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The Venture Capital Associate
If you’re looking for a career in venture capital, our new venture capital course will help you master the practical skills needed to succeed as an associate at a VC fund.
Master core concepts in venture capital, start-up valuation methods, forecast models used in the industry, and more.
50
Hours
42
Topics
283
Practical exercises
5
Exams
The Venture Capital Associate includes
- Excel Efficiency – Menu and shortcut basics
- Excel Efficiency – Basic formatting
- Excel Efficiency – Basic formulas and calculations
- Excel Efficiency – More formulas and calculations
- Excel Efficiency – Naming cells and references
- Basics of financial math – Present and future value
- Basics of financial math – Annuities and Perpetuities
- Basics of financial math – Yields and internal rate of return
- Statistics – Basic concepts
- Statistics – Portfolio concepts
- Statistics – Analytic methods
- What is Venture Capital
- Venture Capital vs other PE types
- The VC fund
- Understand the various stages of a VC fund’s life
- Life Cycle of a VC Fund
- How a VC Fund Makes Money
- Limited partnership agreements
- Carried interest calculation, promoted interest, or “promotes”, for real estate transactions
- Distribution waterfall
- IRR, MoM, and splits
- Making entries and ensuring the balance sheet balances
- Preparing a balance sheet
- Preparing an income statement from the entries to retained earnings
- Preparing a cash flow statement from the entries to the cash account
- A review of the different categorizations on the income statement, balance sheet, and the cash flow statement
- Revenue recognition issues
- Cost recognition issues
- Identifying non-recurring items from the income statement, the MD&A, the notes to the accounts and the financial statement press release
- Calculating EBIT and EBITDA for the historical year, and on an LTM basis
- Understand the difference between basic and diluted earnings per share and calculate recurring diluted earnings per share
- Review company profitability compared to its peer group
- Inventory accounting including the impact on EBIT of LIFO and FIFO accounting choices (where relevant)
- Accounts receivable and bad debts (identifying when companies are manipulating sales)
- Accounts payable and accruals and the difference between them from a due diligence perspective
- Other items including taxes payable, deferred revenue, and pre-paid items
- Working capital and operating working capital and the cash impact of changes in operating working capital
- Credit implications of working capital movements
- Day ratios
- Gross PP&E, accumulated depreciation, depreciation expense and net PP&E
- Building a simple forecast of fixed assets
- Establishing the age of a company’s fixed asset base
- Finite, and infinite intangibles including goodwill
- A review of key methods of accounting for financial investments
- At fair value through the income statement
- Available for sale
- Associate (equity method) accounting
- Debt issues and repurchases
- Simple yield to maturity and all in cost calculations and understanding Original Issuer Discounts
- Calculating net debt
- Equity issuance and repurchases
- The difference between authorized, issued and outstanding shares and multiple share classes
- Other capital items: preference shares and convertible bonds
- Leverage ratios
- Debt liability maturity analysis
- Profitability ratios, including margins
- Liquidity ratios, including operating working capital
- EBIT and EBITDA for the historical year, and on an LTM basis
- Leverage ratios, including net debt and interest coverage
Asset ratios - Understanding how to categorize cash flows between operating, investing, and financing
- Deriving a cash flow statement from two balance sheets and an income statement
- Deriving a balance sheet from a cash flow statement and an income statement
- Different cash flow statement presentations
- What are equity method investments?
