Inside venture capital: How do investors make their decisions?

Over the past 30 years, venture capital has been a vital source of financing for high-growth startups. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Gilead Sciences, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Whole Foods, and countless other innovative companies owe their early success in part to the capital and coaching provided by VCs.

Venture capital has become an essential driver of economic value. Consider that in 2015 public companies that had received VC backing accounted for 20% of the market capitalisation and 44% of the research and development spending of US public companies.

Despite all that, little is known about what VCs actually do and how they create value.