FBE 527 - Entrepreneurial Finance: Financial Management for Developing Firms

Arthur makes finance easy to digest and comes to class excited for us to learn. The class is about 60% venture capital fundamentals and then 40% acquisition and exiting. Great for aspiring founders and venture capitalists.

Great class for anyone who will be at all involved with startup financing. Lectures can get a bit specific but Korteweg does a good job of walking you through the math and they do feel relevant and practical.

There is one major group project where you have to come up with a new company idea and create a VC pitch. The cases get progressively difficult and are very math heavy, so someone without interest in valuation or finance may find the course very difficult. Who is this class for? Anyone who wants to start a new company where they intend to raise money through VC funding, angel investment or any other way which may require creation of a term sheet or contracts. This course will help you understand what the boilerplate language in term sheets actually means and what to look out for. Students interested in joining a VC firm will also find this course very helpful. Final Thoughts: While cases are tough, you only need to do 5 out of 10 cases, so the workload is not as high as it may seem from the syllabus.

It's a meaty course, but the workload isn't crazy crazy. You have cases, but you only have to answer questions on those 50% of those cases, and which homeworks you decide to do are up to you. There's a massive group project basically creating a business plan and a funding pitch for investors that's coming up at the end of the semester, as well as a final exam, which feel like they'll be pretty difficult. Who is this class for? Someone who loves finance, wants to think about VC financing, or is generally interested in the nitty gritty.

Who is this class for? If you interested in learning how to negotiate with VC to value your on company Final Thoughts: Great Professor! Love him super kind and engaging.

Professor Bristow teaching style is what really brings this class and material to life. He is like a funny grandpa that brings humor to every lecture. The material can be a little dry but he does his best to make it entertaining and understandable.

Prof. Bristow has a dry sense of humor which makes the class fun

Arthur is great. This class is great for entrepreneurs because it is taught from the founder perspective (instead of the VC perspective). NOT heavy in quant even though it is a finance class

Arthur is one of the best professors I've had - he can be tough but he's always fair. He explains financial fundamentals in a very learnable way. There are a couple of individual problem sets to turn in along with group case questions - he's a pretty generous grader on these. The final group project is a pitch deck. He also brings in great speakers and does a really fun term sheet negotiation exercise with actual VC lawyers to help. [useful field] Not insnanely relevant for PMs going into big tech, but very practical information about the VC world and raising funds. Could be especially pertinent if you plan to work for a startup.

Great for founders. Kortweg teaches financing a startup from the viewpoint of the founder, not bankers or VC.

The class itself (lectures) are not that enjoyable but I do think you get some important takeaways if you are interested in entrepreneurship

This class makes you knowledgeable about current events and financial and managerial decisions in entrepreneurship (it definitely goes beyond just learning about raising money). I think some of the content is a little dense and perhaps more theoretical than practical, but I just pick and choose the parts that are helpful for me. There are a good number of assignments and two big exams, but Bristow is extremely chill and grades mostly for completion (and exams are open book and internet). Worth taking for a budding entrepreneur, maybe not so much for others.

Really targeted at entrepreneurial-focused students who want to gain better understanding of financing for a startup. Bristow is a character, worthwhile for his charm.

Story time with a wise old man who has plenty of anecdotes to drive his teaching points home

Professor is awesome! Great class, interesting cases, and solid speakers. Prof. Korteweg has a relevant teaching and professional experience that add a lot of value to the course.

Awesome professor, really great insights and manageable workload

This is a great class. At times feels like your learning an entirely new subject which has been really fun compared to other classes that are classic marketing, finance or accounting

This guy is great. SUPER well prepared, very organized lectures. One of the best classes I've taken at Marshall by far. If you're interested in how money moves through VC's/startups/PE, etc, this class is for you. 5 of 5 stars.

I've taken Founders Dilemma and Investing in New Ventures, and there is definitely some overlap, but I'm learning new things. I actually wish the project part of this class was more emphasized throughout. I took the class the get some actual practice doing stuff, but feel like it's a bit of an afterthought