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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Private Equity and Venture Capital by Università Bocconi

4.8
stars
7,923 ratings

About the Course

The course deals with the analysis of the private equity and venture capital business. Over the course, students will be provided with a deep understanding of the mechanism underpinning the creation and/or development of a firm and the financial support it can get from the financial system through venture capital investment. The course tries to discover how special financial intermediaries (called private equity investors) finance through equity companies belonging to different stages of their life-cycle, starting from the very beginning (startup and early stage) to a more mature phase (i.e. expansion, mature age, etc.) or also staying into crises and decline. Private equity (named venture capital when the company is in the first phases of its life cycle) deals with very different activities, such as scouting, advisory, deal-making, valuation, and financing as financial intermediaries see it. COURSE SYLLABUS The course is made up of four different modules: WEEK 1 - Introduction to Private Equity and Venture Capital WEEK 2 - Discovering Private Equity Investors: Legal Issues and Taxation WEEK 3 - Management of Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds WEEK 4 - Company Valuation And Deal Making In Private Equity Settings WEEK 5 - Final Test Throughout the course, guest speakers and practitioners will be interviewed to provide some examples of concrete applications of the contents presented. RECOMMENDED BACKGROUND An understanding of the basic concepts of corporate financing accounting principles is required, while prior knowledge of private equity and venture capital is not required however it is recommended, as this is a course designed to introduce you to the fundamental concepts in private equity and venture capital....

Top reviews

TP

Oct 26, 2019

Excellent content, and superb slides.

Please check the quality of the English in the slides, and also in the quiz questions. Many quiz questions were difficult to understand because of the English.

AM

Dec 3, 2015

Amazing course! Thank you very much, Stefano Caselli, for a such wonderful content and perfect presenting. I took a lot of very useful and practical information from it.

I do appreciate it. Thanks!

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1476 - 1500 of 1,784 Reviews for Private Equity and Venture Capital

By Clément R

Apr 30, 2019

A fairly good introduction to Venture Capital and Private Equity (PE). The course gives you a good helicopter view of what is PE and how it works. It focuses on main characteristics definitions, structures, tax treatment and investment process. The course is mostly for beginners and in my opinion too superficial for investment professionals. Especially when it comes valuation in investment process.

The author should review the learning material because it is full of typos.

A good course overall if you haven't heard about PE before.

By Mohd M

Sep 8, 2021

It is a good course for building up the base. It can be a launching pad for diving deep into Private Equity & Venture Capital. Prof Stefano Caselli's presentation was good in terms of communication and understanding of the course. It's value can be enhanced by adding practical assignments including case studies. It is advised that Bocconi university may launch another course with higher degree of complexity as PE & VC is not a simple area of finance & investment.

Thank you Prof Stafano. Best regards.

Mohd Mateen

By Mauro B

May 25, 2018

This was a very good course that deals with a complex issue in a very simple and didactic manner. Notwithstanding, my critical comment is with regard to the formulas and calculations for the Company Valuation which I am afraid were not very well explained both in the slides and videos, thus imposing difficulties on my understanding of this specific subject matter and also to apply it for answering the quizzes. Thank you for providing such an interesting course and for sharing such knowledge!

By M.Vishwajeeth

Apr 25, 2021

The course is really worthy as it builds a strong base and fundamental knowledge about PE & VC. This course provides good theoretical knowledge of how a company works in this industry, but the calculations (practical) part is where it gets a little tricky to follow. Although, if you are an accounting, finance, business or commerce student it's much easier to keep track of the lessons. Cheers! to those who want to do this course and to those who have finish it.

By Jayaditya J

May 31, 2017

This course provides a good insight in the world of Private Equity and Venture Capital. Being a beginner, the content was quite easy to understand. However, some concepts and the math can get a bit intense and too detailed. In the span of five weeks, the number of concepts and topics covered is mammoth! The startup simulator in week 5 was very helpful. I loved it! Thus, if you want to get a fair idea of what PE and VC is, this is the right course!

By Konstantinos K

Dec 31, 2019

Stefano Caselli is truly an excellent professor! He organised his material in such a structured way that makes it very easy to assimilate so much information. Even though the numerical examples are a bit introductory and providing some more examples could be useful, overall, the lesson is an excellent platform to build upon. Finally, the Discussion forums are quite active, a special thanks to Guenter Leonhardt for sharing his knowledge with us!

By David Y D

Feb 27, 2017

The course offers clear explanations and is very well structured.. We do not get lost into technicalities, the material is straight to the point. Moreover, the videos are of great quality which makes the learning even more easy.

A little disappointed by the finance approach though, which is too simple and makes very rough assumptions.

One last point (and I cannot emphasize this enough) : the propose Simulator is a great learning tool.

By Stephen

Aug 24, 2021

The course gave a good overview of the foundations of the Venture Capital and Private Equity industries in Europe and America. It also gave a basic foundation of how to conduct financial valuations for early stage and late stage corporations.

