Roy E. Crummer Graduate School of Business
Rollins College
Course Syllabus
Spring 2012
ENT 602 - Entrepreneurial Finance
Professor William A. Grimm
Room 310 Crummer
Rollins phone: 407-628-6345
E-mail: wgrimm@rollins.edu
Office hours: by appointment (generally available)
Course Prerequisite: FIN 501 – Financial Management
Texts:
(1) The Entrepreneurial Venture: Readings Selected, William A. Sahlman, et al.
nd
(2 Edition), Harvard Business School Press, 1999 (ISBN 0-87584-892-3)
(2) Entrepreneurial Finance: A Casebook, Paul A. Gompers and William A. Sahlman, John Wiley
& Sons, Inc., 2002 (ISBN 0-471-08066-7)
Course Objectives: The objective of this course is to provide the student with an understanding of
entrepreneurial finance so that the student will be able to:

Understand the process of financing

Determine valuation of the enterprise from different viewpoints

Understand the importance of a business plan in financing a business

Design and negotiate “deals”

Understand the stages of financing from the initial start-up to a growing, profitable
company

Understand the sources of new venture finance ranging from friends and family to angel
investors to venture capital firms to strategic partners

Understand the exits for investors including an acquisition of the company or an initial
public offering
This course will tie real life successes and failures to the topics covered by the texts through the
experiences of Professor Grimm, guest speakers and case studies.
Reading Assignments: Assignments include readings and cases in the Gompers casebook and
selected articles in the Sahlman textbook. All students are expected to read the assigned cases prior to
the date assigned for each case.
Conduct of Class: Classes will be a combination of team presentations of cases, interviews of guest
speakers and discussion of questions assigned for each class. All students are expected to engage in
these discussions. The assigned cases deal with the different issues in financing an entrepreneurial
enterprise and, reflecting real life, will contain issues pertaining to phases of financing that may be
covered in greater detail in later classes.
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Grading: There will be a one-hour midterm exam and a one-hour final exam. The exams will consist of
one or more essay questions and will be open text, computer and notes. The course grade will be
determined as follows:
Midterm Exam
Final Exam
Team presentation of 2 cases
Individual case discussion papers
Class participation (discussion of cases and new company)
20%
20%
20%
20%
20%
Class Attendance: This course will provide the greatest learning experience to those students who
prepare for and attend every class. The most valuable elements of this learning experience will be the
class discussion and hearing from our guest speakers. You are expected to attend each class. If you
cannot attend, please advise me by email prior to missing the class. You will be responsible for
submitting assigned papers (see below) prior to the class even if you will miss the class. An attendance
form will be circulated in some or all of the class sessions.
Teams: The class will be divided into teams (4-5 members depending on the size of the class). The
students will self-select the teams. The team member selections should be made in the breaks during the
first class session. Each team will be responsible for presenting two of the assigned cases in the
Gompers case book (see below). After the teams are formed, you will sit together as a team in the
classroom for the remaining class sessions.
Case questions and answers. Each student must read each assigned case and submit a 1-2 page
paper answering 1-3 questions posed by Professor Grimm regarding the case. These questions will be
posted 4-5 days prior to the class for which the case is assigned. You should post your paper to
Blackboard under Content using the specific Assignment for that week. These papers will be assigned a
pass/fail grade. Late papers will not be accepted unless excused in advance by Professor Grimm.
Case Presentations by Team: Each team will select two of the assigned cases in the syllabus to present
to the class on the date assigned for each case. The presentation will consist of a summary of the
information in the case, a statement of the problems to be addressed, and the team’s recommended
course of action with reasons for this course of action. The team should use the video projector to make
this presentation. Each member of the team must take part in the presentation. The team should lead a
class discussion of the case after making its recommendation. The entire process should take 45-50
minutes. The team must provide a printed copy of the team’s presentation to Professor Grimm prior to
the beginning of the class session. Professor Grimm will take extensive notes during your presentation
and will record your presentation for his later review.
Start-up to Exit; Stages of a Company: We will form a new company during the first class session.
Thereafter, we will discuss a stage of financing for a company in each class session from start-up to exit
by discussing 5-7 specific questions assigned by Professor Grimm for each class session. Professor
Grimm will call on students randomly to discuss each question. You should be prepared to discuss each
question for every class. You will find it necessary to do research to find answers to the questions and
may find experts who express conflicting answers to the questions. The questions are designed to
require not more than 2 hours of research (for all of the assigned questions) each week.
Guest Speakers: We will have a guest at the beginning of many of the classes. Each guest will have
significant experience as an entrepreneur and have knowledge of different aspects of entrepreneurial
finance. I will interview the guest for about 45 minutes, leaving 10-15 minutes for questions.
MindMaps: Professor Grimm often uses MindMaps produced with MindManager 8 and posts them to
Blackboard. You should download the free MindManager Viewer at
http://www.mindjet.com/support/tutorials/viewer to view these MindMaps.
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Class Sessions (subject to change)
Class
Session
Number
Reading
Assignment in
Gompers
(chapters)
1
1
2
Reading
Assignment
in Sahlman
(chapters)
1, 13
4, 8
5
5
6
21, 28
Terminology; overview of funding a new business
(MindMaps posted on Blackboard)
Beta Group
Friends and family financing
Tutor Time (A)
2
Stock compensation for key employees
The Carlton Polish Company
10
Business plan for financing
Honest Tea
Sources of funding
Midterm exam
No class
7
Case in Gompers
Formation and start-up
3
4
Stage of Financing
Break
17, 19
12
8
Angel investors
Xedia and Silicon Valley Bank
(A, B-1 and B-2)
Dealing with financial problems
Parenting Magazine
9
19, 29
Strategic partnership
E-Ink
10
15
Venture capital financing
Edocs, Inc. (A)
23
Being acquired; preparing for an IPO
Nantucket Nectars
11
30
Amazon.com
12
Initial public offering; being a publicly held company
Final exam (or graded venture capital exercise) **
Note:
We will have a guest speaker at the beginning of many of the classes.
** A graded venture capital term sheet negotiation by opposing teams may be substituted for the final exam.
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