????我第一次洽談風險融資協議的經歷非常令人沮喪。當時我走投無路，急需敲定融資，使公司轉危為安，并拿到一筆資金來滿足公司增長的現金需求。

????但風險投資人似乎并不著急。他的律師也一樣。整個過程大致如下：

????? 我的律師告訴我有8項條款需要修改。他在風險融資協議上做了標記。我們花了半天時間商定要點，然后將修改后的協議發送了出去。如果順利的話，協議可以在一天左右就緒。

????? 對方的律師事務所收到了協議。相關人員這一天都在出差。他們在出席客戶的董事會會議。24小時后，我們催促他們。他們說：“我還沒聯系上我的客戶（也就是我的風險投資人）。”兩天后，我們收到了回音。

????? 我們的協議被打了回來。他們完全忽略了我們提出的其中5項要求，標注了剩下的3項。這時，四天時間已經過去了。

????? 我打電話給風險投資人。他說：“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。”

????? 我和我的律師談。他說，對方的律師肯定從未經手過初創公司交易。我和律師商量，我們可以放棄哪些要求。他在其中一項上做出了讓步，然后將重新標注過的協議發送了出去。

????? 循環往復。十天過去了。還有四項條款沒達成一致。我們開始集中精力解決這些條款。慢慢地，我們又減少到了兩項。我發現，律師關注的一些事項過去我認為非常重要，但隨著我了解得越來越多，它們似乎并沒有那么重要。

????? 我直接和風投家談這最后兩項。我們做出了妥協，繼續向前推進。我們要求律師起草文件。然后，我們簽了字。這時，三十天已經過去了。

????接下來，最困難的部分開始了。我們開始協商最終文件，也就是詳細的法律文件，于是，整個令人抓狂的過程又重頭開始了。

????聽我的共同創始人布萊恩?莫倫說，他過去工作過的一家公司常常舉辦“簽字聚會”，讓所有相關方都飛到同一個地方。所有人都住在同一家酒店內，直到交易最終完成。他說：

????“交易牽涉到很多錢。項目推遲可能會讓我們損失幾百萬美元。相比項目延期帶來的損失，讓所有人飛到一個地方、住在一家酒店里只是小錢。人們分處不同地點，服務于不同項目時，文件的流轉自然不會太快，總有人讓你等。”

????因此，我們想：“為什么不為我們公司舉行一個簽字聚會呢？”

????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?