Understand the terms before you cut the check.
The private investment world is gatekeeping through jargon you don't understand. That changes now. A 25-year private investor opens the door in this two-week masterclass.
Raise your hand
Leave your details and we'll follow up before the first session on November 10.
What you walk out with.
What you'll be able to do with the next deal that lands in your inbox.
The vocabulary
When a memo says 1× preferred, you'll know who gets paid first and who gets paid last.
A way to read a deal memo
What to check first, and what should worry you if it isn't there.
The math on fees
Why 2 and 20 across a ten-year fund often costs more than a 10% fee paid once.
Questions for any sponsor
Five of them. Who did the diligence, where the access comes from, and who gets paid along the way.
A sizing rule
How much belongs in startups, how many bets that buys, how big each check is. Decided before you see a deal.
A habit of looking for the no
Diligence as trying to prove yourself wrong, with six thesis-breakers to hunt for.
The money was never the hard part. The language was.
What members say.
From operators who've sat in the same seat.
Intro to Private Investing sessions
Foundation
Venture investing 101
Access, mechanics, returns, and risk. Every term shows up inside one worked financing, from founding to exit.
- ✓Venture next to growth equity, private equity, and public markets
- ✓Funds versus syndicates and SPVs, primary versus secondary
- ✓One $100 check traced through two rounds of dilution to exit, net of fees and carry
- ✓The weak-exit case, where preferred gets paid and common gets nothing
- ✓Four red flags, and five ways to manage risk
Judgment
Evaluate a deal and make the call
Most of investing is saying no. This is how to decide when to say yes.
- ✓What a business is worth, built up from the cash it produces
- ✓What a revenue multiple is really pricing in
- ✓How the questions change from seed to pre-IPO
- ✓Two real deals, start to finish: Rillet at early stage, OpenEvidence at late stage
- ✓Sizing a portfolio before you pick a single company
Who's teaching.
Casey built both decks from scratch for this course. Anne keeps the questions practical.
Casey Woo
Instructor · Founder & CEO, FOG Ventures
Twenty-five years of professional investing. Wall Street hedge funds, several CFO seats, and now an investing group run by operators. He opens with the risks and doesn't soften them.
Anne Pao
Co-host · Founder, Rich Bitch
Learned private investing the way most people in the room will: reading memos for months before writing a first check. She ties each concept back to a decision you'd actually face.
Before you raise your hand.
Do I need to be accredited to take this?
Do I need a finance background?
Is this investment advice?
Know what you're signing before you sign it.
Two Tuesdays in November. Raise your hand and we'll follow up before the first one.
Raise your hand →