We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. By continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Find out more

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Print Price: $108.95

Format:
Hardback
656 pp.
7" x 10"

ISBN-13:
9780199744756

Publication date:
February 2020

Imprint: OUP US


Fundamentals of Entrepreneurial Finance

Marco Da Rin and Thomas Hellman

Fundamentals of Entrepreneurial Finance provides a comprehensive introduction to entrepreneurial finance, showing how entrepreneurs and investors jointly turn ideas into valuable high-growth start-ups. Marco Da Rin and Thomas Hellmann examine the challenges entrepreneurs face in obtaining funding and the challenges investors face in attracting promising ventures. They follow the joint journey of entrepreneurs and investors from initial match to the eventual success or failure of the venture. Written with the goal of making entrepreneurial finance accessible, this book starts with the basics, develops advanced topics, and derives practical insights. Da Rin and Hellmann build on academic foundations from several disciplines and enrich the text with data, mini-cases, examples, and exercises.

Custom-developed spreadsheets, review exercises, slides, tables, and numerous other tools and support materials available at www.entrepreneurialfinance.net.

Readership : This is a graduate-level textbook for students in MBA, Masters in Finance, and advanced undergraduates in business or management degrees studying entrepreneurial finance either as a stand-alone subject or as a module in an entrepreneurship or advanced corporate finance course. Audience also includes executive MBA/on students and professionals with prior work experience and entrepreneurial ambitions. Also relevant to students in engineering or other STEM programs, and to students in law schools who take courses in entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial finance.

Reviews

  • "Da Rin and Hellmann masterfully combine academic and case studies to analyze how entrepreneurs with ideas and financiers with capital can strike mutually advantageous deals that power society's future innovations. The result is a lucid and comprehensive book that will be an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in this topic."

    --Oliver Hart, Department of Economics, Harvard University, 2016 Nobel laureate in economics

  • "While getting to scale fastest in a global economy can take significant capital, money has always been just one part of venture financing. Using clear frameworks that show how venture financing really works, Da Rin and Hellmann point out how the networks of talent and expertise that investors can help entrepreneurs access are critical to a start-up's success. This is especially true for big, ambitious, and even contrarian ventures. So if you're an entrepreneur ready to pursue a truly bold idea, be sure to read this book."

    --Reid Hoffman, Co-founder of LinkedIn and co-author of Blitzscaling

  • "This textbook achieves a wonderful balance in providing students with a broad and insightful introduction to entrepreneurial finance; but at the same time opens up many avenues for interested students to pursue the material more deeply. The authors draw from a wealth of intriguing examples to make the material come to life and their in-depth knowledge of the subject matter shines through at every turn. A great resource for any student of entrepreneurial finance as well as a lay audience that wants to understand this fast growing part of finance better."

    --Antoinette Schoar, Michael M. Koerner (1949) Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management

  • "This book provides the foundational knowledge MBAs need to master entrepreneurial finance. The authors are leading academics, trained at Stanford, who taught and researched in many countries. They understand not only how Silicon Valley works, but also how venture financing is a global phenomenon."

    --Ilya A. Strebulaev, Professor of Finance, Stanford Graduate School of Business

  • "The financing of start-ups is crucial for their very survival and development, yet it is often thought of as a narrow technical issue. It is not! Da Rin and Hellmann build a comprehensive framework that helps the reader understand the entire entrepreneurial financing process, and how entrepreneurs and investors navigate through it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the fuel that fires the modern innovation economy, and especially to those venturing into it."

    --Eugene Kandel, CEO of Start-Up Nation Central, and Professor of Economics and Finance at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem


  • "This book will help students from different backgrounds understand how venture financing works. The authors masterfully combine insights from finance, economics, strategic management, organizational behavior, legal studies and other academic fields. They introduce many new practical tools and present materials in a direct and engaging style."

    --David Hsu, Professor of Management, Wharton Business School


  • "Da Rin and Hellmann have crafted a seminal contribution to the teaching of Entrepreneurial Finance. The issues addressed in their book are critical for any entrepreneur who is considering starting a company and raising capital. The material is applicable to any industry or country context making the book a 'must read'. Furthermore, the lessons are rigorous yet practical and allow an entrepreneur to put the recommendations into action. The book will become a staple not only in the classroom, but on the shelf of every aspiring entrepreneur."

