Pre-Requisites

• Pre-Requisite: Capital Markets (or passing the exemption exam)
• Pre-Requisite: Foundations of VC (or passing the exemption exam) or Entrepreneurial Finance

Learning Objectives & Course Overview

1. To understand the spectrum of investment theses, from very specific to more opportunistic
2. To understand the process of developing an investment thesis (different roles, who is involved, what resources are needed) 
3. To start to build a perspective on a specific sector as an early stage (Seed / Series A) investor
4. This course will cover different sectors each time it is taught, and it is not meant to be a deep dive on any one particular sector

There will be 2-3 guest lectures where students will hear investors share their firm’s investment thesis, so students get a varied perspective. Real company info will be shared in this class. As a result, class slides will be handed out in class but not shared electronically and class sessions will not be recorded. 

Intended Audience:

• Aspiring investors who want to understand how investors develop an investment thesis 
• Founders who want to understand how seed investors evaluate startups 
• This course is not intended for students who want to deep dive on a particular sector or who want to specifically focus on growth and later stages of VC investing 
• This course will not go deep into these topics: Strategic VCs (corporate/government/university), organizational structure (the merits of having a deep platform team) and governance of a fund (compensation, investment decision voting).

Angela Lee

Professor of Professional Practice

Angela Lee is a Professor of Practice and the Chief Innovation Officer at Columbia Business School.  She teaches Venture Capital (Foundations of VC, VC Seminar) and Leadership (The Leader’s Voice) courses.  She brings 20 years of innovation, strategy and entrepreneurship experience to the classroom.  She started her career in product management and then moved into strategy consulting at McKinsey. ...

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