ADET 3103 Funding for New Ventures

This course presents the landscape of venture funding and provides entrepreneurs with qualitative and quantitative decision-making tools to make well-informed, strategic choices about how to fund their new ventures. It covers the broad spectrum of startup funding options, from bootstrapping and loans, tapping friends and family resources, competing for accelerator and government funding, to seeking angel and venture capital investments. Within this spectrum, students will learn how to assess the feasibility of raising external funds for different business models at different stages of company growth, and how to analyze the tradeoffs of various funding options. The course also provides students with a grounding in the structure of venture capital investing, including term sheets, valuation, capitalization tables, boards of directors, preparing for due diligence, and the risk-reward perspective of traditional venture investors. Students will develop skills in analyzing the early-stage growth, revenue, and financial projections required for different types of funding through assigned business cases. They will prepare and present a funding pitch for a new venture of their choice as a final course project.