This course is designed for students who are interested in the legal issues that will be relevant to one’s career as 1) an investment professional in a venture capital/growth equity/private equity firm or allocating money to funds; 2) a founder or member of the senior management of a venture/growth-backed or PE-backed company; or 3) a service provider to the venture/growth/private equity industry (i.e. consulting, banking, fundraising, executive search, and wealth management).
The class will focus mostly on founder/venture/growth issues, but will also be relevant to private equity firms (which frequently buy venture/growth backed companies). This class will supplement the business issues with the relevant legal frameworks of what you learn in New Venture Challenge, Private Equity and Venture Capital Lab and other entrepreneurial classes.
We will work through examples and work in groups to do mock discussions/negotiations of venture/growth deals with the perspective of a new investor, existing investors, founders and members of management. We will also discuss exits in this context and how they influence the way a deal is documented and liabilities allocated. This approach is designed to enable students to think about the different perspectives and interests of each key player in a deal.
We will focus on how the business issues and legal issues interface with each other, the economic and control significance of legal issues, and how these issues have monetary value to various stakeholders.
