We’ve heard from many folks who use our book in the classroom. We are delighted and honored that this is the case and wanted to create an online community of those who use our materials.
Below you’ll find a current list of others using Venture Deals in the classroom. Below, you will find folks who have graciously donated their syllabi and a forum where folks can ask questions.
In the coming months, we’ll be creating a teachers manual to accompany the book. Until then, thank you for the support.
University Colorado Law School
VC 360
Syllabus
Professors J. Brad Bernthal and Jason Mendelson.
This class (which draws cross campus from MBA and Engineering schools as well) discusses the complete life cycle of venture capital: from VCs raising funds, to entrepreneurs meetings VCs and doing the same. Particular attention is paid to negotiating term sheets, creating fundraising materials and policy infrastructure issues that focus on why the VC “industry” is seen in some locations but not others.
Years taught: 4
Golden Gate University
High Technology Startup: Business & Legal Issues
Syllabus
Professor David Jargiello
Cornell University
This course will cover the practical mechanics of how business transactions are structured and implemented from term sheet to closing. As a transactional model we will study the documentation, legal issues, business issues and mechanical process of closing a preferred stock financing of a venture-backed start up. Students that prepare, attend and participate will gain (1) a basic understanding of venture capital deal “lingo” and structure, (2) an understanding of venture capital transaction agreements, (3) exposure to practical venture capital lawyering, and (4) exposure to practical transactional lawyering in general.
Emerging Growth Companies and Venture Capital Financing: Principles and Practice
Syllabus
Professor Stephane Levy
This course covers the legal and business issues that arise in the context of representing emerging growth companies and the venture capital investors who provide an important source of capital to such companies. In particular, the course will focus on the legal issues typically encountered by private companies at formation, financing, operation and key corporate events, including acquisition transactions and public offerings. Topics covered will include corporate formation and governance, angel investments (both equity and debt), venture capital financing, employment and equity compensation matters, protection of intellectual property, securities laws compliance and exit strategies through merger, acquisition or initial public offering.
Bentley University
Emerging Leaders
Syllabus
Professors: Woody Benson and Phillip Lowe
Corporate Immersion classes focus on solving current business problems for startup companies. Emphasizes the use of multidisciplinary skills to identify, define, and solve complex issues. Covers multiple topics including finance, accounting, management, marketing, technology, and the law. Involves significant group work and the ability to meet tight deadlines. Deliverables may be sequential, but often unrelated and with frequent changes throughout the semester. Students need curiosity, ability to research, search capability, and experience investigating multiple industries. Emphasizes the ability to use both written and verbal skills in formal business presentations to top management. Requires the ability to defend analyses and recommendations under pressure and strict time constraints. Mirrors working conditions and expectations of corporate partner’s employees.
University of Louisville
Entrepreneurial Finance
Syllabus
Professor: John M. Mueller
This course will focus on financing issues facing new, young, and small business ventures. The course is intended for both entrepreneurs and employees in these types of ventures. We will go in depth on how to analyze financial statements, create financial forecasts, and valuate these types of ventures. We will study the tools and methods used in determining how much money a venture actually needs in order to be viable. Further, we will explore tools and approaches used when selling an idea to potential investors. Attention will be devoted to the different types of financing alternatives available to new, young, and small ventures. The venture capital market will be investigated in detail, including self financing, debt financing, angel financing, and financing from venture capital firms. In addition, we will explore issues involved in negotiating deals and in formulating deal structures. Students will be encouraged to understand financing issues and options from the vantage points of the entrepreneur, the lender, and the investor.
Carnegie Mellon – Tepper School of Business
Funding Early State Ventures
Syllabus
Professor: Frank Demmler
Funding Early Stage Ventures is a course intended for students interested in the area of high-risk finance from the entrepreneurial and venture capital perspectives. The class is open to second-year Tepper students and first-year students with the instructor’s permission. It is highly recommended that students have taken Entrepreneurial Thought & Action (#45881). Enrollment is limited to 45 students.
Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
New Venture Finance
Syllabus
Professor: Randy Haykin
New Venture Finance is an elective offered through at Haas through our Center for Entrepreneurship. The class generally has 35-40 students and is taught in both the regular MBA curriculum and the Evening/Weekend MBA program (very popular among working entrepreneurs in S.Valley). The class is aimed at students who are already in start-ups or plan to be a senior leader in a start-up in the future. The class uses a combination of lectures from Randy Haykin (serial entrepreneur, angel investors, VC partner) as well as up to 15 visiting speakers per semester. The “twist” to the course is that students are dividing into teams and work closely with a local CEO/founder throughout the semester, to apply what they are learning in class to this “real-time” company. At the end of the semester, the students are invited to Sand Hill Road where they are “flys on the walls” the entrepreneur they helped during the semester presents live to a real VC partnership.
