????于是，我們邀請風險投資人、他們的律師以及我們的律師會和，大家一起來一頁頁地過這些法律文件，直到達成一致。

????讓我驚訝的是，所有人都很不情愿。我意識到，他們的律師不愿意放棄自己的工作時間。他寧可凌晨1點在其他工作的間隙來回復這些文件。所謂“凌晨1點”，我說的是三天后的凌晨1點，而且還會推翻我們所有的意見。

????我的風險投資人也沒那么起勁。

????但他們勉強同意了。我們在一間屋子里談了好幾個小時。中間休息了幾次，以便各方私下商議。我們也給其他人打電話。多數時候，風險投資人回到談判桌時的說法都是：“我們做了50筆交易，從來沒有批準過這樣的條款?！?/p>

????（邊注：這句話可別當真。不管我們提出的意見是不是有道理。我已經多次聽到風投家們說什么“我們從來沒這么做過”）

????不管怎樣。那是漫長的一天，但會議結束時我們終于達成了一致。律師們在48小時內完成協議起草，我們在72小時內完成了簽字。一周后，2000年的股市大跌拉開了序幕，互聯網市場一片慘淡，融資也隨之降至冰點。

????要讓交易各方同意在同一時間到達同一地點，并非易事。但如果能做到這點，我敢保證，它能大大加快敲定交易的的速度。

????而且，這一招顯然不光適用于風險融資領域。

????馬克?薩斯特2007年加盟GRP Partners，擔任一般合伙人，此前他將自己的公司售予了企業云計算公司Salesforce.com。他專注于早期科技公司。他的博客

????譯者：老榆木

????We asked the VC, their lawyer and our lawyer to join us for a working session where we could walk through our legal docs page-by-page until they were completed.

????I was surprised how reluctant everybody was. I realized that their lawyer much preferred not giving up his working hours. He would prefer to turn the docs at 1am between other stuff he was working on. And by "1am" I mean three days from now. And without agreeing all of our points.

????My VC wasn't that keen either.

????But they acquiesced. We spent several hours in a room. We took several breaks for each side to discuss issues privately that were in contention. We made phone calls to others. The VC mostly to come back and say some version of, "In all of the 50 deals we've seen in our portfolio we've never seen this term approved."

????[side note: please don't fall for that line. either the point makes sense or it doesn't. I have seen VCs hide behind this "we've never done it before" line many times]

????Anyway. It was a long day but at the end of the meeting we had a final agreement. The lawyers drafted it within 48 hours and we signed it in 72 hours. 1 week later the market crash of 2000 began and the dot com market began to collapse and financings with it.

????It's not always easy to get the various parties of your deal to agree to be in a room all together at one time. But if you can make it happen I promise it's a much faster way to get a deal done.

????And it obviously doesn't just apply to a VC financing.

????Mark Suster joined GRP Partners in 2007 as a general partner after selling his company to Salesforce.com. He focuses on early-stage technology companies. His blog?