How do different types of investors think about an investment opportunity? What kind of securities and contracts do they offer? How should a company decide what is a "good deal"? This course is designed to introduce you to the challenges and pitfalls of financing new enterprises. You will learn the basic tools for valuating companies, including using discounted cashflow analysis in Excel and understanding how to apply this model to your entrepreneurial venture. You will then learn how valuation works with different types of securities that investors use to finance startups, from bank loans to venture capital to angel investing.
This course is part of the Entrepreneurial Finance: Strategy and Innovation Specialization
Offered By
About this Course
Skills you will gain
- Valuation (Finance)
- Startup Company
- Cash Flow Analysis
- Entrepreneurship
- Finance
Offered by

Duke University
Duke University has about 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students and a world-class faculty helping to expand the frontiers of knowledge. The university has a strong commitment to applying knowledge in service to society, both near its North Carolina campus and around the world.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
The Basics of Valuation
In this module you will learn the general framework for valuing companies: prices as the discounted value of future cash flows. We will focus on how to determine cash flows and how discounting works. At the end of the lectures you will be able to understand the basics of how investors determine the value of a company.
Building your First Excel Valuation Model
In this module we will apply what you learned in the previous module. At the end of the module you will have built your first financial model of a firm, which you can change to apply to valuing a large firm or a small startup.
Valuation of High-growth Startups
In this module we will consider how very high failure rates for startups affects what you learned in the previous modules. The short answer is: it doesn’t, as long as we understand what business plans and company forecasts really are.
Venture Capital Overview
In this module we will review the main sources of capital that founders of startups turn to when they raise capital to launch their business.
Angel Investor Overview
In this module we will conduct an in-depth analysis of angel investors and the securities they use when they invest in early-stage startups
Reviews
- 5 stars60.26%
- 4 stars27.15%
- 3 stars9.10%
- 2 stars1.98%
- 1 star1.49%
TOP REVIEWS FROM STARTUP VALUATION METHODS
This course has helped gain knowledge of the valuation of companies of all sizes, basic funding criteria, and sources for a startup and a view of investors for a company.
The course provides fundamental financial skills needed for a startup. It takes time to understand certain concepts but it is highly valuable what you learn here.
Course content is very convenient for beginners. Instructors presented and taught the syllabus effectively and smoothly that made the course very interesting and useful.
Information was useful, but wish the professors walked through the examples (showed the math on the slide). The math was hard to follow along in the 2nd half of the course!
About the Entrepreneurial Finance: Strategy and Innovation Specialization
From entrepreneurs to executives, this Specialization provides an opportunity for you to learn how to advance business innovation in your company and gain insights from leading faculty in the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

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