However, there were some typing and sequence numbering in the slides and the questions could have been more specific and contextual. This needs to be revised to sustain professionalism.

By Christoph B

Dec 16, 2018

Great overview of PE & VC especially for newcomers to the field. Good choice of level of details, in line with the expected work load. Wording and precision in exam questions could be improved as questions and MC answers are a bit tough to understand properly in some cases. Maybe a language check by a native speaker could help to clarify some exam questions/answer options and the lecture material.

By Nicolas D

May 27, 2018

Thank you for this course that provides great insight to the world of private equity and venture capitalists. The only weak spot was with the start-up simulation that didn't work, which is quite a shame. I would have really loved using it and being able to practise the knowledge I gained on cases.

Anyway, thank you for this course and wish you the best for any endeavour the future holds.

By Andre C

Apr 15, 2018

A good course to learn the basic models and mechanics of PE & VC. The slides were a very helpful compliment to the course videos, and a good tool for future reference.

The content could have been more dynamic, however. There could have been more variation in delivery than the pure lecture model. Also, i didn't find the practitioner interviews very helpful.

Thanks though for a good course!

By Laurent T

Feb 3, 2018

Great Course! Really useful to get an overview of PE world. Some people were complaining about the lecturer accent but it was totally fine with me. I think the calculation part of the course could be better explained. I really struggled to understand how it worked... Good that the test didn't have too many question related to these calculations. I learned a lot from the course! Thanks!

By Ashwin N S

Nov 12, 2017

Gives an in-out view of the PE/VC industry of the world. The course is very structured and contains many interviews giving practical exposure. The professor, interviewees, study groups, activities and material provided justifies the great quality of the course. Highly recommended for starters, finance enthusiasts, knowledge gainers, working professionals and entrepreneurs !

By Tomas S

Mar 22, 2020

Nice introduction to the methods and standards of PE world. It is a great approach into the business laying out the basics and common methods.

It has a certain complexity on the accounting side but it is very well explained so you will probably have no trouble. Would have appreciated more accounting practice and deeper insight into VC business, such as a business case.

By Quinty M

Apr 12, 2020

Very comprehensive overview of the basics of PE & VC. Clear explanations of main concepts. Sometimes much information was compressed into a single module. Since Bocconi is an international business institute, I would have expected a more international selection of guest speakers. Updated material with relevant examples could provide additional value to the course.

By JP B

Jul 24, 2019

This course offers a comprehensive view of the VC and PE world. The background of both industries as well as the hard financial portion of the course were in depth and clear. The only recommendation I have is for the formula portions of the Quiz, it would be helpful to see explanations for wrong answers as well, not only for correct responses.

By Elena P

Dec 15, 2015

It's difficult to find university courses that are more hands-on other than theoretical, which is definetely the case with this Private Equity and Venture Capital course. It helped me refresh previous knowledge, while at the same time providing insight into practical matters such as regulation, regional differences as well as

By Brad D

Sep 15, 2019

Very interesting course and the basics are covered very well. However, I think the detail around the valuations and calculation of returns/fees could be done a little slower and a bit more clearly as there is a lot of detail. I would definitely advise making print outs of the slides and working through actual examples.

By Timo P

Aug 3, 2017

A lot of effort was put in the study material such as the slides as well as the video lecture. Valuation methods were explained very well. I can recommend to make the course a six week programm and explain an LBO Analysis. That is the only reason I did not give a 5 star rating. Other than that great course after all.

By Thato S N

Apr 24, 2018

I really enjoyed this course, gave more of a technical view of how PE works instead of just the buying and selling of businesses. I also like the considerations around the evolution of PE through Crowd Funding and SPACs etc, if there could be a specialist course on these areas as well that would be even better.

By Akshay B

Sep 17, 2021

The course provides in depth knowledge of the world of Private equity & Venture capital. Anyone who is completely new to this domain should take this course as the course has been designed in a way to convey ideas and teach concepts in a very simple and clear manner. I am glad that i took this course.

By Rhishabh J

May 1, 2020

Th course is really necessary to explore you knowledge in Finance area and to understand the valuation of every type of company. Valuation is very important in the life of every company whether it is mature company or a start-up. Also, the course is helpful if one is aiming to become an Entrepreneur.

By santosh k

Jul 2, 2017

The module was well structured. And content was basic enough to understand followed by simulationon.

During each video there was few questions which made it very engaging. Excel sheet with calculation of different parameters is also useful. I would suggest some more reading material be given.

By Karthik T

Sep 26, 2019

The course was more practical than theoretical which is good. It would've been better if the calculations were done a whiteboard in a manner that the process could be seen. It's a completely new topic for me, so I came in with no expectations and I was very please with the end result.

By Pulkit S

May 16, 2021

A brilliant course for PE/VC beginners/enthusiasts. It is a well-structured course with great clips for each topic. We need to dedicate a lot of time to practice the valuation models ourselves since the application aspect cannot really be comprehended well in an online medium.