    --Paul Gompers, Eugene Holman Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School


  • "The financing of start-ups has become a global phenomenon with ambitious start-ups being funded by venture investors across many countries, including China. This is the first book to provide a truly global perspective on entrepreneurial finance. Da Rin and Hellmann build their framework step-by-step from core academic concepts, making the material accessible and engaging to the students at all levels around the world."

    --Yingyi Qian, Distinguished Professor and former Dean, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University


  • "Having taught entrepreneurial finance for many years, one of the problems has been to find an appropriate textbook, which both provides practical skills and at the same time is grounded in modern research. I am happy to see that this problem has now been solved. Da Rin and Hellmann are two of the most well-known and accomplished researchers in this area. They have managed to write a comprehensible, accessible, and up-to-date textbook, which I predict will become the standard reference for courses in entrepreneurial finance and venture capital for years to come."

    --Per Strömberg, SSE Centennial Professor of Finance and Private Equity, Swedish House of Finance

1.
1.1 What is entrepreneurial finance?
1.2 Why is entrepreneurial finance challenging?
1.3 Why is entrepreneurial finance important?
1.4 Key facts about entrepreneurial finance
1.5 The entrepreneurial financing process
1.5.1 The need for frameworks
1.5.2 The FIRE framework
1.5.3 FIRE in practice
1.6 Who are the investors?
1.6.1 Main types of investors
1.6.2 The FUEL framework
Summary
Review questions
2.
2.1 Assessing Opportunities
2.1.1 The Venture Evaluation Matrix
2.1.2 The WorkHorse case study
2.2 Explaining the Venture Evaluation Matrix
2.2.1 Need
2.2.2 Solution
2.2.3 Team
2.2.4 Market
2.2.5 Competition
2.2.6 Network
2.2.7 Sales
2.2.8 Production
2.2.9 Organization
2.3 Drawing conclusions from the Venture Evaluation Matrix
2.3.1 Three perspectives on attractiveness
2.3.2 Three competitive advantages
2.3.3 Assessing risk
2.3.4 Interactions across cells
2.4 How entrepreneurs use the Venture Evaluation Matrix
2.4.1 The entrepreneur's decision
2.4.2 Writing a business plan
2.5 How investors use the Venture Evaluation Matrix
2.5.1 The Venture Evaluation Matrix spreadsheet tool
2.5.2 Investor due diligence
2.5.3 The investor's decision
Summary
Review questions
3.
3.1 The purpose of the financial plan
3.2 Financial projections
3.2.1 The three reflections
3.2.2 The structure of financial projections
3.2.3 Sources of information
3.2.4 Developing financial projections
3.3 Defining a timeline with milestones
3.4 Estimating revenues
3.4.1 The top-down approach
3.4.2 The bottom-up approach
3.4.3 Combining approaches
3.5 Estimating costs
3.5.1 Terminology
3.5.2 Costs of goods sold
3.5.3 Operating expenses
3.5.4 Capital expenditures
3.6 Pro forma financial statements
3.6.1 The structure of financial statements
3.6.2 Interpreting financial projections
3.6.3 Income versus cash flows
3.6.4 Testing financial projections
3.6.5 Simplifications
3.7 Formulating the financial plan
3.7.1 The attractiveness of the venture
3.7.2 Financing needs
3.7.3 Pitching the financial plan
Summary
Review questions
4.
4.1 The mechanics of ownership and valuation
4.1.1 Pre-money and post-money valuation
4.1.2 Price and number of shares
4.1.3 Stock options
4.1.4 The capitalization table
4.1.5 Dilution with multiple rounds
4.2 Investor returns
4.2.1 Risk and return
4.2.2 Three measures of return
4.2.3 Comparing return measures
4.2.4 Returns with multiple rounds
4.3 The determinants of valuation and returns
4.3.1 The relationship between valuation and returns
4.3.2 The economic determinants of valuation
4.4 The determinants of founder ownership
4.4.1 Founder agreements
4.4.2 Principles for internal allocation
4.4.3 The FAST Tool
Summary
Review questions
5.
5.1 The valuation of entrepreneurial companies
5.1.1 The purpose of performing a valuation
5.1.2 The challenges of performing a valuation
5.2 The Venture Capital method
5.2.1 Valuation with a single investment round
5.2.2 Valuation with multiple investment rounds
5.2.3 Estimating the inputs
5.2.4 Model variants
5.3 The Discounted Cash Flow method
5.3.1 The mechanics of the DCF method
5.3.2 Estimating the inputs
5.4 Methods of Comparables
5.4.1 The Investment Comparables method
5.4.2 The Exit Comparables method
5.5 Modelling uncertainty
5.5.1 Scenario analysis and simulations
5.5.2 PROFEX
5.6 The choice of valuation model
Summary
Review questions
6.
6.1 Term sheet fundamentals
6.1.1 The role of term sheets
6.1.2 Contingent contracting and milestones
6.1.3 Overview of terms
6.2 Cash flow rights
6.2.1 Convertible preferred stock
6.2.2 Participating preferred stock
6.2.3 Reasons for using preferred stock
6.3 Compensation
6.3.1 Founder employment agreements
6.3.2 Employee stock option plans
6.4 An overview of other terms
6.4.1 Control rights
6.4.2 Future fundraising
6.4.3 Investor liquidity
