SEMESTER: Spring 2020
THIS COURSE IS
DUAL-LISTED WITH FTMBA
COURSE NUMBER: EW236V-11
COURSE TITLE: New Venture Finance
UNITS OF CREDIT: 2 units
INSTRUCTORS: Maura O’Neill and Scott Robertson
E-MAIL ADDRESS: maura@mauraoneill.com; scott.robertson@berkeley.edu
PREREQUISITE(S): None.
CLASS FORMAT: Mixture of cases, guest speakers,
lectures, exercises and out of class interviews.
REQUIRED READINGS: The main focus of class preparation will
readings and a case (1 per class) that will be analyzed in class. Limited
homework, including submission of a news article about venture financing or
exit that is timely.
BASIS FOR FINAL
GRADE: Class participation
accounts for thirty percent of the grade. Homework assignments account for ten
percent. The team project accounts for thirty percent of the grade. The
take-home final exam accounts for the residual thirty percent.
CAREER FIELD:
This course is intended
for anyone who might be interested, now or later in their careers, in becoming
an entrepreneur, working for an entrepreneurial company or just desires to
learn how the innovation economy in the US is nurtured and financed. The
material is relevant for for-profit as well as impact entrepreneurs. The course
is also valuable for those interested in working on the funding side – as an
angel, VC, impact investor, in corporate development, government development,
or investment banking – or for those currently working in a start-up company.
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S
CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
This is a course about
how to successfully finance a high growth start-up venture. Since the Haas
School is principally about professionally managed businesses, the course will
focus on businesses that are not small by design (even if they start that way),
but on those businesses that with key strategic decisions, smart financing and
hard work mixed with little good luck can be expected to create profitable
exits for founders, employees and investors. The course will examine
a full range of financing options, starting with sweat equity and
friends/family to Angels, VCs, private equity, venture debt, Internet Coin
Offerings and Strategic Investment. The goal is to equip students with the
concepts, tools, risks and considerations for financing a business through its
life stages. You will learn about the minefields and strategies to negotiate
successfully. The course has proved valuable for people who work or aspire to
work at high growth startups to understand stock options, financing and
exits. Curriculum includes cases, guest speakers, lectures,
negotiation exercises, examining the current finance environment for raising
money and selling your company, as well as, experiential learning by students
interviewing investors in teams.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF
THE INSTRUCTORS:
Maura O’Neill through
her work in the public, private and academic sectors have created
entrepreneurial and public-private solutions for some of the toughest domestic
and global problems. Maura has founded four companies (energy
efficiency and curbside recycling, electricity customer info systems and
billing, e-commerce and digital textbook platform), served as Chief of Staff in
the U.S. Senate, appointed President Obama's first Chief Innovation Officer, US
Agency for International Development ($22 billion Agency budget) & served
as a member of the White House Innovation Cohort.
In addition to advising
many early stage companies, Maura is Distinguished Teaching Fellow at the Haas
School of Business, UC Berkeley and serves as a Faculty Director at UC Berkeley
Executive Education. New Venture Finance, Blockchain
Strategy, DC Immersion and Executive Leadership are among her most popular
courses. Examples of her awards include three-time winner of
the Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching
at UC Berkeley as well as the Greater Seattle Businessperson of the Year.
Maura has a Ph.D from the University of Washington where her
research focused on narrow-mindedness and the errors it leads to in science,
medicine, business and political decision-making. Maura also has M.B.As from UC
Berkeley and Columbia University. She also is the founding Vice Chair of the
Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, the public charter school featured
in the award-winning film, STEP. More information: www.mauraoneill.com
Scott Robertson has been
a Lecturer at the Haas School of Business since 2015. He is a full-time
professional, and he currently holds the role of Chief Financial Officer
at DiCE Molecules, a small molecule
discovery platform company focused on human therapeutics. Prior to
joining DiCE, Scott was at DuPont where he was
Business Development Director for DuPont Pioneer with responsibility for the
business unit’s crop genetics and precision agriculture M&A activity. He
also held the position of Portfolio Manager with DuPont Ventures where he
focused on strategic investment opportunities in production agriculture and the
intersection of agriculture and downstream renewables technologies. From 2006
to 2010, Scott was a venture capital investor at MPM Capital, a life
sciences-dedicated venture capital fund. Prior to joining MPM Capital, Scott
was a member of the Healthcare Investment Banking groups at Merrill Lynch &
Co. and Thomas Weisel Partners. He received
a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of
Southern California and an MBA from the Haas School of Business, UC Berke