Hm, it won’t let me enter my name, but I vote B. The Venture Deal: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC

Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than your Lawyer and VC

bc “How To Be Smarter” doesn’t flow for me.

“How to Out-Negotiate (or Out-Something) Your Lawyer and VC” might sound better.

C. Venture Deals. Because “Financing(s)” sounds less than exciting and “The Venture Deal” sounds like you only get one. GrowPublic believes in an early combo of crowd, private and public equity. Check us out. http://www.growpublic.com/

My vote is for Venture Deals

Title C, but without the “How To”

C. But.. I think you can do better.

I like A because it feels less gimmicky and more like a serious book, but B is the opposite and would probably sell the most. How about something like “Venture Financings: Raising Money the Right Way”

I liked A, although C can work too. You could shorten the follow up tag line to “- Outsmart VCs and Lawyers”

How to Deal

Of the choices above, I like C the best… some other ideas as well:

“Venture UnCapitalized: An Entrepreneurs Companion to Venture Capital”
“Venture Capital Deals: Know More, Do More, Raise More”

Anticipating the release – consider a tweak to the How to — “Venture Deals: Outsmart Your Lawyer and VC”

Outwit, Outthink. Good luck.
@jeffhasselman

interestingly i don’t like the second part: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC
could see that something like the “the VC, the lawyer and you” may work…
Smart Deals: the VC, the lawyer and you.

I like C best.

I vote for a modified B. The Venture Deal: Outsmart Your Lawyer and VC

I absolutely love your term sheet series, I am glad to see that you are taking the next step on that front.

On title beginning options
-Inside The Venture Deal: (the term sheet series gives you the inside look, hence the word)
-Inside Venture Funding: (the process is a “deal” for you, the VC… to an entrepreneur, it is “funding”; the entrepreneur is your audience, so it might help to name it that way)

On title ending options
-Be ready for your Lawyer and VC
-How to be a step ahead of your Lawyer and VC
-Understanding your Lawyer and VC
-Getting ready for the fast track

In general
-I think a lot of your potential audience sees “VC” as an industry, not a person (that sort of makes the title vague)
-Having “How to” in the subtitle comes off as a little awkward
-Your subtitles feature the relationship that the book-buyer will have with two specific people (which sort of makes sense because you and Jason wrote it) but the book likely contains a lot of other knowledge, tips, and insight (most of which is pertinent beyond just those relationships)
-Think again about the gap that you are trying to fill with the book and the questions you are trying to help the reader answer, I think those will lead to the best title. Having written and structured an entire book, you probably have lost a little of the forest for the trees (I think we all have this tunnel vision to some extent).
-Think about what the reader is reading and not what you and Jason have written. That perspective should title the book.

Or you could just send me a copy of the draft! I would love to read it and will promise to give plenty of feedback (and maybe another title suggestion or two). Good luck with the rest of it, I am certain that it will be enlightening.

Venture Financings is a little weird to say and communicate (think radio, plural). Venture Deals seems a little too generic to me. So my vote goes to The Venture Deal. I like the sound of it. Might even make a good movie title. But also because you now own the domain name.

C seems better out of the 3

‘motherfucking lawyers’

woops…(d)

Your VC is Smart…Your Lawyer is Smart… – You Can Outsmart Them Both

Be…Smarter…Faster…Your Lawyer and VC are shmendricks…

Of the above I prefer B.

After a few months reading book after book and a collection of blogs something like:
“Venture Signals & Noise: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC”
would get my attention.

I’d go with

C. Venture Deals: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC

The word “Financing” screams “boring” to me. And the “The” doesn’t add anything I think, except confusion when book stores decide to sort like “Venture Deal: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC, The”.

C. Venture Deals: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC

Some ideas off the top of my head. No particular order.

The Real Deal: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Venture Capital
Fund Your Company: Outsmart Your Lawyer and VC
Raising Venture Capital: What Your Lawyer and VC Won’t Tell You
Strings Attached: Outsmart Your Lawyer and VC When You Fund Your Company
From Seed Capital to Sale: Outsmarting Your Lawyer and VC
Understanding the Deal: How to Outsmart Your Lawyer and VC
Striking a Great Deal: How to Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC
Your Company, Our Money: An Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide to Venture Financing

Of the three you list I’d say C.

But there is something boring about all of the choices.

Perhaps you should be like Tim Ferris and use Google to sort out the top titles. Good lesson there.

B. The Venture Deal: Be Smarter than Your VC I like the double meaning of “deal”. You guys are the real “deal” and that is the essence of the book.

Venture Financings: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC and get Back to Building a Great Company

The Venture Capital Deal: Tools, Tips and Advice to Outsmart the VC

The Venture Deal: Outsmart Your Lawyer and VC !

C. is the best of the three choices, but I like the thinking in the comments around building on “do more faster.” “XXXX better faster – expert advice to finance your startup.”

C.

Short and sweet…I like C, but would leave out “how to”. Jamie McDonald @genero_city

A. Using the word “Financings” makes me think the book is a bit more technical than the word “Deals” and more appealing.

Maybe lose the “Your”……”Be Smarter Than Lawyers and VCs”. It implies confrontation with your Lawyer and VC, like it’s a war between the 3 of you.

Other suggestions:
Venture Backed: Be Smarter than the Lawyers and VCs
The Founder, the Lawyer and the VC

of the title choices, i like C. looking forward to getting a copy!

I like the punch of C, but think it would be even better as Venture Deals: How To Be Smarter Than The Other Guys

Out of the three, i’d pick C – however, as a lot of comments here mention, the “how to” is kind of jaded. Liked some of the suggestions of Chip Griffin and Josh Webb, which u may want to consider. Good luck!

