Zero Gravity: Riding Venture Capital from High-Tech Start-up to Breakout IPO

Even as a former investment banker, I myself have to admit that things look different from the other side of the table when you are asking for money instead of advising people how to raise it. (Not to mention that my time in investment banking was spent looking at high yield and mezzanine deals--not venture capital). That being the case, a book like Steve Harmon's Zero Gravity comes in handy if you are trying to understand the mentality of the venture capitalist. Harmon had access to friends and acquaintances of his in the industry, such as famed VCs John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Ann Winblad of Hummer Winblad, who he queries on such things as what they look for in an investment. You also get to hear some short war stories on their investments in companies such as Excite.

Among Harmon's best advice is that you study the VCs as carefully--if not more carefully--than they are going to study you. Do you know what kind of companies each VC firm likes; do you know who their partners are? Zero Gravity has many pithy axioms that the entrepreneur will find helpful. Certain things about the book are annoying, though. For one thing, Harmon plugs his web site so often, you might think that you were viewing a particularly annoying pop up ad on the Internet. The book also has a lot of charts and tables that honestly are more filler than anything else, especially since a lot of the same information is available on the Internet for free. Still, the book is a quick read and probably one of the more accessible books on venture capital on which an entrepreneur can get his hands.

Walking into a venture meeting without any kind of idea of what to expect is a sure-fire way of not getting funded, if you get a meeting at all. This book arms new entrepreneurs with what to expect and how to deal with some of it.

Harmon revised the book in version 2.0 since the environment changed for financing startups. eBay, Yahoo and others built themselves on the approaches in Harmon's first book. The second generation of tech startups will benefit from the new tougher approach described in Zero Gravity 2.0. Harmon has kept up with the changes, alerting entrepreneurs to the new landscape. The book's core foundation is the same in any era. The data, interviews with successful entrepreneurs and methodological approach to approaching venture capital is more important now than ever. The book IS NOT an encyclopedia unabridged HOW-TO guide. Harmon cautions entrepreneurs in Zero Gravity 2.0 with some sound advice on building a company relying on profits rather than an endless supply of venture capital.

Zero Gravity 2.0 IS a great primer for the necessary steps in getting funded. It is PART of getting ready to start a company.

Steve Harmon is very full of himself, and his self-compliments get in the way of writing something useful. It is not written by someone who truly knows about building enduring businesses with value. As a result, it has little of value for people who intend to build those businesses. Its biggest virtue is as a representative text of the attitude and approach to business that got everyone in so much trouble in 1996-2000. It's too bad, because the great book-for-entrepreneurs has yet to be written.