????我第一次洽談風(fēng)險(xiǎn)融資協(xié)議的經(jīng)歷非常令人沮喪,。當(dāng)時(shí)我走投無(wú)路,，急需敲定融資，使公司轉(zhuǎn)危為安,，并拿到一筆資金來(lái)滿足公司增長(zhǎng)的現(xiàn)金需求,。

????但風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資人似乎并不著急。他的律師也一樣,。整個(gè)過(guò)程大致如下：

????? 我的律師告訴我有8項(xiàng)條款需要修改,。他在風(fēng)險(xiǎn)融資協(xié)議上做了標(biāo)記。我們花了半天時(shí)間商定要點(diǎn),，然后將修改后的協(xié)議發(fā)送了出去,。如果順利的話，協(xié)議可以在一天左右就緒,。

????? 對(duì)方的律師事務(wù)所收到了協(xié)議,。相關(guān)人員這一天都在出差。他們?cè)诔鱿蛻舻亩聲?huì)會(huì)議,。24小時(shí)后,，我們催促他們。他們說(shuō)：“我還沒(méi)聯(lián)系上我的客戶（也就是我的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資人）,?！眱商旌螅覀兪盏搅嘶匾?。

????? 我們的協(xié)議被打了回來(lái),。他們完全忽略了我們提出的其中5項(xiàng)要求，標(biāo)注了剩下的3項(xiàng),。這時(shí),，四天時(shí)間已經(jīng)過(guò)去了。

????? 我打電話給風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資人,。他說(shuō)：“我不知道你的律師到底明不明白他在干什么,。你們提的要求很奇怪?！?/p>

????? 我和我的律師談,。他說(shuō),，對(duì)方的律師肯定從未經(jīng)手過(guò)初創(chuàng)公司交易。我和律師商量,，我們可以放棄哪些要求,。他在其中一項(xiàng)上做出了讓步，然后將重新標(biāo)注過(guò)的協(xié)議發(fā)送了出去,。

????? 循環(huán)往復(fù),。十天過(guò)去了。還有四項(xiàng)條款沒(méi)達(dá)成一致,。我們開(kāi)始集中精力解決這些條款,。慢慢地，我們又減少到了兩項(xiàng),。我發(fā)現(xiàn),，律師關(guān)注的一些事項(xiàng)過(guò)去我認(rèn)為非常重要，但隨著我了解得越來(lái)越多,，它們似乎并沒(méi)有那么重要,。

????? 我直接和風(fēng)投家談這最后兩項(xiàng)。我們做出了妥協(xié),，繼續(xù)向前推進(jìn),。我們要求律師起草文件。然后,，我們簽了字,。這時(shí)，三十天已經(jīng)過(guò)去了,。

????接下來(lái),，最困難的部分開(kāi)始了。我們開(kāi)始協(xié)商最終文件,，也就是詳細(xì)的法律文件,，于是，整個(gè)令人抓狂的過(guò)程又重頭開(kāi)始了,。

????聽(tīng)我的共同創(chuàng)始人布萊恩?莫倫說(shuō)，他過(guò)去工作過(guò)的一家公司常常舉辦“簽字聚會(huì)”,，讓所有相關(guān)方都飛到同一個(gè)地方,。所有人都住在同一家酒店內(nèi)，直到交易最終完成,。他說(shuō)：

????“交易牽涉到很多錢,。項(xiàng)目推遲可能會(huì)讓我們損失幾百萬(wàn)美元。相比項(xiàng)目延期帶來(lái)的損失,，讓所有人飛到一個(gè)地方,、住在一家酒店里只是小錢,。人們分處不同地點(diǎn)，服務(wù)于不同項(xiàng)目時(shí),，文件的流轉(zhuǎn)自然不會(huì)太快,，總有人讓你等?！?/p>

????因此,，我們想：“為什么不為我們公司舉行一個(gè)簽字聚會(huì)呢？”

????The very first time I ever negotiated a term sheet was very frustrating. I was desperate to get my funding finalized to derisk my business, as well as to get capital in the bank to meet our growing cash needs.

????But my VC didn't seem to be in such a rush. Nor did his lawyer. The process went something like this:

????? My lawyer tells me 8 clauses that need to change. He marks up the term sheet. We take a half a day to agree the points and send them over. Seems like the term sheet will be done in a day or so.

????? The other law firm gets the docs. They're traveling that day. They are in a board meeting with clients. We press them 24 hours later. They say, "I haven't been able to reach my client (the VC) yet." We hear back in two days

????? We get back our version. They've totally ignored five of our requests and marked up the other three. Four days have now passed.

????? I call the VC to discuss. He says, "I'm not sure your lawyer knows what he's doing. These are strange requests."

????? I talk to my lawyer. He says the other lawyer must never have worked on a startup deal before. We agree where we can live without our points being met. He concedes on one point and sends over our re-marked doc.

????? Rinse. Repeat. Ten days have passed. Four points are open. We finally get focus on those points. We whittle it down to two. I find out my lawyer was digging in on something I thought was important but the more I understood the issue it seemed like an edge case.

????? I talk to the VC. We work the two issues. We compromise. We move on. We ask the lawyers to mock up the docs. We sign. Thirteen days have passed.

????Whew. Now the hard part begins. We move to definitive documents (long-form legal docs) and the whole freakin' process starts again.

????My co-founder Brian Moran told me that a former employer used to hold "signing parties," where every involved party flew to a single location. Then they would all stay in a hotel together until the deal was completed. He said:

????"We had a lot of money at stake. Delays in a project could cost us millions of dollars. It was a very small fee for us to pay for everybody to fly together and stay in a hotel relative to the costs of delays. Naturally when people are located in different places and working on different projects, documents don't get turned around fast enough and you're always waiting for somebody."

????So we thought, "Why not have a 'signing party' for our company?