6.4.4 Additional clauses
6.5 Valuation versus terms
6.6 Convertible notes
6.6.1 How convertible notes work
6.6.2 Valuation caps
Summary
Review questions
7.
7.1 The art of structuring deals
7.2 The fundraising process
7.2.1 Preparing the fundraising campaign
7.2.2 Executing the fundraising campaign
7.2.3 Valuing an idea
7.3 Finding a match
7.3.1 Investor deal sourcing
7.3.2 Investor screening
7.3.3 The MATCH tool
7.4 Syndication
7.4.1 Reasons to syndicate
7.4.2 The structure of syndicates
7.5 Deal Negotiations
7.5.1 Bargaining theory
7.5.2 Negotiation analysis
7.5.3 Closing the deal
7.5.4 Deal negotiations with investor competition
7.6 Living with the deal
7.6.1 The importance of trust
7.6.2 A long-term perspective
Summary
Review questions
8.
8.1 The need for corporate governance
8.1.1 Why companies need investor involvement
8.1.2 Why investors oversee their companies
8.2 Corporate governance structures
8.2.1 Voting rights
8.2.2 Board of Directors
8.2.3 Informal control
8.3 Investor value-adding
8.3.1 Picking versus making winners
8.3.2 How investors add value
8.3.3 Where investors add value
8.3.4 The question of replacing managers
8.3.5 Assessing value-adding fit
Summary
Review questions
9.
9.1 The rationale for staged financing
9.2 Structuring staged financing deals
9.2.1 Staged investments and ownership
9.2.2 The option value of staging
9.2.3 Tranching
9.2.4 Old versus new investors
9.3 Term sheets for staging
9.3.1 The liquidation stack
9.3.2 Anti-dilution rights
9.3.3 Additional rights
9.4 Managing financial difficulties
9.4.1 Down rounds
9.4.2 Turnarounds
9.5 Dynamic strategies
9.5.1 Dynamic investment strategies
9.5.2 Dynamic valuation profiles
Summary
Review questions
10.
10.1 Fundamentals of debt
10.1.1 What is debt?
10.1.2 The structure of debt contracts
10.2 Debt versus equity
10.2.1 The fallacy that debt is cheaper than equity
10.2.2 Comparing debt and equity
10.3 Why banks don't lend to startups
10.4 Alternative types of debt
10.4.1 Personal loans and credit cards
10.4.2 Trade credit
10.4.3 Discounting and factoring
10.4.4 Venture leasing
10.4.5 Venture debt
10.5 Valuation with debt
10.5.1 Enterprise versus equity value
10.5.2 Adjusting valuation methods for debt
Summary
Review questions
11.
11.1 The importance of exiting investments
11.1.1 Reasons for exit
11.1.2 The four main types of exit
11.1.3 The exit decision
11.1.4 The timing of exit
11.2 Initial Public Offerings
11.2.1 Benefits and costs
11.2.2 Preparing for an IPO
11.2.3 Pricing the IPO
11.2.4 Structuring the IPO
11.2.5 After the IPO
11.3 Acquisitions
11.3.1 Strategic motives
11.3.2 Preparing for an acquisition
11.3.3 Structuring an acquisition
11.3.4 After the acquisition
11.4 Sale to financial buyers
11.4.1 Buyouts
11.4.2 Secondary sales
11.5 Closing down the company
11.6 Determinants of the exit decision
11.6.1 Market forces
11.6.2 Economic fundamentals
11.6.3 Internal company dynamics
Summary
Review questions
12.
12.1 The venture capital model
12.2 Institutional investors (LPs)
12.2.1 Portfolio allocation choices
12.2.2 Building a VC portfolio
12.3 Limited Partnership Agreements
12.3.1 Fund structure
12.3.2 Fund rules
12.3.3 GP compensation
12.3.4 GP incentives
12.4 VC firms (GPs)
12.4.1 Internal structure
12.4.2 Fundraising
12.4.3 Networks
12.4.4 Alternatives to the partnership model
12.5 Investment strategies
12.5.1 The investment strategy
12.5.2 Investment strategy styles
12.5.3 Implementing the investment strategy
12.5.4 An example
12.6 Risk and return in VC
12.6.1 Gross returns to the VC fund
12.6.2 Net returns to limited partners
12.6.3 Assessing VC fund performance
Summary
13.
13.1 Founders, family, and friends
13.1.1 Reasons for investing
13.1.2 How family and friends invest
13.2 Angel investors
13.2.1 Different types of angel investors
13.2.2 How angels invest
13.3 Corporate investors
13.3.1 The motivation of corporate investors
13.3.2 The structure of corporate investors
13.3.3 How corporates invest
13.4 Crowdfunding
13.4.1 The structure of crowdfunding platforms
13.4.2 Motivations in crowdfunding
13.4.3 Crowdfunding campaigns
13.4.4 Returns from crowdfunding
13.5 Initial Coin Offerings
13.5.1 The Blockchain and cryptocurrencies
13.5.2 The structure of Initial Coin Offerings
13.5.3 The current debate about Initial Coin Offerings
13.6 Further investor types
13.6.1 Accelerators and incubators
13.6.2 Technology transfer funds
13.6.3 Social impact venture investors
13.7 Comparing early stage investors
Summary
Review questions
14.
14.1 Entrepreneurial ecosystems
14.1.1 Ecosystem structure
14.1.2 Overview of leading ecosystems
14.2 How do entrepreneurial ecosystem work?
14.2.1 Interactions within the talent pool
14.2.2 Interactions with investors
14.2.3 Interactions with supporting parties
14.3 The role of government
14.3.1 Should the government support entrepreneurial ecosystems?
14.3.2 Government funding
14.3.3 Tax credits
14.3.4 Capital markets
14.3.5 Framework conditions
14.3.6 Demand side policies
14.4 Global ecosystems
14.4.1 The global movement of capital
14.4.2 The global movement of talent
Summary
Review questions

