FI 373 - Venture Capital and Entrepreneurial Finance

The primary objective of this course is to provide an understanding of the concepts and institutions involved in entrepreneurial finance and private equity markets. To do this, the course explores private equity from a number of perspectives, beginning with the entrepreneur / issuer, moving to the private equity partnership, and finishing with investors in private equity partnerships. Students will learn the basics of finance, valuations, dilution and non-dilutive funding sources and will understand capital structure for new ventures, term sheets and how to negotiate them. The course is ideal also for those students that consider themselves as “aspiring entrepreneurs” and that want to understand how to secure funding for their business ideas. They will receive a guide to secure funding using the many financing options available to get new ventures funded. This can be considered a research-based course to provide students with a full understanding of how to implement winning investor pitches, who and when to pitch, how to avoid common mistakes that limit the effectiveness of the pitch, and how to ‘get to the close’. The presentation of real-word case studies and the usage of techniques coming from major players belonging to private equity world will further enhance the link with the best practices observable in the market