Overview
This elective course connects the dots between different types of entrepreneurial ventures (early stage, growing stage, and mature stage) and the wide variety of financing sources that entrepreneurs may access. Learners will take the concepts of innovation and finance and use them together to determine how best to solicit external investment for entrepreneurial ideas.
The course focuses on three key areas:
- What is innovation, and how can it be created?
- What possible sources of financing exist for entrepreneurial ventures, and how can entrepreneurs access and/or make a business attractive to prospective investors?
- How can entrepreneurs navigate the innovation finance ecosystem in which valuation of investment entry and exit is the lifeblood?
Outline
The course is divided into eight modules.
- Module 1: The Innovation Finance Ecosystem
- Module 2: Innovation and Disruption
- Module 3: Sources of Finance
- Module 4: Throughput Analysis (Pre-Seed Company)
- Module 5: Valuation Techniques and Due Diligence (Seeding Stage)
- Module 6: Financing Multiple Rounds: Series A-B-C
- Module 7: Deal Structuring: Series A-B-C
- Module 8: Exit
Objectives
By the end of this course, students should be able to
- identify potential sources from which to procure funding for an entrepreneurial venture.
- identify appropriate links between entrepreneurial ventures and sources of financing in an innovation finance ecosystem.
- describe the characteristics of innovation and explain how innovation affects the value of entrepreneurial ventures and their financing methods.
- distinguish between rounds of financing as pre-seed, seed, series A-B-C, and exit, and identify the milestone events and parties involved during these rounds.
- conduct a standard venture capital valuation of an entrepreneurial firm, considering the effects of dilution in multiple rounds.
- outline the key features in a term sheet, and identify ethical issues that may arise from information asymmetries that accompany negotiations.
- identify the options for exiting venture capital investments, and explain how they may relate to the degree of innovativeness of the entrepreneurial firm.
Evaluation
The final grade will be based on the successful completion of two individual assignments and on your participation in group discussions (including case studies).