BSHE: Fundraising, Go to Market and Hyper Growth for Startups

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Fundraising, Go to Market and Hyper Growth for Startups

  • Course name: Fundraising, Go to Market and Hyper Growth for Startups
  • Code discipline:
  • Subject area: Technical Entrepreneurship

Short Description

This course explores the foundations of Venture Capital and business scaling methods. The course provides the information and develops knowledge, skills and abilities to attract investors, to create compelling fundraising pitch deck presentations, to close deals to raise angel, VC or crowdfunding capital, and maintaining relationships with venture capital and other investors. Moreover, the course takes founders and startupers through the next phase which is growing and scaling your venture in a new market, geography, customer segment or with a new product. With this knowledge and practical skills, you’ll be ready to land and launch successfully with the help of investor funds.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite subjects

  • None.

Prerequisite topics

  • Existing startup, startup idea or desire to quickly develop one during the course.
  • Interest and some basic knowledge on what is a startup and some successful startups and their stories of fundraising (Dropbox, Airbnb, Uber, Facebook, Pebble SmartWatch).
  • Basic math and accounting/finances skills to calculate cap table, dilution, company valuation and so on.
  • Soft and hard skills of a startup founder.
  • Presentation (oral and written) skills (English).
  • Knowledge of Google Slides or MS PowerPoint and Sheets or Excel.
  • Basic understanding and/or awareness of marketing, copywriting, and business development.

Course Topics

Course Sections and Topics
Section Topics within the section
Startup life cycle and types of investors
  1. Basic concepts, rounds and types of investors.
  2. Metrics for startups.
  3. Role venture capital in business and economic development.
Venture capital: types of transactions and fundraising
  1. Why does a startup need venture capital?
  2. Searching and attracting investors.
  3. Relationship maintenance and preparation for subsequent rounds.
  4. Criteria of a successful startup for investment purposes.
  5. 9 key metrics for tech/IT startup.
Company valuation and financial planning
  1. Company valuation (template provided).
  2. Estimating the size of the company's market and its growth potential.
  3. Creation of a cap table for seed -> series A stages (template provided).
Fundraising practice
  1. Investment presentation, feedback, interaction.
  2. Coaching.
  3. Where to find investors, how to approach them and maintain relationships.
  4. Formulating an investment request.
  5. Legal support and conditions (term sheet).
  6. Negotiation practice, strategy and case-based negotiation game among students.
Go to Market
  1. Picking the right market and understanding product & market fit.
  2. Pivots in customer segments, pricing, and business models.
  3. Landing and launching.
  4. Speeding up with joint ventures, licensing, distribution and partnerships.
Growth
  1. Organic vs non-organic.
  2. Finding new channels.
  3. Growth hacking.
  4. Freemium, viral.
  5. B2B, B2C.
  6. Subscriptions.
  7. Copywriting.
  8. Marketing and business development.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

What is the main purpose of this course?

The main objective of the course is to develop an understanding of how start-ups or start-ups are financed, what types of investments are available, and what the startup financing process entails. And also: develop practical skills in managing the financing process from the point of view of both an entrepreneur and an investor. Then, additional purposes of the course is to provide guidance in launching in a new market (go to market) and growing the startup with newly raised funds.

ILOs defined at three levels

Level 1: What concepts should a student know/remember/explain?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...

  • Know the difference between convertible note, SAFE, and series A/B/C.
  • Explain where to form a legal entity correctly so as not to scare Western investors.
  • Describe when a lawyer is needed.
  • Elaborate purpose, benefits and harms of a non-disclosure agreement.
  • Elaborate key metrics and indicators for various types of projects.

Level 2: What basic practical skills should a student be able to perform?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...

  • The difference between types of investors.
  • How and why different types of investors work.
  • The structure of a good project presentation (startup pitch).
  • How and why to develop an effective story about a project in an elevator (elevator pitch).
  • What metrics and data are important to investors.

Level 3: What complex comprehensive skills should a student be able to apply in real-life scenarios?

By the end of the course, the students should be able to ...

  • Create a presentation of the project.
  • Create, establish and maintain efficient relationships with favorable investors.
  • Understand VC terminology.
  • Find and attract angel and VC investors for their ventures (startup projects).
  • Negotiate fundraising deals.
  • Create and leverage the right startup metrics.
  • Listen to feedback and incorporate it into refining your presentation, product, and startup management.
  • Work with investors and collaborate with them.

Grading

Course grading range

Grade Range Description of performance
A. Excellent 85-100 Pass
B. Good 80-84 Pass
C. Satisfactory 51-79 Fail
D. Fail 0-59 Fail

Course activities and grading breakdown

Activity Type Percentage of the overall course grade
Class participation 1010
Fundraising deal negotiation exercise 2020
Paper #1: Formulate and justify an investment request; create a welcome letter to an investor 55
Paper #2: Go to market and a growth plan paper 55
Paper #3 and final exam: Public presentation of the fundraising pitch deck 6060
SUM= 100

Recommendations for students on how to succeed in the course

It is highly recommended that you treat the course writing as a tool to help you make decisions about growing your business.
The purpose of studying the discipline is the practice of interacting with potential investors, the classes welcome a proactive approach to creating and maintaining relationships with university partners, requesting contacts and meetings with representatives of venture funds.
Participation is important. Showing up is the key to success in this course.
You will work in teams, so coordinating teamwork will be an important factor for success.

