This session gives fellows an introduction to why VC exists and how it is relevant, a general idea of the VC lifecycle, why companies raise money from VCs, where VC positions itself as an asset class and its history as well as where it’ll go from here. Furthermore, this session highlights the evolution from the “old” generalist VC landscape to the rise of “new” specialist VCs.

This session gives fellows a look behind the scenes of the fundraising process, as well as important foundations of a VC fund - these include the selection of team members, key fund metrics, but also different fund strategies, fund models, and key terms for a fund (e.g. carry, management fees, hurdles, key man clauses). This session also touches upon fund positioning strategies (e.g. generalist vs. specialist funds).

This session helps fellows to understand how sourcing works in VC, and how it can vary depending on your strategy as a firm. Fellows should learn about the divergence of firms developing specific theses on certain topics and then screening for deals vs. funds choosing to first screen and then build a thesis. Finally, there are ever-evolving data-driven sourcing approaches, from simple databases to scraping approaches both in the sourcing and the screening stage.

During this first DD session, fellows will learn what to pay attention to when digging deep into early stage start-ups. Are there any valuation methods to use when there are hardly any actuals? What do you as a VC pay special attention to? Give a clear picture of how you evaluate a team, how to test competence and how to identify potential a fund-returner from only a pre-revenue idea.

This session illustrates the inherent difference of growth stage DD to early-stage DD. How do you analyze and evaluate late stage startups? A great practice would be to show exemplary valuation techniques used for different business models and/or industries. At this stage we will also dive further into quantitative topics such as KPIs and other financial analysis.

The concept behind this session is to synthesise the learnings that fellows have made throughout the last couple of weeks into the redaction of a DD memo about an assigned company. Fellows will present a due diligence report in teams. At the end of each presentation, the fellows get feedback from a jury of investors!

After having learned about how to select the best investment opportunities, this session is about how to pitch a fund to founders, term sheet structuring, round composition and co-investor setups. There should also be some time spent on alternative financing available to founders, such as convertibles or SAFEs.

Every VC talks about adding value to their portfolio – but what really are the different approaches to bring value to founders? Some investors choose to be ”handsoff”, while others are operationally involved in the respective start-up challenges. Investors share their best-practices from your platform or portfolio team, how they leverage expert partners and to which degree the an investment team supports the founders.

This session is all about exiting a portfolio start-up. The investors will discuss the different paths founders and VCs can take when it comes to an exit, while touching upon a recent exit your the investor has made. There will also be time spent on how generated return is distributed to VCs and how the returns are ultimately delivered to LPs.

This session follows a similar structure as the 6th session, but instead of discussing an internal DD memo, fellows put on the shoes of a founder when pitching a start-up to a jury of VC investors. In groups, fellows pitch self-sourced start-ups. The groups are randomised in order to increase interaction between fellows, and a pitch should be created jointly. In this session the fellows will be evaluated on their ability to create excitement for an investment opportunity.