Admission requirements
Students must be familiar with NPV, IRR, Ke and WACC.
Description
This is an advanced training activity for scientists and technologists seriously considering the launch of a technology-based business venture. The course discusses (a) how to determine the amount of funding needed to start the venture; (b) valuation of the business opportunity; and (c) negotiation of financial terms with venture capitalists and others investing on innovative technologies.
Course objectives
Knowledge of how to . . .
Estimate the amount of funding required by a technology-based business venture
Calculate the economic value of the venture opportunity
Prototype long-term cashflows for high technology startups
Negotiate terms of investment with venture capitalists and private equity funds
Price a technology patent and negotiate its price with a potential acquirer
Proficiently use simulation software to gauge the risks associated with a tech venture
Topics
Estimation of first-round funding needs for an innovative biomedical device
Calculation of economic value and risk analysis for a new electronic tablet
Prototyping cashflows for a B2B software startup and negotiation with an angel investor from the entrepreneur’s perspective
Valuation of a biotech startup and price negotiation from the venture capitalist’s perspective
Valuation of a pharmaceutical patent and negotiating its sale to a large company, involving complex optimization and simulation techniques
Timetable
You will find the timetables for all courses and degree programmes of Leiden University in the tool MyTimetable (login). Any teaching activities that you have sucessfully registered for in MyStudyMap will automatically be displayed in MyTimeTable. Any timetables that you add manually, will be saved and automatically displayed the next time you sign in.
MyTimetable allows you to integrate your timetable with your calendar apps such as Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and other calendar apps on your smartphone. Any timetable changes will be automatically synced with your calendar. If you wish, you can also receive an email notification of the change. You can turn notifications on in ‘Settings’ (after login).
For more information, watch the video or go the the 'help-page' in MyTimetable. Please note: Joint Degree students Leiden/Delft have to merge their two different timetables into one. This video explains how to do this.
Mode of instruction
The course has been designed as a workshop—fully case-based and highly practical: there are no theory lectures. All sessions will be devoted to solving case studies. Students will be able to download course materials (cases and accompanying Excel spreadsheets) from the course website.
The classroom is a shop-floor and the course is work-intensive: students are expected to bring their laptops to each class and solve the spreadsheet models during the sessions. Students without laptops, and those not observed to work on the spreadsheets, will be considered absent from class by the instructor. Students can also download the PDF templates the instructor will use while solving the cases.
For the first session, students should already have the Crystal Ball (CB) simulation software in their laptops. Download your CB Student Trial Version, Classroom Edition, from Oracle’s website (http://www.oracle.com). The specific link to CB is volatile, so do your own search. It is wise to use your university e-mail address to perform the download. Depending on your operating system, you may need to download either the 32- or 64-bit version. CB does not work with Mac. If you have a Mac, team up with someone that works with MS Windows.
Warning: The CB trial version will work only for two weeks, so do not download it until the course is about to start.
Students must assemble in teams (3-5 per team) and try to solve all cases in advance (except the first one).
Write-ups for each case (except the first one) are mandatory. All case solutions must be team-based. Students should send their team-based solutions as Excel spreadsheets to the instructor within 24 hours of the moment the class discussion of the incumbent case ends.**
Assessment method
20%: Class participation: “show up, follow the instructor’s explanations, ask interesting questions, construct spreadsheets during class”;
50%: Team solutions to Cases #2 (Kindle Fire), 3 (Tensile Technologies) and #4 (FIDE Capital); solutions must be delivered (in Excel format) during the day following the session in which the case is discussed. Please send your solutions to: lpereiro@utdt.edu, specifying in the body of your e-mail the names of the team participants.
30%: Final Exam. Team solution to Case #5 (Bioceleris-Takeda). Please send your team solution to: lpereiro@utdt.edu as an Excel spreadsheet during the day following the session in which the case is discussed.
Reading list
Some supplementary (optional) readings (no need to buy them):
Pereiro, L.E., 2002, Ch.7: Valuation of Technology Companies; in: Valuation of Companies in Emerging Markets: A Practical Approach, New York: Wiley.
Berkery, D., 2007, Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur, New York:McGraw-Hill.
Registration
Every student has to register for courses with the new enrollment tool MyStudyMap. Please see this page for more information.
Please note that it is compulsory to both preregister and confirm your participation for every exam and retake. Not being registered for a course means that you are not allowed to participate in the final exam of the course. Confirming your exam participation is possible until ten days before the exam.
Extensive FAQ's on MyStudymap can be found here.
Contact
For all your questions you can contact info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl
Note: If you are an ICTiBPS student, you can contact the programme coordinator of ICTiBPS for any questions about your program.
Remarks
There is only limited capacity for external students. Please contact the programme Co-ordinator
Students are responsible for enrolling/unenrolling themselves for (partial) exams/retakes.
Students who do not enroll themselves for an exam/retake by the deadline are not allowed to take the exam/retake.
Students fail the course if any of the partial components (except the exam) that make up the final mark of the course is assessed below 4.0.
Students fail the course if the grade for the (final) exam is assessed below 5.0.
The final grade is expressed as a whole or half number between 1.0 and 10.0, including both limits. The result is not to be expressed as a number between 5.0 and 6.0.
If one of the components of the final mark constitutes a component that assesses attendance or class participation, students cannot take a retake for this component. Therefore, students fail the course if their mark for this component is less than 4.0.
Partial grades, inclusive the exam grade will not be rounded. If partial grades will be communicated, it is possible partial grades are rounded, but unrounded partial grades will be used in the calculation of the final grade. The final grade will be rounded at 0.5 (5.49 will rounded down to a 5 and a 5.5 will be rounded up to a 6.0).
Students pass the course if the final grade is 6.0 or higher (5.49 will rounded down to a 5 and a 5.5 will be rounded up to a 6.0).
It is not possible to do retakes for group assignments. Therefore, if students fail the group assignment component, they fail the course.
For courses, for which class participation is an assessment component, students may not be penalised for an absence if the student has a legitimate justification for this absence. The student must notify the program coordinator via email (info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl) of such an absence BEFORE the lecture, describing the reason for missing the lecture. If the student does not notify the program coordinator before the lecture, the student will be penalised. Students may be required to provide further documentation to substantiate their case, and class attendance requirements are only waived under exceptional circumstances such as illness.
Students who are entitled to more exam/retake time must report to info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl 10 days before the exam/retake takes place.