BAEP 599 - Special Topics

The professor is so nice and he really likes this class. The professor comes from a neuroscience background and the class is learning about how the brain works so that we can form strategies for how to manage our emotions when we're stressed. Very little classwork. The main project is about setting personal/career goals for a month. The only thing to note is that in a 3 hour seminar/lecture you cannot use laptops at all, he will stop until you close it.

Great class -- Glenn is great. Not very difficult but still learned a lot. Heavy focus on mindset, which is important for everyone regardless of career path.

If you are interested in venture capital or entrepreneurship, then I would recommend this class. The main project involves doing due diligence for an early-stage company that the USC Marshall Venture Fund may invest in. There are exciting guest speakers in most lectures, and Michael Rivera is laid back and very knowledgeable. I would recommend trying to meet with the founder you are doing due diligence on every week to not be overwhelmed as the due date approaches.

This class is all about binging speakers in, very good ones. You get a chance to meet them and an opportunity to be able to create a relationship with them. Also, the experience of working with a foudner and analyzing his/her venture is priceless. This class is a must if you want to be in VC or an entrepreneur.

The classes' whole shtick is that most BAEP classes focus on the starutp side while this is one of the few that focus on the VC's perspective. Professor is very knowledgable in the space and brings in amazing guest speakers. You essentially evaluate one startup across the semester and do due diligence during it. Very cool class.

This class is focused on learning how to analyze a startup and eventually make a recommendation to the Marshall Venture Fund on whether or not to invest in the company your team is working with. Professor Rivera is very hands-off and lets the teams essentially work at their own pace. The class is very unstructured, so be prepared to potentially have big deadlines come up fairly quickly because teams may procrastinate on either working with their company or working on the due diligence until much later in the semester, close to when the large investment paper is due. Additionally, Professor Rivera brings in some great guest speakers from the VC industry, those class sessions tend to be good. Overall, if you're interested in a career in VC or just want to learn about VC in general, I would recommend this class.

Cool guest speakers, definitely a fluffy class but the two professors who taught last spring are great

Hands on experience conducting due diligence on startups that the venture fund is considering investing in. This is the real deal. 2-3 startups per semester are chosen and presented to the investment committee consisting of some of the most experience venture capitalists in LA and the Bay. Guest speakers are top-tier. This class offers the most practical application at Marshall.

Michael is incredibly thoughtful about the class speakers he brings in, who represent all stages of VC financing. He takes a lot of care in curating founders and startups for students to work with and run due diligence for and provides real-life experience in deciding whether Marshall should invest. Michael also just cares a lot about his students learning and clearly just wants the experience to be valuable, and it 100% is! Highly recommend if you have any interest in VC, no background or experience required!

Learned VC relevant tools thanks to hands-on due dilligence. The class has guest speakers almost every week, but they are not always relevant - I wish they were more senior sometimes. Perhaps in person these connections are more relevant.

Learned VC relevant stuff from guest speakers and hands-on due dilligence. Pherhaps due to the pandemic, comversations with founders are not smooth and team work is hindered.

the most hands-on course i've taken at Marshall. students conduct diligence on a company and produce an investment memo at the end of the course. michael is very knowledgeable and has lots of connections

Great practical learning working with USC-founded Startups. Workload is relatively light; weekly blog post and a final due diligence memo. Class is mostly comprised of great guest speakers from the VC space.

You get to assess and conduct due diligence on a real startup in LA, and propose whether the investment committee can make an investment. Great speakers.

Cool guest speakers, definitely a fluffy class but the two professors who taught last spring are great

Great guest speakers every class but too generalized of lecture content by professor

The professor, material, and work all unfortunately felt a waste. Sherry is a very bright industry representative, but success as an entertainment entrepreneur does not easily translate into a worthwhile class. Speakers were mixed and the structure made little sense based on the "learnings."

The professor had really interesting contacts in the industry; however, the class was run extremely poorly. She was forced to cut off several excellent speakers due to poor time management during the first half of the course. Feedback received on assignments was hit and miss as well. Although this was an "entrepreneurship" class, she provided very little actionable insights other than "network." Most of the lecture sections were from powerpoint.