- Equity affiliates/associates
- Joint ventures
- Equity method accounting
- Income statement
- Balance sheet
- Cash flow statement
- Financial statement integration
- M&A accounting overview
- Balance sheet consolidation
- Sources and uses of funds
- Goodwill calculation
- Income statement consolidation
- Non controlling interests – NCI
- Losses offset against profits
- Loss utilization
- Carry back
- Carry forward
- Loss utilization restrictions
- Taxes in the financial statements
- Tax expense, ETR, and MTR
- Tax authority numbers vs accounting numbers
- Permanent differences
- Temporary differences
- Deferred tax assets and liabilities
- Deferred tax over time
- Deferred tax footnote
- Issues in valuing losses
- Valuation impact
- Inside and outside basis
- Sale of shareholding
- Sale of assets followed by corporate liquidation
- Double taxation – vendor
- Stock vs asset deals
- What is an acquisition structure in private equity
- How is a structure put together with SPVs and which parties are involved
- Diagram of a simple private equity structure with equity and debt
- The main reasons for structures in private equity deals
- Completion accounts introduction
- Completion accounts calculations
- Issues with the completion accounts mechanism
- Locked box mechanism introduction
- Locked box mechanism calculations
- Comparing completion accounts and locked box mechanisms
- Various stages of funding VC transaction
- ESOP
- Downrounds
- Dividend & liquidity preference
- Conversion & anti-dilution adjustments
- SAFEs vs convertible notes
- Priced vs non-priced rounds
- Common stock vs preferred
- Preferred equity
- Pre-seed investments
- Unpriced vs priced rounds
- Convertible notes
- SAFEs
- Most favoured nation clauses
- Pro rata rights
- Revenue models
- Modeling cash burn
- B2B operating model
- Analysis of Product-Market-Fit (PMF)
- B2B / SaaS specific metrics
- B2C / marketplace specific metric
- An acquisition process
- The monitoring period of a PE deal
- The exit period for a private equity deal
- Who are the key people involved in each step of internal PE process
- The format and content of the various different internal meetings and documents
- The reasons for due diligence in PE deals
- The different types of due diligence and what they include
- How due diligence is carried out included what needs to be prepared or looked for
- Who is involved in due diligence and their respective roles
- IPO vs M&A
- Company valuation methodologies
- Calculating VC returns at exit
- Key settings
- Formatting and layout standards
- Building a simple income statement and balance sheet model, on one sheet, then across sheets
- Balancing the balance sheet using the cash flow statement
- Preparing the model for handover
- Key formatting and putting the output into a pitch book
- Income statement construction and highlighting key numbers
- Calculation schedules (PP&E, retained earnings, operating working capital, and debt)
- Balancing the balance sheet with a cash sweep
- Calculating interest using average balances
- Circular references and iterations
- Working with a circular reference switch
- Preparing the model for handover
- Key formatting and putting the output into a pitch book
- Steps before editing
- Inserting new items
- Removing old items
- Consolidating line items
- Steps after editing
- Relevant keyboard shortcut keys
- Why banks want to be repaid early
- Cash sweep mechanisms
- How to model cash sweeps
- Building a three statement model with a cash sweep
- Top ten errors
- Auditing and error checking toolkit
- Checking your own model
- Checking someone else’s model
- Techniques for forecasting revenue growth
- Considerations for forecasts margins, working capital, PP&E and capital structure
- Incorporating scenario analysis into the model
- Benchmarking forecasts against consensus numbers
- Using check ratios to sense check the model outputs
- Pre-money, post-money and downroads
- Time varying cost of capital
- Bootstrapping of discount rate
- Challenges in valuing high growth companies
- Importance of period of competitive advantage
- DCF preference over multiples
- Private market equity returns
- Drivers of return
- Return premiums
- Expected return outcomes
- Sources of return
- Review choosing a comparable set of companies
- Calculating enterprise value
- Calculating LTM EBITDA and EBIT
- Forward multiples and issues with consensus data
- Understanding which operational ratios are important for the analysis
- Reviewing data sources
- Understanding different deal contexts
- Calculating enterprise value and LTM EBITDA
- Calculating premiums paid based on offer prices where appropriate
- Calculating the synergies from the transactions as a % of target sales
- Capital Asset Pricing Model
- Calculating the WACC for the peer group
- Interpreting the results
- Establish a reasonable cost of capital for the target company
- WACC approach
- Calculating free cash flows
- Understanding how the operational ratios should develop over the financial forecast
- Calculating the steady state and making relevant adjustments to the steady state cash flows
- Making reasonable assumptions for long-term growth rates
- Discounting to a deal date
- Converting the enterprise value into an implied share price, making relevant adjustments for share options and restricted stock units
- Calculating free cash flows
- Understanding how the operational ratios should develop over the financial forecast
- Calculating the steady state and making relevant adjustments to the steady state cash flows
- Making reasonable assumptions for long-term growth rates
- Discounting to a deal date
- Converting the enterprise value into an implied share price, making relevant adjustments for share options and restricted stock units
- Contingent consideration – structures
- Accounting for deferred consideration
- Examples of earnouts
- Multiple based return
- IRR
- VC Fund return
- VC return metrics
The Venture Capital Associate
| Micro-Degree
Foundation Skills
| Completion Certificate
3
Hours
10
Practical exercises
Increase your Excel efficiency and master the mathematical fundamentals that future courses rely upon.
