COURSE OUTLINE:
1) Venture Capital: the basics
- Definition of VC and start-up
- What do we really invest in?
- The fundamental questions when analysing start-ups at a very early-stage
- What about the financials?
2) Enterprise Valuation
- Definitions
- Roles of Valuation
- The Classical Theory: Discounted Cash Flows or Net Present Value
- The Modern Methods for developed businesses: the Multiple approach
3) Start-up Valuation
- Living in a world where financial methods don’t work
- The key principles to never forget
- The seed case: when only ideas are on the table
- The central case: when sales rocket but profitability is still unseen
- Forward thinking: what could we expect as an exit value? Role in the present valuation assessment
- The main risk of using the Price to Sales ratio
- How to modify a valuation over time: the idea of sharing value depending on exit price
i. Preferred Shares
ii. Options for the investors
iii. Options for the founders & employees
- Follow-on rounds and impacts on valuation, proceeds waterfall etc.
- Investment Processes in VC
4) Risk Management: the portfolio and the partnership approach
- Why should an investor always consider a portfolio rather than a single (or very limited number of) investment?
- What should an investor look in a partnership?
- Investment strategy and portfolio management
- Examples of strategies and impact on the performance
- Decision making process and managers compensation
- Profesor: Apoteker Nicolas