Resources, literature and reference materials

Open access resources

  • From Zero to One by Peter Thiel:
  • The San Francisco Fallacy summary:
  • The Lean Startup summary: and talk:
  • The Great CEO Within on KPIs and Fundraising: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnwl-dwqx5xl0s65DE3wO8/edit
  • Any related YC Startup School videos:
  • The fundamental problem with Silicon Valley’s favorite growth strategy
  • “Venture capital money kills more businesses than it helps,” says Basecamp CEO Jason Fried

Closed access resources

  • The San Francisco Fallacy: The Ten Fallacies That Make Founders Fail — Jonathan Siegel 2017
  • Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It – Scott Kupor, Eric Ries, 2019
  • The business of venture capital: insights from leading practitioners on the art of raising a fund, deal structuring, value creation, and exit strategies. – Ramsinghani M. , John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
  • Venture deals: Be smarter than your lawyer and venture capitalist. – Feld B., Mendelson J. , John Wiley & Sons, 2019.
  • The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses - Eric Ries 2011
  • The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers - Ben Horowitz, 2014
  • The four steps to Epiphany. – Blank Steven G. , 2006 or The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company by Steve Blank Wiley 2020

Software and tools used within the course

  • Google Sheets or MS Excel or similar.
  • Google Docs or MS Word or similar.

Teaching Methodology: Methods, techniques, & activities

Activities and Teaching Methods

Teaching and Learning Methods within each section
Teaching Techniques Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 Section 6
Problem-based learning (students learn by solving open-ended problems without a strictly-defined solution). 1 1 1 1 1 1
Project-based learning (students work on a project). 1 1 1 1 1 1
Differentiated learning (provide tasks and activities at several levels of difficulty to fit students needs and level). 1 1 1 1 1 1
Inquiry-based learning. 1 1 1 1 1 1
Activities within each section
Learning Activities Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 Section 6
Lectures. 1 1 1 1 0 0
Interactive Lectures. 1 1 1 1 0 0
Lab exercises. 1 1 1 1 0 0
Development of individual parts of software product code. 1 1 1 1 0 0
Group projects. 1 1 1 1 0 0
Peer Review. 1 1 1 1 0 0
Discussions. 1 1 1 1 0 0
Presentations by students. 1 1 1 1 0 0
Written reports. 0 1 1 1 0 0
Experiments. 0 0 1 1 0 0

Formative Assessment and Course Activities

Ongoing performance assessment

Section 1

Activity Type Content Is Graded?
Quiz 1. Why do you need to know the value of a company?.
2. What type of investor might be interested in a company in your stage of development?.
3. Venture rounds, their relationship with the stage of development of the company.
4. Types of venture investors and their features of acceptance decisions.
5. Investment cycle: stages, process, preparation, documents.		 1
Individual Assignments Make a portrait and database of relevant venture investors for your company.

 1

Section 2

Activity Type Content Is Graded?
Quiz 1. How to convey financial information about your company to stakeholders and investors?
2. How to convey financial indicators to the investor and justify the required amount of capital for growth?
3. How to calculate financial indicators based on reporting and assess the financial health of the company?
4. What could be the future consequences of overvaluing or undervaluing your startup?
 1
Individual Assignments Formulate an investment request for your company (or justify the lack of need for venture funds).


 1

Section 3

Activity Type Content Is Graded?
Quiz 1. How much capital should your company raise based on growth prospects?
2. Which financial ratios of the company should be improved and how?
3. How much capital should your company raise based on growth prospects?
4. What is a balance sheet and what operations are shown in this financial report?
5. What is an income statement and what transactions are shown in this financial statement? How does it relate to the balance sheet?
6. What is a cash flow statement and why is it needed?
7. How do investments, debt, sales, cash outflows affect the financial statement?		 1
Presentation 1. Assess the market potential of your project.
2. Formulate and justify an investment request.		 1

Section 4

Activity Type Content Is Graded?
Quiz 1. How do you determine if certain investor conditions are unfair?
2. What might be the typical future consequences of specific conditions and undervaluation or overvaluation of your company?
3. Strategies for Negotiating Better Deals and Maintaining Control of the Company.
4. How does subsequent investment dilute your ownership?
 1
Individual Assignments 1. Develop a strategy for negotiating with the investor about your project.
2. Write a welcome letter to the investor.
3. Prepare an investment presentation and present it publicly.		 1
Group Project Work 1. Build an investor negotiation strategy.
2. Justify the investment potential of your business.
3. Prepare a financial plan for the development of your company for distribution to investors.		 1

Section 5

Section 6

Final assessment

Section 1

  1. 1. Does the pitch deck cover all the needed main content in an eloquent manner?
  2. 2. Are the goals for funding clearly described?

Section 2

  1. 3. What is the problem they try to solve?
  2. 4. What is the team of this venture?
  3. 5. What is the traction for your venture?
  4. 6. What are the key metrics for this venture?
  5. 7. What are the competitors of this venture?
  6. 8. Main metrics and indicators for various types of projects.
  7. 9. Market Growth and Potential Studies.
  8. 10. Calculating the Total Available Market.

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6


The retake exam

Section 1

  1. The retake exam is the same - pitch deck presentation. For absence from the lectures or lack of activity during the lectures, 10-20 points will be subtracted from the score to achieve the grade.

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

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