Special issue on private equity and venture capital topics

In the not-too-distant past, venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) topics were rarely encountered in a business librarian's day-to-day activities. These types of reference interactions were limited to one-off, specialized finance-related research queries and otherwise were not given much attention. But as interest in entrepreneurship grows and terms like crowdsourcing, the gig economy, and unicorns (a start-up company valued at over $1 billion) enter the popular lexicon, business librarians are finding themselves faced more frequently with what can become fairly complicated investment, financing, and other business start-up questions.

Rather than include only one review per resource, this special issue offers multiple perspectives from a range of business librarians on VC/PE research products to provide a robust analysis of these tools. The focus is mainly on some of the newer resources available in this space, including CB Insights, PitchBook, PrivCo, and Crunchbase, although we note that established resources from Thomson Reuters, such as SDC Platinum and VentureXpert, remain important, particularly in academic research related to VC/PE. Book reviews range from notable titles covering PE due diligence and VC negotiation to directories of VC/PE firms.

In addition to book and database reviews, this special issue contains articles touching on the full scope of areas where VC/PE research and librarianship meet. Among these are articles on the types of financing available to start-up companies, examples of current and historical venture capital and private equity firm activities, and patent due diligence for entrepreneurs. Another study focuses on the VC and PE resources used in academic scholarship across various business libraries. From a wrap-up of an American Library Association annual session on the ABC's of PE and VC to an interview with PE/VC research specialists, articles in this compilation cover VC and PE from a wide variety of angles and expert viewpoints.

We thank the numerous contributors to this special issue who not only answered an expedited call for articles, but whose multifaceted perspectives on and experiences with this topic produced excellent pieces.

We thank Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship editor Lisa O'Connor for sparking this project and for all of her guidance along the way. We are also grateful to our respective institutions for supporting and encouraging our efforts in undertaking this guest editing project.