This course will provide an in-depth view of the financing process from start-up toexit, including valuation methods and the elements of deal making. It should sensitise participants to the various financing issues which must be addressed when starting or buying a business, from the points of view of both investor and entrepreneur.

The course will be centred around case discussions, with short assignments to bewritten on multiple cases, some graded, some not. We will make use of outside speakers, onvideo, who have been involved in both financing and managing entrepreneurial businesses.

After having taken this course, studentswill be equipped to

· Determine a suitable valuationand deal structure for an investment into a private company, from either sideof the deal table

· Determine the degree to whichan entrepreneurial opportunity is attractive (or not), and identify the keyrisks therein

· Analyse a company’s P&L andbalance sheet to assess the company’s profitability and working capital performance,determine where its cash is being sourced and used, determine its cashrequirements going forward, and uncover any hidden cash that can be released tofund growth

· Employ ‘hustle’ as the basisfor competitive advantage in highly competitive industries

· Negotiate shareholders’ agreementswith venture capital or private equity investors from either side of the dealtable

· Develop strategies forfinancing and growing a startup with its customers’ cash

· Identify industry bottlenecksthat are ripe to be broken and capitalize on them

· Determine suitable paths forharvesting value via trade sales or public offerings

Attendance is 100% as it is a blocked course

It is difficult to find a book that can teach one about financing and valuing unquoted companies and structuring financial deals because (a) the subject can involve so many variations on any theme and (b) there are often no clear answers to the main issues. Thus the best way to deal with such ambiguity is to become involved in lots of deals, learning from each and building up one’s experience in approaching the issues involved.

For this reason, this course is designed to expose you to as many deals as possible, requiring you to analyse each situation, identify the truly key issues, and hopefully become more proficient at thinking through the possibilities and pitfalls of alternative approaches to various financing and their related managerial issues. For the first session, two different cases will be discussed, and it is important that you prepare both cases and participate in the discussion of each case, as those discussions will form the intellectual and methodological foundation for the balance of the course.

This is not a course where you can learn by simply skimming the case before class and then picking up a few useful points from the class discussion. You will only learn from struggling with the valuation and financing issues beforehand, reaching your own initial conclusions, and then building on that experience in the class discussion. I strongly encourage you to do so in a small and diversely formed team of two or three students, ideally including someone who is good at ‘running the numbers’in Excel, and someone else who thinks laterally and creatively. You will find that there are few ‘right answers’ in this course, though there are, of course, better (and better supported) and worse ones.

The three technical notes assigned for the first sessionshould be read carefully prior to the start of the course. It will be assumed that participants have, prior to the first class session, obtained at least a basic understanding ofthe financing instruments and valuation techniques covered in the notes. It is highly unlikely that Assignment 1, due prior to the start of the course, can be capably completed without a basic understanding thereof.

The learning style will be highly interactive, drawing on the participants’ knowledge and experience as well as that of the instructor. Prepare each case thoroughly, and be prepared to initiate class discussion and to defend your conclusions. I shall expect every participant to participate meaningfully in each session’s discussion and I shall grade each student’s contribution toothers’ learning after each and every session.

Assessment will be based on three criteria as follows:

· Assignment 1 (30%): ProMed or Ntellu case analysis. To be prepared in self-selected groups of two or three (not one, not four ormore). Choose either of Session 1’s cases and from a prospective investor’s (orbuyer’s, for ProMed) point of view, determine the price you would be willing to pay, if you are to invest. Write a briefpaper (two pages maximum) supporting your rationale for the valuation you have chosen, and provide appropriate financial appendices, in addition to the twopages of text, showing your analyses.

· Class contribution to the learning of others (40%): To be graded by the instructor following every session.

· Assignment 2 (30%): Case analysis, case TBD. To be prepared in self-selected groups of two or three (not one or four). Details to be provided.

John Mullins is an Associate Professor of Management Practice at the London Business School. He earned his MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. An award-winning teacher and scholar and one of the world’s foremost thought leaders in entrepreneurship, John brings to his teaching and research 20 years of executive experience in high-growth retailing firms, including two ventures he founded and one he took public.

Since becoming an entrepreneurship professor in 1992, John has published five books, dozens of cases and more than 50 articles in a variety of outlets, including Harvard Business Review, the MIT Sloan Management Review, and The Wall Street Journal. His research has won national and international awards from the Marketing Science Institute, the American Marketing Association, and the Richard D. Irwin Foundation. He is a frequent and sought-after speaker and educator for audiences in entrepreneurship and venture capital.

John’s first trade book, The New Business Road Test: What Entrepreneurs and Executives Should Do Before Launching a Lean Start-Up (1e 2003; now 4e, London: Prentice-Hall/FT 2013), has become the definitive work on the assessment and shaping of entrepreneurial opportunities and is widely used by investors and entrepreneurs and in university courses worldwide.

His second book, the critically acclaimed Getting to Plan B: Breaking Through to a Better Business Model (Boston: Harvard Business Press 2009), co-authored with Randy Komisar, a partner at the esteemed venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, was named to “Best Books of 2009” lists by BusinessWeek and INC Magazine.

John’s newest book, The Customer-Funded Business: Start, Finance or Grow Your Company with Your Customers’ Cash, was named one of five “not-to-be-missed books” for 2014 by Fortune magazine. It challenges the commonly held assumption that among an entrepreneur’s first and most important tasks is that of raising investment capital. Its material provides the foundation for his widely-viewed MOOC on Coursera.org, How to Finance and Grow Your Startup – Without VC.

John has done executive education on five continents for a variety of organizations both large and small, including the Young Presidents’ Organization, Endeavor, the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, Kenya Airways, Merck-Serono, 3M, the European and African Venture Capital Associations, and the IFC, among many others. He has served on the boards of fast-growing entrepreneurial companies in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia.