master of Scale 

Equity by TechCrunch

The Full Rachet: VC Demystified by Nick Moran 

 

Blogs & newsletters (or places to search on specific topics)

https://bothsidesofthetable.com/

www.avc.com 

https://www.feld.com/ 

http://firstround.com/review/

https://www.sequoiacap.com/build/ 

https://www.ben-evans.com/newsletter 

 

Articles and specific blog posts

 

About VC economics

http://a16z.com/2016/09/11/vc-economics/

http://a16z.com/2014/07/25/why-the-structural-changes-to-the-vc-industry-matter/

 

About term sheets and popular terms

http://www.feld.com/archives/2005/08/term-sheet-series-wrap-up.html

 

About cap tables and ownership

http://avc.com/2011/09/mba-mondays-cap-tables/

http://a16z.com/2016/08/24/options-ownership/

 

About what matters in a startup and due diligence 

http://tomtunguz.com/breaking-down-a-typical-vcstartup-diligence-process 

https://medium.com/@M25Group/no-nonsense-due-diligence-b1929041293d?_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8KMnGT0rusxC_En8hykQXUNBia9sVl8f_dd5wl5DQwAN2YkjgxmA4lL6hZIhVNcn0y6IcM0RQdrnnmOY4cw3L-33J-hg&_hsmi=35909703#.qsj9uihwj 

http://tomtunguz.com/the-11-risks-vcs-evaluate/ 

Part 4: The only thing that matters - https://a16z.app.box.com/s/oe4gwlchsu23mocch18j

https://medium.com/blackbird-ventures/lessons-from-saying-no-to-1-983-startups-84a99dc6739b?_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9wX1MPBj2Mz6rbBjcFgAZ2jw1oqCfx7Q-qEyVkxBlcyEMpDyzPAiCsISU_H5ib6JMUUY2TaVvUqr8IPIpFRTe-N4kMzQ&_hsmi=34558421#.zdzjsfxh0

http://avc.com/2010/08/off-balance-sheet-liabilities/

 

About valuation

http://avc.com/2004/07/valuation/ 

http://feld.com/archives/2004/07/venture-capital-deal-algebra.html 

https://medium.com/@DanielNealAdler/startup-math-where-revenue-multiples-break-down-dd039d1c18e8?_hsenc=p2ANqtz--tRjwAm5fsk-h8gvvlIk1UOFdtSNOBTrEJWtHvN3AFz48w8JfbPpgVKbHasPU_7QvLGrVE55AB_uY7t5THmohsnFVrZA&_hsmi=34121110#.kk3dgwbx1 

http://avc.com/2015/05/valuation-as-a-scorecard/

This podcast : https://avc.com/2014/04/valuations/

 

About Financials

http://tomtunguz.com/ten-financial-metrics/ 

http://avc.com/2010/04/analyzing-financial-statements/ 

 

About Boards

https://bothsidesofthetable.com/how-to-prepare-for-a-board-meeting-to-make-sure-you-crush-it-b52b8ce61636 

https://delian.io/lessons-4 

 

More theoretical

https://sethlevine.com/archives/2018/10/designing-the-ideal-board-meeting-your-board-package.html 

https://sethlevine.com/archives/2018/10/designing-the-ideal-board-meeting.html 

https://avc.com/2012/04/the-board-of-directors-board-meetings/ 

https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/preparing-a-board-deck/# 

 

How we analyze pitches

https://news.greylock.com/what-do-i-look-for-in-a-pitch-866355bddb3

 

What we look for in a team

http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html

https://bothsidesofthetable.com/how-i-invest-9d8266a62d3e 

https://bothsidesofthetable.com/invest-in-lines-not-dots-611f36491d73 

 

About risks

https://medium.com/@christianhern/vc-investment-is-tied-to-risk-acceptance-ae259c44ac7

https://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part2.html

https://tomtunguz.com/the-11-risks-vcs-evaluate/

 

About investment thesis

https://avc.com/2009/11/thematic-vs-thesis-driven-investing/ 

Example: https://www.usv.com/writing/2018/04/usv-thesis-3-0/ 

https://a16z.com/2015/01/22/16-things/

Why growth? → https://a16z.com/2019/05/01/late-stage-venture/ 

 

About Fundraising process 

This is about seed so very different from growth but gives you a good 360 view of the process https://blog.ycombinator.com/how-to-raise-a-seed-round/

 

About VC funds’ economics and returns metrics

Read the Fund Performance Metrics section of VC Funds 101 

Read Chris Dixon’s blog post on the Babe Ruth Effect in VC.

Read The Meeting That Showed Me the Truth about VC’s and How They Don’t Make Money

Read Venture Capital Returns by Andrew Chen
 

Essays & Memos

http://www.paulgraham.com/articles.html 

https://www.bvp.com/memos 

https://medium.com/@adjblog/the-confidential-youtube-investment-memo-by-sequoia-you-were-never-meant-to-see-fafa171b132b

 

Thank you Kookai for sharing these resources with our community!