Wharton alumni who are business founders provide their unique perspective as entrepreneurs, innovators, and disrupters who have worked with VC firms. Leaders of some of the world’s most successful VC firms and funds discuss how they evaluate and select potential investments, as well as current best practices and trends. There are normally two to three distinguished thought leaders invited to speak during the program and they provide a range of different perspectives as it relates to venture capital.
Venture capitalism series#
Term Sheets: The Venture Capitalist's and Entrepreneur's perspectivesĪ highlight of Venture Capital is a series of guest speakers who bring real world experience and a holistic understanding of today’s VC world to the classroom.The VC Business Model: Sourcing, Screening, and Selection.Limited Partner/General Partner Negotiation and Contracting.Key Takeaways: Adjunct Professor David Wessels on what participants will learn. This program will provide participants with a rigorous framework both to evaluate investment opportunities and to manage a multi-stage investment process in an innovative firm. In this manner, participants will see how a deal is structured, learn more about the differing incentives of a VC fund and entrepreneurs, and gain a deeper understanding of venture investing. Participants will examine case studies that detail a transaction from beginning to end. Venture Capital starts with a discussion of how VC funds are organized, how investments are selected, and how due diligence is conducted. As a result, the tools and valuation methods venture capitalists use to assess a business without any tangible assets are different, too. And because of the longer time horizon to profitability and a greater degree of uncertainty of achieving success, VC has a risk-return profile that is significantly different from that of a conventional, established business with predictable revenues.
They have to value a company whose future financial success hinges on an unproven technology or product that hasn’t been fully commercialized or has yet to generate any revenue. Venture capitalists generally take a leap of faith with a business idea or founder when choosing to invest in a start-up.
Venture capitalism professional#
Certificate of Professional Development.