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the Cambridge MBA 2012 New Venture Finance Randy Haykin Overview New Venture Finance prepares students for a better understanding of how to finance and fund a start-up or high-growth business. The course is focused on students who expect to be a manager or CEO of a start-up in the not-too-distant future, and want to fully understand the issues, challenges and tools for managing a company through strategic planning, financial analysis, business model creation, funding alternatives, raising money and alternative financing and exit strategies in such a start-up. While the course will be valuable for the student who wants to pursue a career in private equity or venture capital, the course is principally aimed at the entrepreneurially-minded. The focus of the class is primarily strategic. This is not a numbers intensive course, but rather a course that will teach a future entrepreneurial leader how to think through the issues and act accordingly. The class is more about the decision making process than numerical analysis. In New Venture Finance we will examine the various options that a company has for financing at all stages of its life-cycle – from seed-stage to later-stage and will explore the various sources of funding, including boot-strapping, friends/family, angel and venture capital. The course will arm students with a process for evaluating future company situations and a set of tools for evaluating and setting a plan of action to fund a company. Modes of Learning The class will blend a mixture of cases, readings and online video. Classes will consist of interactive case study discussion class participation and lecture. If technically feasible, we will try to have 1-2 visiting speakers via Skype. Computers and Cell Phones in the Classroom My policy is no cell phones on or open/connected computers in the classroom, except when we need someone to locate a fact on the Internet for class purposes. I find it is too “alluring” for many students to check email, blog