In the spirit of Open Source, a number of VC funding documents are popping up around the web. Here are four worth looking at (courtesy of @fredwilson):

• TechStars Model Seed Funding Documents (by Cooley)
• Y Combinator Series AA Equity Financing Documents (by WSGR)
• Founders Institute Plain Preferred Term Sheet (by WSGR)
• Series Seed Financing Documents (by Fenwick & West)

I’m not sure that the concept of “open source” funding documents will ever take off, but I have seen some pretty convoluted and arcane docs in my time, so at a minimum, I do like the idea of a repository of “best practice” or even “sample” documents being readily available, transparent and subject to open debate.

I do hope that better visibility and open discourse lead to improvements in the clarity and simplicity of these types of documents. Sometimes I am stunned at how poorly written funding documents are, as the institutional memory of all things that have gone bump in the night before gets cobbled together into the text like some sort of Dr. Seuss contraption.