255.11S sec. 001 - Venture Capital in Practice (Summer 2025)
Instructor: Herbert Paul Fockler (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only)
View all teaching evaluations for this course - degree students only
Units: 1
Grading Designation: Credit Only
Mode of Instruction: In-Person
Meeting:
TuWThF 2:00 PM - 5:10 PM
Location: Law 240
From May 27, 2025
To May 30, 2025
Class Number: Click to show Class Number
Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 0
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 34
As of: 02/17 10:14 PM
It's been said that Silicon Valley is the source of the greatest creation of wealth in history. This course will focus on legal and business matters encountered in the day-to-day life of corporate attorneys in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in the U.S. who advise technology and emerging growth startup companies. The course will touch on key issues and events in the life-cycle of a startup, including:
+ Things entrepreneurs should consider when starting a technology-based business.
+ Choices in forming an entity to hold that business.
+ The typical corporate ownership and governance structure of a startup that intends to seek venture capital funding.
+ Seeking early-stage, pre-venture-capital funding.
+ Incentivizing engineers and other key contributors.
+ The process of actually obtaining venture capital funding.
+ The fundamental concepts and basic mechanics of venture capital financing.
In each case, the emphasis will be on business realities and practical solutions, such as what makes for a good business to attract venture capital; how entrepreneurs should seek investment, and the pros and cons of different sources of capital; and how founders and investors interact to allocate between them control of their venture and the risks and rewards from it. The course will be taught using many examples taken from real life.
Professor Fockler has been an attorney for over 40 years in the Corporate and Securities Department of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the nation's leading law firm representing technology and emerging growth companies. He has worked with hundreds of technology companies, from new startups to multi-billion dollar global enterprises, advising them on a wide range of corporate and securities matters, including company formation, structuring and operations; employee equity incentives; venture capital and strategic financings; corporate governance; mergers and acquisitions; initial public offerings; SEC reporting; public company financing and governance; and technology licensing.
Remote + Summer Students PLEASE NOTE: You cannot take Venture Capital in the fall semester if you take it in the summer.
Exam Notes: (TH) Take-home examination
(Subject to change by faculty member only through the first two weeks of instruction)
Course Category: Business Law
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Readers:
No reader.
Books:
Required Books are in blue
- Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist
Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson
Edition: Fourth Edition (2019)
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9781119594826
e-Book Available: unknown
Price: $49.95
Note: prices are sampled from internet bookstores. Law-school Bookstore prices are unavailable at this time.