I was so inspired and excited about our class with Stephen Kenny today that I decided to immediately blog about it. First of all, lectures conducted by Stephen are always interesting. Stephen has a real way of capturing the attention of the room as well as presenting concepts in a way that is simplistic and interesting.
The FCF (Free Cash Flow) spread sheet is a tool that I know will get lots of use well beyond this class. Being able to tinker with our companies evaluation and to see the potential reward down the road is something that motivates us all to work a little bit harder.
Additionally, the concept of risk and putting some of your own skin in the game was an interesting discussion. I found the story Stephen told about the young individual who drove his $80,000 BMW to a pitch and he only had put up $15,000 of his own money into the venture was a very interesting story. It really showed me the importance of showing your level of commitment to your potential investors. I think it was really valuable to hear from an experienced VC as to what they look for in a business and how to go about presenting your business in a way that is attractive to such an individual.
Finally, I found today's class helped me get a more clear picture of how we could go about funding this particular venture and how we can manage our cash flow through each of these various stages.
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