Please see this video for more on this course.

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The application is due August 19 at 5:00 PM ET.

Course Description

Taught by practitioner Jeff Bussgang (Flybridge co-founder and general partner), Field Course: Venture Capital Journey (VCJ) is designed for a group of EC students who are serious about pursuing a career in venture capital – most of our students will enter the course (1) with previous VC experience as pre-MBA analysts, summer associates, or VC interns/scouts; (2) actively pursuing a VC job post-graduation; (3) having already secured a VC job post-graduation; or (4) starting their own VC fund.

Note that one of the goals of the course is to expand access and inclusion to the field of venture capital. Thus, the selection of students in the course will be intentionally diverse and include both students who came from the field as well as those who are keenly interested in the field, having had exposure during their time at HBS through RC courses like TEM and Finance 101/102 and fall EC courses like VCPE.

The focus of the course is to provide students with frameworks, tools, a network, and hands on experience in preparation for a career in venture capital (VC), ranging from seed to growth stage. The course will help students more deeply understand the conceptual underpinnings of venture capital investing and startup company financing. In so doing, we aspire to prepare students for a career in venture capital, with a particular focus on their personal and professional growth and fulfillment. Further, we will provide a “systems thinking” lens to the industry and prepare them to positive actors in the global VC / startup ecosystem as future investors and entrepreneurs.

The course builds on eight years of running the popular Rock Venture Partners (RVP) program, which had been organized as a series of year-long independent projects for students. The RVP program and the collection of IPs associated with it will cease to exist and will be superseded by this course.

In VCJ, students will learn all aspects of the venture capital process, including:

• Deal sourcing
• Developing an investment thesis
• Conducting due diligence
• Investment decision making
• Determining valuation and negotiating terms
• Constructing and managing a portfolio
• Board work
• Managing a firm

Further, students will have the opportunity to step back and learn about:

• Navigating a career in VC, including how to select a firm to join (with particular considerations to firm size, sector, geography, corporate vs. institutional), negotiate compensation, get promoted, and build a career and life in the industry.
• Brand building, community/content creation, and the opportunities and risks of leveraging various social media channels.
• The VC “tech stack” and relevant tools of the trade (e.g., Affinity, Carta, CB Insights, Pitchbook)
• Fundraising with high net worth and institutional Limited Partners (LPs) and how funds evolve over time.
• Recent innovations, including the role of incubators and accelerators, investor/operator funds, rolling funds, the globalization of the industry, and specific investment trends and innovation waves (e.g., web3/NFTs, blockchain, creator economy, tough tech, CRISPR and personalized medicine, health tech, fintech, investing in emerging markets).
• Ethical considerations, biases, and the racial/gender capital gap in the VC ecosystem

The course will consist of three components:

1. Classroom activities – classes will be a mix of case discussions, interactive workshops, and expert panel sessions.
2. Projects – students will work on projects at VC firms (typically sourcing deals, developing investment theses, and/or assisting with due diligence) or at an early-stage startup where their primary role will be to assist the startup in raising VC or – under the supervision of a VC mentor or faculty member – independent, self-guided thesis development focused on a particular sector.
3. Networking / Site Visits – students will meet in the field with VC partners and principals to get a sense of the different strategies that different firms employ as well as to build their individual networks, with a particular focus on deeper exposure to the Boston and NYC startup ecosystems (in person) as well as Miami and SF (virtually).

The class will meet for 90 minutes once a week during the fall term (Q1 and Q2) and require a project as described above.

The course will be capped at 30 students and will be application-based.

Grading will be as follows:

• 30% class participation
• 30% projects/independent research (based on bi-weekly summaries of activities, learnings, and reflections)
• 20% writing assignments (e.g., investment memo, industry reflections)
• 20% final paper (e.g., sector analysis, personal reflection)

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