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[ENTREP] Ideas/ Suggestions for New Venture Financing Course

  • 1.  [ENTREP] Ideas/ Suggestions for New Venture Financing Course

    Posted 12-18-2017 00:26

    This semester my advanced entrepreneurship class used Slicing Pie (Moyer) as a framework for splitting equity among founders. It's a pretty easy read, and the web site, http://www.slicingpie.com is very helpful. It's enough content for a week or two.

     

    I'm also looking for ways to shift emphasis to bootstrapping and alternative forms of funding. However, I find that my students are fascinated by venture capital and pay more attention to those lectures even though it covers some of the most complicated material in the course. I also use the Venture Deals (Feld & Mendelson) book. The authors also offer a free online course based on the book: https://www.kauffmanfellows.org/online-course-venture-deals/. I had my students sign up for it this Fall. The authors recorded a series of lectures for it. The exercises are ok and improving. Being able to use a flipped classroom for this topic was really useful. We have business majors sitting alongside liberal arts majors. It was nice to be able to provide individualized attention in class.

     

    I'll check out some of the recommended books in this thread. Thanks!

     

    Regards,

    Mike Panesis
    Executive Director, Center for Entrepreneurship



    E-mail:
    mpanesis@callutheran.edu
    LinkedIn:
    www.linkedin.com/in/mpanesis
    Twitter: www.twitter.com/mpanesis
    Phone: (805) 493-3493

    Office: Swenson 215
    Mailing Address: 60 W Olsen Rd #3800  |  Thousand Oaks, CA 91360


    From: Entrepreneurship Division Listserv [mailto:ENTREP@AOMLISTS.AOM.ORG] On Behalf Of Timothy Holcomb
    Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2017 10:02 AM
    To: ENTREP@AOMLISTS.AOM.ORG
    Subject: Re: [ENTREP] Ideas/ Suggestions for New Venture Financing Course

     

    In my opinion, one of the best venture capital books is:

    Feld, Brad and Mendelson, Jason, 2011. Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist, 3rd Edition, Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

     

    Brad and Jason do a great job of introducing foundational venture concepts and topics. I use the text in our Venture Capital Immersion Program at Miami University.

     

    For a deep dive on due diligence frameworks/tactics, I recommend:

    Camp, J. J. 2002. Venture Capital Due Diligence: A Guide to Making Smart Investment Choices and Increasing Your Portfolio Returns. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

     

    For a deep dive in negotiation and term and conditions/term sheets, I recommend:

    Wilmerding, A. 2006. Term Sheets & Valuations: A Line-by-Line Look at the Intricacies of Term Sheets & Valuations. New York: Thomson / Aspatore.

     

    In addition, there are several very good podcasts that I use in the course as well. Here are two that I've found most useful:

    Nick Moran's The Full Ratchet

    Harry Stebbings' The Twenty Minute VC

     

    Enjoy.

     

    Tim

     

    Tim R. Holcomb Ph.D. 

    Associate Professor and Cintas Chair in Entrepreneurship |

    Institute for Entrepreneurship and Department of Management | Farmer School of Business | Miami University | 

     

    From: Entrepreneurship Division Listserv [mailto:ENTREP@AOMLISTS.AOM.ORG] On Behalf Of Craig E. Armstrong
    Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2017 5:54 PM
    To:
    ENTREP@AOMLISTS.AOM.ORG
    Subject: Re: [ENTREP] Ideas/ Suggestions for New Venture Financing Course

     

    Colleagues:

     

    I developed and taught a new venture finance course for undergraduate students this semester using:

    Three paperback (or ebooks) available at Amazon.com

    Founder's Pocket Guide: Friends and Family Funding $7.99 ($3.03)

    ISBN 978-1-938162-11-4

    Founder's Pocket Guide: Startup valuation $7.99 ($3.99)

    ISBN-13: 978-1938162046

    ISBN-10: 1938162048

    Founder's Pocket Guide: Term sheets and preferred shares $7.99 ($3.99)

    ISBN 978-1-938162-06-0

     

    and lots of company examples from Crunchbase.com, sec.gov, etc. I have found that most students will go the self-funded and F&F routes first, and the F&F guide covers some really important topics to keep students from creating a financial mess from day one. Understanding valuation logic is the next most important step, but I have again also found that students don't understand that they are responsible for creating a legitimate pre-money valuation by building as much value into the venture before they get outside funding. We've all sat through presentations where they say they need $50,000 for 10% of the company based on a semi-polished pitch deck. No more!

     

    Most important concepts are that they understand (1) legal issues with F&F, (2) pre-money valuations and how to justify them, (3) how to make and interpret cap tables, and (4) the inevitable dilution that comes with the progression of investments into VC (i.e.., the < 1% of our students who get there). 

     

    Hope this helps!

    Craig E. Armstrong, Ph.D.

    Associate Professor, Management

    The University of Alabama 
    http://profcraigarmstrong.wikispaces.com

     

     

    On Sat, Dec 16, 2017 at 11:35 AM, John Mullins <jmullins@london.edu> wrote:

    Rebecca, Alex and others:

    Sorely needed, and long overdue! Since publishing my newest book, The Customer-Funded Business, in 2014, I've been developing case material to teach such principles. You'll find it at The Case Centre (www.thecasecentre.org): Budgetplaces.com (set in Barcelona), NakedWines.com (UK, US, AU: it should be there in the next couple of weeks), and Nobel (US, Romania). Chapter 1 of The CFB is available for free download for you and your students at my London Business School web page, noted in my signature below. Very happy to help with any questions.  Perhaps we should do as the effectuation folks have done, and plan regular meetings for like-minded faculty.

    Best,

    John

     

    John W. Mullins, PhD

    Associate Professor of Management Practice

    Marketing and Entrepreneurship

    London Business School

    Sussex Place, Regent's Park

    London NW1 4SA

    United Kingdom

     

    Phone: + 44 (0) 207 000 8161

     

    Web: http://faculty.london.edu/jmullins/

    My latest book: www.TheCustomerFundedBusiness.com

     

    From: Entrepreneurship Division Listserv [mailto:ENTREP@AOMLISTS.AOM.ORG] On Behalf Of Rebecca Fakoussa
    Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2017 3:29 AM
    To:
    ENTREP@AOMLISTS.AOM.ORG
    Subject: Re: [ENTREP] Ideas/ Suggestions for New Venture Financing Course

     

    Dear Alexandra

    This is a very interesting topic and I would be interested in working with you to develop some materials.

     

    I am based in the UK where I realise our systems are different but I would be keen to explore.

     

    Best wishes

    Rebecca

     

    My Skype rebeccafakoussa

     

    On 14 Dec 2017 22:10, "Alexandra Kostakis" <akostaki@syr.edu> wrote:

    Dear Colleagues-

    I am reinventing a venture financing course so that it focuses less on angel investing and VCs and more on the alternatives (bootstrapping methods, FFF, crowdfunding, SBA loans, etc.). Does anyone have a syllabus that they are willing to share or interesting ideas/ insights? Maybe exercises that you have seen being used in class to help students understand these methods? Thank you in advance for your assistance and happy holidays!

     

    Sincerely-

    Alex

     

    Alexandra Kostakis

    Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurial Practice

    Harrison House Master

    CIE Learning Community Faculty Lead

    SUPA EEE Faculty Lead

    Whitman School of Management

    721 University Ave., 116C

    Syracuse, NY 13244-2450

    akostaki@syr.edu

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