This is a comprehensive research paper to understand how the VCs work. Here are some notes: Deal Sourcing The median VC closes about 4 deals per year. 1/4 opportunities lead to meeting the management; 1/3 of those are reviewed at a partners meeting. Roughly half of those opportunities reviewed at a partners meeting proceed onward to the due diligence stage. Conditional on reaching the due diligence stage, startups are offered a term sheet in about a 1/3 of cases. Offering a term sheet does not always result in a closed deal, as other VC firms can offer competing term sheets at the same time. Investment selection VCs ranked the management team (or jockey) as the most important factor(%95). Business (or horse) related factors were also frequently mentioned as important with business model at 83%, product at 74%, market at 68%, and industry at 31%. Valuation Exit considerations are the most important factor Comparable company valuations rank second and desired ownership third.