Venture Capital

As a result of this course, you will be able to:

• Explain and understand the VC investment perspective in its entirety from entrepreneurial initiative through to exit options
• Relate the tools of strategic analysis to the evaluation of prospective VC opportunities
• Frame the questions to establish whether an early stage prospective VC opportunity has realistic potential
• Develop a high level evaluatory framework that can be used to:
  • Question the potential of VC opportunities in relation to a structured commercial due diligence procedure
  • Drill down and answer the relevant questions about how, when and why value may be created from a prospective VC opportunity, i.e. the potential value drivers of the investment and their sensitivity
  • Place the exit option clearly into perspective in terms of potential directions to take and how to challenge outcomes

How You Will Learn

The course will combine presentations, business cases, and interactive Q&A sessions. Practical exercises and cases drawn from the course director’s wealth of experience include:

• Current angel investor opportunities e.g. related to online luxury real estate sales and rentals in the Caribbean
• A flying car that is now commercially available – from start-up to production
• An educational technology business
• The ‘unicorn’ Uber

Agenda Summary

• Venture Capital and Private Equity
• Venture Capital as an Investment Opportunity
• VC and the Financing Life Cycle
• The VC Market Place
• Venture Capital as a Joint Venture Investment Decision
• VC Finance Options – What Choices and Reasons to use
• Value creation from a venture capital investment
• The Changing Face of Venture Capital
• Seed, Start-up and Very Early Stage Businesses
• Later Stage VC Businesses
• Structuring Venture Capital – Legal and Negotiation Issues
• Exit Strategies

Case Studies, Exercise and Discussions

Case Illustration: Failing to meet the value creation challenge – Theranos

Mini Case Illustrations: Seed, start-up and very early stage businesses

• PAL-V Flying car - Netherlands
• ILI Education Technology – UK
• Relogistics – Netherlands
• DW Spas – Germany, Hong Kong, Macau
• Reiseido Luxury Spas – Spain
• Premchit Spa Cosmetics – Thailand
• Caribestate.com - Caribbean

Case Study: Later stage VC - Uber

Case illustrations – start-up to exit

• Systems Union
• Marketo