The Venture Deal: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC

I agree the “how to” should be removed, but I think the idea with it is so people know this book contains usable instructions. So maybe something like “The Venture Deal Handbook: Be smarter than your lawyer and VC” or “The Venture Deal Instruction Guide: Outsmart your lawyer and VC”.

I vote C

Lawyers, Venture Capitalists and Other Useless Roadkill
(How to get avoid getting totally screwed on a venture financing)

My vote is B. In my head dropping the “s” from option C lets me first know that the book is an explanation of what a venture deal is to an entrepreneur. For the secondary part of the title, dropping the “How to” is a nice option as it becomes more of a command, like “Do More Faster,” unless the gist of the book is a “start here” to “end here” guide to the venture deal, in which case “how to” makes more sense to me.

C. Venture Deals: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC

I vote for C and without the “how to” as it’s just too long with it.

The Venture Adventure: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC

I vote for title C. Short and sweet!

C. Venture Deals: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC

There is not ONE venture deal, so “B” doesn’t work for me. Also, if you use “A”, then you are alienating people that are not finance focused individuals from picking up your book.

#3 – no doubt

Why the adversarial relationship? Is the book about making a $ at someone else’s expense? Don’t I want to leverage my lawyer and VC to be successful?

B. The Venture Deal: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC
or
Everything you wanted to know about Venture Capital but were afraid to ask

I like A.

Venture Deals: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC

B – it’s the first deal that is always the hardest. Though I’d like to note that reading your blog from the start of our company helped us better negotiate with our obviously tough VC’s .

Brad – I think the “being smarter than…” in the title is presumptuous. Rather, I presume that you’re goal with this book, askthevc.com, your blog, Do More Faster, etc. is to impart knowledge universally to those who seek it from you and your trusted connections.

In the spirit of equality, I suggest:

Democratize The Deal: A Founders Guide to Venture Capital (or Venture Financing)

C. Venture Deals: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC

C) But isn’t the ‘smarter than…’ part of each of the sentence a ‘given’ when it comes to entrepreneurs versus VCs and Lawyers?

Dancing with the money: Navigate your startup through venture financing, lawyers and VCs

I like option C, and I think the “how to” part should stay.

Your Venture Deal: Be Smarter Than your Lawyer and VC

C – Occam’s razor, of course

Option C

Why use the word “Venture” in the title at all. The term Venture Capital is taking on a different connotation as start-up, early stage financing begin to segment the financing space. Possible poll some of the guys at Tech Stars..I would bet they think of anything “Venture” as very late stage financing.

Just my 2 cents.

Best of luck with the book !

All three of your titles require the audience to know too much – they use shorthand. I can imagine that someone other than an entrepreneur in the process of raising money might be interested.

How about:
Raising Venture Capital: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC

(FWIW, I wouldn’t have a problem with including “How To” in the subtitle)

Kevin Hawkins’ suggestion (“Democratize the Deal”) is a good alternative, too.

How To Sell More Books: Use Adwords To Test Your Titles

Seriously, I don’t understand why we put so much effort into these small choices when there’s a good objective metric.

I agree with Rod. C = C – “How To “

Smarter Venture Deals

Your Lawyer and VC said you knew nothing. Prove them wrong.

A or one of the following:
1) Other Peoples’ Money: How to outthink the Venture Capitalist and their Lawyers.
2) Other Peoples’ Money: How to outwitt the Venture Capitalist and their Lawyers.
3) Venture Financing: How to be the smartest guy in the room when meeting with your Lawyer and VC.
4) Venture Financing: Know what it takes to be the smartest guy in the room when talking with your lawyer and VC.
5) Venture Financing: Everything you need to know to be the smartest guy in the room when meeting with your lawyer and VC.

Venture Financing: Dancing between the lines without falling.

C.
B. Is too formal and “the” is filtered out by search engines

Agree with suggestion to drop “How To”. Be Smarter is an action statement.

Why don’t we call it “Term sheets demystified – entrepreneur’s guide to venture capital”? Or “Term sheet mysteries and other M&A voodoo”…

VC-seeking entrepreneurs will pick it up. Drop the lawyers. We love them, but they should not be in the title.

I think simply “How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC” works well. Just like in “Do More Faster”, you don’t need to specify this is in relation to venture capital/startups. Your target audience knows you, and what the book is about.

B – it is an inclusive title

Title B

Venture Deals: Outsmarting lawyers and VCs

or

Venture Deals: How to outsmart your lawyer and overwhelm your VC

You could add this as an ironic subtitle:
How to make the most out of the guys that make the most

Show me the Money! How Smart Guys Talk To Their VC and Lawyer.

Smartest Guy in the Room: How to Talk to Your VC.

Be The Smartest Guy in the Room: How to Talk to Your VC and Lawyer.

A is OK but I would simply call it “How to Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC” or “Outsmart your Lawyer and VC” or “The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Finance, Law, and VC”. (but then again, I know nothing about any of these topics, so take with a grain of salt)

B

Alternative ideas:
VC Money. How to beat your VC.
Money. How to get more from your VC
VC Investments. Be Smarter Than your lawyer and VC

How about…. Turning Your Venture Into A Deal: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC

C. but it should read. Venture Deals: You’re smarter than the Lawyer and VC

Provide more incentive by adding in what one hopes to achieve by reading the book – mastery, savvy, wisdom, etc… something along those lines. And then personalize it in the slogan as well.. So it could read:

“Venture Deal Mastery: Your Edge Over Lawyers and VCs”

or you could just go with:

“Venture Financing Swag”

B is the best. By far

B. The Venture Deal: How To Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and VC

B.