Foundation Skills
131 video minutes
10 excel exercises
Video minutes 131
Excel Exercises 10
The VC Fund
| Skills Certificate
2
Hours
4
Practical exercises
1
Exam
Gain a detailed understanding of how VC funds work, their life cycle, and the core activities that take place inside these firms.
What is Venture Capital Investing
23 video minutes
0 excel exercises
Video minutes 23
Excel Exercises 0
Life Cycle of a VC Fund
23 video minutes
0 excel exercises
Video minutes 23
Excel Exercises 0
Limited Partners and General Partners
75 video minutes
4 excel exercises
Video minutes 75
Excel Exercises 4
The PE Accountant
| Skills Certificate
21
Hours
56
Topics
117
Practical exercises
1
Exam
The PE Accountant provides a comprehensive understanding of the techniques required to accurately present a company’s financial results. Participants will be able to quickly and confidently interpret financial data and statements, evaluate them and use the calculated information to build high quality reports. Real company data and the latest rules are covered to ensure the methods used and skills developed are immediately applicable in the workplace. You will also review how and why legal structures are set up in order for a private equity acquisition to take place in the most advantageous manner from a funding and tax perspective.
Financial Accounting Review
30 video minutes
3 excel exercises
Video minutes 30
Excel Exercises 3
Income Statements
59 video minutes
15 excel exercises
Video minutes 59
Excel Exercises 15
Working Capital
56 video minutes
12 excel exercises
Video minutes 56
Excel Exercises 12
Non-Current Assets
39 video minutes
11 excel exercises
Video minutes 39
Excel Exercises 11
Capital Structure
50 video minutes
14 excel exercises
Video minutes 50
Excel Exercises 14
Accounting Ratios
41 video minutes
15 excel exercises
Video minutes 41
Excel Exercises 15
Cash Flow Statements
25 video minutes
3 excel exercises
Video minutes 25
Excel Exercises 3
Equity Method Investments
9 video minutes
5 excel exercises
Video minutes 9
Excel Exercises 5
Intro to Full Consolidation
68 video minutes
21 excel exercises
Video minutes 68
Excel Exercises 21
Tax Losses
12 video minutes
1 excel exercises
Video minutes 12
Excel Exercises 1
Deferred Taxes
33 video minutes
8 excel exercises
Video minutes 33
Excel Exercises 8
Valuing Deferred Tax And Losses
15 video minutes
1 excel exercises
Video minutes 15
Excel Exercises 1
Tax In M&A
14 video minutes
0 excel exercises
Video minutes 14
Excel Exercises 0
Structuring an Acquisition
8 video minutes
0 excel exercises
Video minutes 8
Excel Exercises 0
Completion Mechanisms
49 video minutes
8 excel exercises
Video minutes 49
Excel Exercises 8
The VC Deal
| Skills Certificate
4
Hours
21
Practical exercises
1
Exam
Master everything you need to complete a VC deal from start to finish including various stages of funding VC transactions, due diligence, exit strategies, and more.
Capitalization Tables
82 video minutes
11 excel exercises
Video minutes 82
Excel Exercises 11
VC Forms of Consideration
37 video minutes
0 excel exercises
Video minutes 37
Excel Exercises 0
Very Early Stage - Forms of Consideration
30 video minutes
0 excel exercises
Video minutes 30
Excel Exercises 0
SaaS Business Operating Model
49 video minutes
6 excel exercises
Video minutes 49
Excel Exercises 6
SaaS Business Key Industry Metrics
45 video minutes
4 excel exercises
Video minutes 45
Excel Exercises 4
Internal Requirements
10 video minutes
0 excel exercises
Video minutes 10
Excel Exercises 0
Memos, meetings and internal steps during:
Due Diligence
13 video minutes
0 excel exercises
Video minutes 13
Excel Exercises 0
VC Exit Strategies
14 video minutes
0 excel exercises
Video minutes 14
Excel Exercises 0
The VC Modeler
| Skills Certificate
12.5
Hours
56
Topics
66
Practical exercises
1
Exam
The VC Modeler provides the perfect introduction to financial modeling. Discovering how to build models quickly and error-free is critical for the decisions and recommendations they underpin.
