Simple Deals.

In Venture Capital, we make a lot of deals, a deal is a promise that has a contract.

My definition of business is to make promises and deliver on promises.

The thing about a deal is that you are making promises on two sides of every deal. One person is promising one thing, and one person is promising something in trade.

Often negotiations in a deal will get complicated. They become large “If/then” statements about what would happen if things would go wrong. Handshakes work in the world where things go right, but contracts are there to remind everyone what is supposed to do when things go wrong.

I have an affinity for simple deals. In sales, fundraising, partnerships. If things are getting too complicated, it usually means that some amount of trust is lacking in the deal.

Keep deals simple.