Short Course Description
This is a course about the financial decision-making process largely from the point of view of the CEO of an entrepreneurial venture, ranging from very early to very late stages. The course analyzes the incentives of all parties in entrepreneurial financial transactions: founders, employees, angels, VCs, corporate investors and public markets.
The main goal of the course is to expose students to various forms of financing instruments available for early stage ventures along the life cycle. The pedagogy takes a two-pronged approach: First, develop tools and concepts modeling, valuation, control, and investment decisions within an entrepreneurial context. Second, we use cases with firms at different stages initial angel or venture capital investments through exit decisions, in order to see the issues that arise when these principles are applied in practice. Specifically, the class will discuss various sources of funds that are most attractive for entrepreneurial ventures at different points in time, and consider how much control does the entrepreneur need to relinquish? What defines control of a company?
Full Syllabus
