At the end of this academic term, students should be able to:
• Appreciate the similarities and differences between entrepreneurial finance and corporate finance.
• Differentiate between stages of new venture development and the sources of financing available.
• Define Incubator, accelerator and crowdfunding. Assess when each of these early sources of funding is appropriate for a growing venture.
• Understand where business angels fit into the financing structure of entrepreneurial ventures.
• Understand the investment process and specifically the investment criteria and how investors make their investment.
• Recognize the impact of psychological biases on the screening decision.
• Understand the differences between venture capital, private equity and venture funds.
• Differentiate between the most innovative ways of providing public financial support to startups.
• Conduct a pro-forma analysis including income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement.
• Appreciate the importance of financial planning and determine the external financing need of a business venture.
• Recognize the limitations of traditional valuation methodologies when applying them to new high-growth ventures.
• Understand how investors in new ventures, namely business angels and venture capitalists approach valuation.
• Understand the goal and the main characteristics of the term sheet, the document which is most commonly used to support the negotiation phase.
• Evaluate business models and derive key performance metrics for different types of startups.
• Appreciate the different ways that intellectual property can affect the value of your business and what you need to take into account when developing an intellectual property strategy.
• Recognize exactly how investors time their exit decision.