Venture Capital Initiative - Courses - Related Courses

Faculty

Course Description

In this course, we will discuss and learn about the art and science of “creating something new from little.” The course’s orientation will challenge you to think about creating, financing, and building a productive business organization with commonly available resources (e.g., intelligence, insight, energy, initiative, and personal relationships). This orientation is useful wherever new business creation may occur, namely through the actions of an independent entrepreneur or in a large, established firm. Entrepreneurship is not about “small business” or starting a new business. Instead, it addresses the process of new value creation by exercising imagination, creativity, action, trial and error, learning, and execution.

Entrepreneurial thinking is also about developing a particular attitude and state of mind, an artful, insightful, and innovative mentality rather than just “business administration.” It is a way of perceiving and creating opportunity wherever it may be needed. In a world undergoing continuous change, the ability to think “like an entrepreneur” has become a core skill of the “managerial mind,” and entrepreneurial management is the quintessence of “good management practice.”

Faculty

Course Description

Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) is a growing career path for MBA graduates and experienced individuals looking to become the CEO of their own company by purchasing an existing business using third-party capital. This course provides students with an introduction to the process of searching for a company, valuing a small business, structuring a deal, negotiating with a seller, completing due diligence, obtaining debt and equity financing, and closing the transaction to become the CEO of their own business. We will review the differences between a funded and a self-funded search, practice how to assess positive characteristics and risks of a company and learn how to utilize various forms of financing to purchase a small business. Through case and other readings, classroom discussions, and conversations with guest speakers who are current or former searchers, or are professionals engaged in the industry, students will explore the many aspects of searching for and acquiring a company. The final project will allow students to prepare a presentation for investors outlining the elements necessary to purchase of a business.

Course Objectives

• Articulate what a search fund is and the entrepreneurship through acquisition model.
• Describe the differences between a funded search and a self-funded search.
• Explain the steps in the process for acquiring a small private business.
• Understand the importance of developing an investment thesis and search criteria used to evaluate target opportunities and communicate with investors and brokers.
• Appreciate what makes an attractive acquisition opportunity and what does not.
• Comprehend the importance of conducting due diligence and identifying risk.
• Gain insight into deal structuring
• Learn about valuing a small private business and how to develop an acquisition model.
• Explore how to structure the purchase of a small business using SBA debt, bank debt, seller debt, preferred equity, common equity, and rollover equity.
• Develop a presentation for potential equity investors to be used to raise capital for an acquisition.

Faculty

Ian Appel, Associate Professor of Business Administration

Course Description

This course examines how emerging technologies and business models are transforming the financial system. We explore innovation across core sectors—payments, lending, insurance, and investing—with a focus on technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, and blockchain. We analyze how both startups and established firms are deploying these tools across global markets. The course emphasizes economic intuition and strategic context, helping students understand not just how FinTech works, but why it matters. It is interdisciplinary, drawing on insights from finance, economics, strategy, law, and public policy. Special attention is given to the broader social implications of FinTech, including its impact on financial inclusion and consumer welfare.

Course Objectives

Upon completing this course, students will be able to:

• Assess the disruptive potential of FinTech companies.
• Explain how emerging technologies and business models reduce traditional financial frictions, and how they may create new ones.
• Analyze how economic forces, consumer behavior, technological change, and regulation shape the success of FinTech firms.
• Evaluate the social and welfare implications of FinTech innovations.

Faculty

George (Yiorgos) Allayannis, Professor of Practice

Course Description

This course examines Mergers and Acquisitions from multiple perspectives: strategic, tactical, financial, tax, legal, corporate governance, etc., thus providing a full picture of the complexity arising during an M&A transaction. The course discusses how to structure a deal and why: how to parse risks among buyer and seller, deal with potential anti-trust issues, and account for strategic and governance forces which may add to the probability of success in an M&A deal. Besides case studies and practitioner-expert presentations the course asks students to research a failed deal and provide learnings in the classroom. The course is important for students interested in Investment Banking, Private Equity, Hedge Funds, Consulting, Corporate Finance as well as General Management. M&A is a fundamental way to grow a business and inevitably business leaders will encounter M&A in their professional lives.

Course Objectives

• Understand the complexity of an M&A transaction and the various aspects impacting the success -strategic, legal, financial, etc.
• Understand the various risks arising in a deal and how to use tools to distribute them among buyer and seller

Faculty

Allison Shimamoto, Lecturer in Business Administration

Read about Allison's Founder Story

Course Description

The primary objective of the course is to allow students to walk a few steps in the shoes of an entrepreneur while learning how expert entrepreneurs build new ventures that endure. Cases, guest lecturers, and students’ project work will allow them to explore financial, legal, interpersonal, and personal challenges likely to be encountered by the independent entrepreneur. This course draws from cognitive science-based research on how expert entrepreneurs think, decide, and act while starting new ventures. Key issues addressed will include risk perception and management, formulation of innovative stakeholder relationships, and the creation of new markets through new ventures. As part of the course, students will be required to come up with a venture idea and take the initial steps in actually starting it. The course is recommended for those interested in initiating a personal venture at some point in their lives working with or consulting for an early stage entrepreneurial team or seeking entry into Darden’s Progressive Incubator™.

Course Objectives

• Contrast conventional wisdom with how expert entrepreneurs actually do it
• Show how to build innovative and effective partnerships
• Help students grasp the subtleties of ownership and control
• Increase the probability of success and reduce the costs of failure
• Comprehend the personal realities of becoming and being an entrepreneur
• Acquire basic tools for successful entrepreneurship that include incorporation, putting together a board, creating a new brand, and elements of business plans