Last weekend one of my buddies sent me a link to VC Wear. It doesn't matter what side of the fence you sit (VC or Entrepreneur) you are going to get a kick out of these.

I particularly liked where their inks came from "Our American Apparel shirts are made of 100% cotton, and our inks are made from recycled, shredded, tear filled term sheets." ;-)

Any budding entrepreneurs out there who want to know how to pitch - just check out their pitch slide deck

I spend a lot of time doing due diligence on prospective companies to get a feel for the company, the space and the people. My favourite online resources are:

• Google Searching on company names, people names and email addresses, provides a limitless supply of information
• Google Blogsearch Provides texture on "the buzz" the company, product or people are making in the blogosphere
• ASIC The Australian Securities & Investments Commission provides a ton of info on company registrations, filings, share issues and director appointments / resignations
• The Wayback When Machine! Really, I'm not joking! This service is *fantastic* - it provides an archive of webpages - I use this service to uncover the names of people who used to work for companies I am looking at - talking with them usually provides very useful background information on a prospect company. I also use this service to see if any companies in Web 1.0 tried out an idea already. I recently used this service to uncover an old Web 1.0 company that was well funded that crashed and burned. I found the names of the former exec staff - tracked them to their new lives, spoke with three of them to uncover why the idea didnt work first time around - It gave me all the answers I needed for the same idea with a Web 2.0 spin (ie dont go near it!)
• LinkedIn What does the work history look like for key execs - if they are not on LinkedIn - why not?
• Facebook Do they have a Facebook page? who are they linked to? The friends list can be extremely revealing
• Classmates for school relationships in the US and FriendsReunited for the same in the UK and Australia

If your prospect has its own blog check that out too. Visiting their Flickr page provides useful visual background to them. Make sure you stack up online by keeping your online presence fresh and current. People check!

Fenwick & West is a leading US based legal services provider to technology and life sciences clients of national and international prominence. They have over 250 lawyers, with offices in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, California. What is interesting about Fenwick & West is that they collect, collate and publish a wide range of research reports relating to Start-ups and VC's

One periodic report which is worth reading is the Trends in Terms of Venture Financings in the San Francisco Bay Area. This quarterly report provides a barometer of metrics relating to early stage investments. It is true to say that these metrics differ in Australia but they help provide some context for entrepreneurs seeking investment benchmarks.