The Entrepreneurial Finance: Venture Capital Financing program provides participants with a unique and comprehensive perspective on start-up investing. It is designed to provide a perspective combining facts and best practices. After exploring the sector and the “ecosystem” of entrepreneurial finance, the participants will learn how venture investing works, from sourcing opportunities to selecting investments, creating value and monitoring, setting up a governance framework and exiting. The program thus covers the whole cycle of investing in new ventures. The participants can expect an intense learning experience comprising formal lectures, group discussions, and case studies.
How you will benefit
- Explore and understand the world of start-up investing: trends, issues affecting the market and major players
- Understand the investment structures and return drivers in venture capital
- Investigate deal sourcing, business plan analyses, and transaction structuring
- Learn the specificities of venture valuations (at entry and exit) and investment negotiations, as well as monitoring and governance
Program length
2 days
| Day 1 | 09:00 – 17:30 |
| Day 2 | 09:00 – 17:30 |
Day 1 | Introduction, venture investing, deal sourcing and due diligence
Introduction
- How would you finance a spin-off from a University Lab? (interactive)
- What is venture capital? Overview of the VC model
- Who invests in start-ups and how?
- Focus on Europe and VC funds
- Example: VC in food & agritech
- Activity and performance
The challenge of venture capital investing
- Framework
- Quick introduction to VC funds and their logic
- Business case 1: Good money after bad (to read and prepare)
Deal sourcing
- The main steps towards an investment
- Deal sourcing and filtering
- The business plan
Due diligence
- Business case 2: Virtual Ink (to read and prepare)
- Due diligence
Day 2 | Valuation, negotiations, governance framework, monitoring and exits
Valuing in an uncertain context: methods and limits
- Valuation methods and concepts
- Limits
- Business case 3: Lending Club (to read and prepare)
Negotiations
- Non-disclosure agreements
- Terms to negotiate: liquidation preferences, anti-dilution, ESOP
- Terms, price, value and balance of power
- Deal term sheet analysis (template provided to read and discussed in session)
Establishing a governance framework
- Investments and shareholders agreement
- Shareholders’ agreement (template provided to read and discussed in session)
- Closing
- Governance and control: investors’ rights, board, monitoring
- Exits scenarios and statistics
Monitoring and governance
- Monitoring (reporting, burn rate, runway and other tools)
- Governance set-ups: examples
- Impact of the current economic outlook on the VC sector
- ESG and impact in VC
This Entrepreneurial Finance: Venture Capital Financing program is relevant to:
- Entrepreneurs and business angels keen to understand the venture capital industry better
- Family offices and consultants with an interest to invest in start-ups, commit funds to the sector and/or co-invest with them
- Regional development organizations and advisors looking for a better understanding of how entrepreneurial finance creates value in start-ups