Introduction to Modeling
56 video minutes
10 excel exercises
Video minutes 56
Excel Exercises 10
Three Statement Modeling with Iterations
77 video minutes
10 excel exercises
Video minutes 77
Excel Exercises 10
Three Statement Model Editing
45 video minutes
6 excel exercises
Video minutes 45
Excel Exercises 6
Building a Model with Cash Sweep
71 video minutes
18 excel exercises
Video minutes 71
Excel Exercises 18
Checking a Model for Integrity and Errors
36 video minutes
11 excel exercises
Video minutes 36
Excel Exercises 11
Financial Forecasting Research
86 video minutes
11 excel exercises
Video minutes 86
Excel Exercises 11
The VC Valuer
| Skills Certificate
11.5
Hours
6
Topics
45
Practical exercises
1
Exam
Master the core VC valuation methodologies used by the top firms and learn their supporting calculations.
VC Valuation Methodologies
23 video minutes
2 excel exercises
Video minutes 23
Excel Exercises 2
Fundamental Drivers of Return
32 video minutes
0 excel exercises
Video minutes 32
Excel Exercises 0
Trading Comparables
69 video minutes
10 excel exercises
Video minutes 69
Excel Exercises 10
Transaction Comparables
30 video minutes
5 excel exercises
Video minutes 30
Excel Exercises 5
WACC Analysis
27 video minutes
4 excel exercises
Video minutes 27
Excel Exercises 4
Discounted Cash Flow Valuation
50 video minutes
9 excel exercises
Video minutes 50
Excel Exercises 9
Pulling the Analysis Together
60 video minutes
13 excel exercises
Video minutes 60
Excel Exercises 13
Earnouts
15 video minutes
1 excel exercises
Video minutes 15
Excel Exercises 1
Calculating VC Fund Returns
20 video minutes
1 excel exercises
Video minutes 20
Excel Exercises 1
Skills & Learning Objectives in The Venture Capital Associate Micro-Degree
Learn from our expert instructors
Learn more about our full facultyRecognized by industry experts
Colin Evans
Managing Director at J.P. Morgan
Colin Evans is a Managing Director at J.P Morgan and leads the financial institutions coverage team globally for the Corporate Banking.
Dr. Bridget Lyons
Professor of Finance
Professor of Finance at the Jack Welch College of Business at Sacred Heart University and Associate Instructor.
Chris Bishko
CFO
CFO with over 25 years experience as an operator, investor and investment banker in technology and financial services.
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Complete a Micro‑degree to join our exclusive alumni
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| Regional and industry data sets | ||
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Frequently Asked Questions
What tech do I need?
Access your course across desktop, laptop, tablet or phone; either via our web portal or the dedicated mobile app. While we have optimized our video quality and size, we recommend a broadband connection to enable uninterrupted video playback. A PDF reader and spreadsheet application are required to open the supporting resources.
Is it right for me?
Our online courses reflect the training new analysts receive at the leading financial organizations. They're challenging, but if you want to demonstrate you are as good as the best in the industry then this is the course for you. The top investment banks will recognize our micro-degree certifications, making them perfect for graduates looking to land a job or a professional preparing for a new role.
Are Financial Edge's courses credible?
The leading investment banks, as rated by the FT, hire us to train their incoming analysts. If you are looking to join the best analysts in the world, why not challenge yourself with the same content and certification with the same Wall Street instructors ready to answer your questions.
Will this course help me get a job?
Absolutely. Develop practical skills you can use to impress at interviews, whether you’re looking to break into finance or change roles.
How long do I have to complete the courses?
Everyone works at their own pace so there's no restrictions, all you need is an active Felix plan for the course you are completing. All Felix plans renew annually.
Are there any hidden costs?
No. Everything you need is included, from instructor-led videos and Excel exercises to the exams.
What is CPD?
All of our online courses are CPD accredited. CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development and makes demonstrating your commitment to learning easy. Your institution or accrediting body may track CDP points through activities, units or hours. Check with the relevant party to find out how you should be monitoring your progress.
What support will I get along the way?
Our expert instructors are standing by to answer questions and help you develop a detailed understanding of finance complexities. Our technical support team are also ready to help with any system problems.
Start earning your Venture Capital Associate Micro‑degree certificate today.