Judge School of Business, University of Cambridge
Entrepreneurial Finance
Syllabus
Professor: Randy Haykin
Entrepreneurial Finance is an elective offered through the MBA program at U. Cambridge. The class generally has 25-30 students and is offered in late May during an intense 1 1/2 weeks. The class uses a combination of lectures from Randy Haykin (serial entrepreneur, angel investors, VC partner) and the case study method including several cases on video created by Professor Haykin. Students who are working currently on a start-up, get time to share their start-up and give feedback to each other in this class. A unique aspect of this class is that students truly represent an international cross-section: typical class has students from all 5 continents and many from Africa, Latin America, Europe, US, Russia and Asia.
University of Washington
Venture Investing
Syllabus
This course covers two areas: 1) performing timely analyses and due diligence on business proposals; and 2) communicating your results in a clear, concise, and coherent fashion. This overall process is consistent with evaluating proposals in a number of different settings besides venture funding, e.g. banking and investment banking; mergers and acquisition; and corporate business development.
Your team will be required to meet weekly outside of class (starting with week 4) with a Fund Fellow (venture or research associate from a local Venture Capital firm)
Stanford University
Startup CS 183
Syllabus
Professor: Peter Thiel
Conception, launch, scaling, and growing of a successful tech company. Bridging the subjects of engineering, science, business, finance, and world history, topics will include: the technology revolution of the 20th century and prior eras; the economics of business; founding a startup; the importance of team vision and passion; long-term strategic planning; building a successful founding team; financing and the VC perspective; secrecy vs. openness; recruiting, managing growth, marketing, regulation and other operational topics. Assignments are designed to explore key concepts at greater depth, using realworld and hypothetical example companies. Inner accounts from the early days of startups including PayPal, Google and Facebook will be used as case studies. The class will be taught by entrepreneurs who have started companies worth over $1B and VCs who have invested in startups including Facebook and Spotify. Students can expect to be proficient in core skills critical to the founding and growing of a tech company upon completion of this course.
Northwestern BIP
394: Professional Linkage Seminar: Entrepreneurship
Syllabus
Professor: David Schonthal
This class is designed to expose you to many of the critical elements fundamental to becoming a successful entrepreneur. It will be taught from the perspective of the business world – not the perspective of the classroom, and will feature several outside speakers including local
entrepreneurs, industry experts and investors.
Boston College
MM 804.01 Advanced Topics: Entrepreneurial Finance
Syllabus
Professor: Gregory Stoller
Regardless of which career path you choose, a comprehensive understanding of finance is an essential ingredient in the “recipe” for business success. No longer can the assumptions underlying financial projections be treated as “black boxes.” In many cases, the answer is less important than the analytical process used to calculate it. This course is designed for students who may at some point be interested in pursuing managerial careers in the entrepreneurial sector, and covers the development of financial and business skills to identify, evaluate, start and manage new ventures. This is primarily a case study based course and each year I develop new content (i.e. cases and readings) exclusively for use in the class. Based on a successful pilot program several years ago, this class now features dual enrollment each year by students from BC’s Law School. Their contributions to the discussion bring an interesting perspective and dynamic to the course.
UCLA Anderson School of Management
Management 295A Entrepreneurship and Venture Initiation
Syllabus
Professor: Jeff Scheinrock
This course provides a broad overview of the process of starting a new company. With newly revamped curriculum, Jeff Scheinrock will help you analyze and evaluate ideas for startups with a feasibility framework that you can use for many years to come. You’ll cover important aspects of starting, developing, and growing a new enterprise. The quarter begins by defining and providing perspective on entrepreneurship. We then move to a discussion of the recognition, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunity through a newly created feasibility framework. The quarter concludes with a discussion of exit opportunities, from mergers and acquisitions to IPOs.
Case Western Reserve University – Weatherhead School of Management
ENTP 444 – Entrepreneurial Finance
Syllabus
Professor: Michael Goldberg
The objective of this course is to introduce students to the issues related to capital formation in new ventures. We will examine the complex relationship between entrepreneurs and investors. Many entrepreneurs are able to finance their businesses without raising outside capital. This course will focus primarily on those entrepreneurs that want to grow their companies quickly and do not have the capital to do so on their own. The authors of Venture Deals, the main text we will use in the course, explain that the negotiation between entrepreneurs and investors always boils down to two issues: economics and control. Settling on a valuation of a company is an imperfect science and we will discuss in detail the various ways that valuations are calculated in early stage companies (which look very different than calculating valuations of mature companies).
University of Chicago Booth School of Business
B34702 Private Equity and Venture Capital Lab
Syllabus
Professor: Jason Heltzer
The goal of this course is to provide students with a practical set of tools to help them succeed as principal investors in private equity and venture capital funds. While some theory will be covered, the primary focus is how the profession is practiced in the field. Armed with a current, real-world perspective and pragmatic tools, we hope to accelerate each student’s apprenticeship process. The course complements students’ internships at a PE or VC firm. The toolset includes creating an investment thesis, performing due diligence, fundraising and managing PE/VC funds, negotiating and structuring financial terms, exiting deals, board governance and influence, and overseeing portfolio companies.