ENTREPRENEURIAL FINANCE

AIM OF THE COURSE

The course aims at:

• understanding decisions of (innovative) privately-held entrepreneurial firms as regards access to early stage finance;
• understanding decisions of managers of financial intermediaries as regards early-stage financing of (innovative) privately-held entrepreneurial firms;
• using theory and empirical evidence on entrepreneurial finance to learn how to make better financial decisions;

COURSE ORGANIZATION

The course includes:

• Lecture sessions: they aim at illustrating, sharing and discussing models, conceptual frameworks, tools and empirical evidence.
• Case study sessions: they aim at making students learn how to make financing decisions in real world situations by leveraging insights from theory and empirics.  Students have to read case study materials in advance of the class sections.
• Group project: it aims at making students learn how to evaluate an entrepreneurial firm.
• Testimonials: guest speakers (entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, business angels) invited to share their practical experience with the class.

PROFESSIONAL OUTLET

Course participants may become:

• Entrepreneurs able to make financial decisions according to the specific characteristics of their start-up and the external financial and institutional environment;
• Managers of financial intermediaries (including banks) and large corporations able to evaluate risks and returns involved in providing financing to (innovative) entrepreneurial firms;
• Governmental officers able to understand the financing needs of entrepreneurial firms and to design eefctive policy support schemes.

COURSE DETAILED PROGRAM

1. Introduction to entrepreneurial finance
2. Bootstrapping and debt financing
3. VC finance 
4. Valuation of entrepreneurial firms
5. Exit strategies
6. Governmental VC
7. Crowdfunding & Business Angels
8. Accelerator & Incubators

Evaluation is based on written exam, lesson participation and workgroup assignement.

• Written exam: Written exam is based on closed questions to mini case studies in multiple choice format and is organized before the end of the semester. 
• Participation: Students will be evaluted for their active participation in the plenary discussion of the case studies. 
• Workgorup assigment: Students will prepare a report describing the valuation of a entreprenurial firm by applying the tools presented during the course

Slides, case studies and videos will be made available through the course website on BeeP. There is not a unique reference textbook, but rather a collection of textbook chapters / papers /case studies from different sources that complement an active participation during classes