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

Dr. Marco Da Rin is an Associate Professor of Finance at Tilburg University. He holds a PhD in Economics from Stanford University. He has designed and taught courses in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial finance at the undergraduate, Master, doctoral, MBA, and executive level in several countries. His research and teaching focuses on entrepreneurial finance, entrepreneurship, venture capital and private equity, and public policy for entrepreneurship. He has also been a consultant to several international organizations, including the European Commission, the OECD, and the United Nations, as well as regional governments and private companies. He has advised and contributed to several start-ups.

Dr. Thomas Hellmann is the DP World Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Saïd School of Business, University of Oxford. He holds a PhD in Economics from Stanford University. His research and teaching interests cover entrepreneurial finance, entrepreneurship, innovation, strategic management, and public policy. He was previously on the faculty of the Stanford GSB and also taught at the Harvard Business School and Wharton. He is the founder of the NBER Entrepreneurship Research Boot Camp, the Academic Advisor of the Oxford Foundry, the Academic Director of SBS Entrepreneurship Centre, and Academic Lead of the Creative Destruction Lab - Oxford.

Making Sense - Margot Northey
The Oxford Handbook of Entrepreneurial Finance - Edited by Douglas Cumming
Innovation Commons - Jason Potts
Openness to Creative Destruction - Arthur M. Diamond, Jr.

Special Features

  • Develops a comprehensive framework for understanding entrepreneurial finance.
  • Provides many practical educational tools, including a case study that runs across the entire text, a set of novel spreadsheet tools, and a variety of applied examples and exercises.
  • Helps the reader move seamlessly from concept to application, and thus to get started as entrepreneur or investor.
  • Provides a contemporary, diverse, and global outlook on entrepreneurial finance for students from all over the world.
  • Written by renowned researchers and pioneers of the field, this text has strong academic foundations that allow students to understand financial structures, the behaviour of entrepreneurs, and a wide variety of investor types.