FAQs

I hope that this can become a place where we can answer some of the questions we get asked most frequently.

Valuation Service

1. How often are the comparables updated? We update the M&A comparables daily based on our own research and analysis. In general, we add over 60 deals / day and up to hundreds more historical deals. Public comparables are updated on a daily basis at approximately 2am in the morning PT. We may increase the frequency of updates and even add streaming updates at some point in the near future.
2. How reliable is your M&A data? We believe that our M&A data and research is _far_ better than any other service including some of our oldest competitors in this area--Thomson Financial, Bloomberg, CapitalIQ, Standard&Poors. While you will pay in excess of $10,000 / year for most of those services, you will pay a nominal monthly fee for ours. Our data is researched by highly skilled M&A analyst team and QAed by a Harvard MBA. Sometimes our data appears less reliable than other sources because we have invented the Internet's only system for harvesting "user generated content." We allow users to add to our M&A database. This allows us to harvest "whisper numbers" and other estimates for deals where otherwise there would be no information available. We are implementing a system of codes that will make it totally clear when you are looking at a "community" estimate versus an official VR estimate.
3. Can anybody enter deal data? Yes, this is one of the strongest advantages of our system. We are the first service to harvest whisper numbers for deals on the Internet. However, please be aware that we review all of these estimates and whenever reliable information is available, we also publish our own _official_ VR estimates.
4. Why is your M&A data stronger for technology companies? We originally built our database focused on technology companies (including clean tech). Subsequently, we have expanded to all sectors of the economy; however, we are still researching and adding historical deals in non-technology sectors. Our data in technology sectors goes back approximately 5 years.
5. Why do some of the folders in the Sector Tree say "Under Development"? See the answer to the question above. We are adding non-technology deals daily and building a very robust historical database. We have already added thousands of non-technology deals and we have built out the non-technology sector tree, though it lacks the level of granularity of the technology tree. We will get there, we just want to do it right, so until then, we want to signal to you that we are still developing that portion of our business.
6. Are there any demos to show me how to use the Valuation Service? Yes, we have built a series of Flash demos that show you how to use many aspects of the site, including the Valuation Service. You can find them here.
7. Does the system learn or make use of all comparables lists and valuations that users are creating? Absolutely. Again, this is one of the most unique features of our service. Every time a user creates a list of comparables, we share non-confidential aspects of that list with the entire community. Thus, if an investment banker in New York City has already created a comprehensive set of comparables for Wood Door Manufacturers, you can simply search for her list, find it, click on it, and use it. If a VC in Palo Alto has already created a list of comparables for social networking sites, you can find it, click it, and use it. If a hedge fund or private equity pro in London looked at oil refineries, you can benefit from that work. For full-blown company valuations, we do something a bit different. After multiple valuations of one company have been performed, we aggregate the information and make it available as an average. That way, we never share any sensitive information about the original valuation. In all cases, we would never share confidential information that could hurt a user. One more point here, within the valuation service, there is a link called "Recommend Companies." When you click on this link, they system will automatically recommend some comparables for you. For this to work, however, you have to have already added at least one comparable to your list.
8. How do I upgrade to Premium Membership? It is very simple to upgrade to premium membership. You will find a big link in the middle of the Valuation Service page where you can upgrade. You can also just click here. If you haven't registered or logged in, you will need to do that first.

Investor Directory, Fund Profiles, and Fund Reviews

1. How do I search for funds whose profiles I am interested in? There are many ways to search for funds. The simplest is to simply type in the name here. We use an AJAX search page that will automatically load potential hits as you type. You can also use a series of filters on this page to find funds in different states and to sort results by the fund rating or number of reviews, etc. We have an advanced search here. This allows you to find funds using much more sophisticated search strings.
2. I am an employee or partner at a fund and I want to add my fund to your database. How do I do that? You will need to register and log-in. You will need to register with an e-mail address that proves that you are indeed a member of the fund in question. E.g., if you work at Sequoia, your e-mail address root should be "sequoiacap.com". Once you have done that, simply click here and add your fund to our database. You will have the ability to "Edit" fund profile immediately.
3. What if I don't have an e-mail address for my fund but I still want to add / edit my fund profile? Venture Returns has an alternative authentication methodology. You can see it here. However, you should note that we don't promise rapid turnaround times in getting you authenticated if you use this alternative method. If you use the preferred method, you should be able to edit fund profiles immediately. If you use the alternative method, it could take several days for us to authenticate you.
4. What are fund reviews? Our fund reviews are ratings assigned to VC and Private Equity funds by entrepreneurs who have worked with them. Over 98% of the entrepreneurs who rate funds have received funding from the funds that they are reviewing.
5. How reliable are your fund reviews? We feel that our fund reviews are more reliable than any other fund reviews on the Internet. We began in 2004 with e-mail campaigns targeted at entrepreneurs that we knew had received funding from the fund we wanted to review. Even in the last few months our database has grown by over 50%. We feel that fund reviews are a critical and important aspect of getting feedback on a fund. That said, we believe that entrepreneurs should use many other sources of information. That is why we have performance and IRR information on hundreds of firms in our database. This is a metric of how successful the fund has been--in some ways this may be more important than the actual fund reviews. We also allow our users to see which funds are most popular in our system. This is another way to gauge the attractiveness of a fund.
6. How do you harvest your fund review data? We have to reserve some business secrets right (grin)? Suffice it to say that we use e-mail campaigns combined with a broad range of other efforts.

Company Directory, Company Directories and Company Reviews

1. How do I search for companies whose profiles I am interested in? Unfortunately our company search code isn't as sophisticated as our investor search code (see question #1 above). In its current implementation, you simply have to type in the name of the company you are interested in. We hope to remedy this soon. You can find the company search page here.