Instructors

Description

This course focuses on developing and applying the financial skills that are needed to successfully manage commercial and social enterprises. Students will learn how to construct a financial business plan for a startup, analyze and contrast the financial statements of existing companies, and evaluate business opportunities to optimize financial outcomes and avoid financial peril. Students will also learn about the different forms of company financing and how professional investors and lenders evaluate companies. By the end of the course students will understand how to financially position a company to maximize its potential of raising appropriate capital. The course is taught through a variety of readings, problem sets, case studies and team exercises. It is hands-on.

This course has a rigorous workload, yet is often mentioned in senior surveys as the most informative and relevant course they have taken at Tufts. This includes the numerous problem sets and Harvard Business School cases previously mentioned, as well as a capstone term project where each student will create a fully vetted financial plan for a startup or existing company. After taking the course students will gain a mastery of how to:

1. analyze the financial statements of a company
2. build pro forma financial statements for new product (or service) initiatives, department budgets within a company, or a simple business
3. quantify and apply core financial return concepts such as net present value, internal rate of return, multiple on investment, payback, ROI, leveraged versus unleveraged return, dilution, and break-even analysis to vital business applications
4. apply the financial principles to evaluate a new product or business idea, and its impact on the financial health and performance of the business
5. complete a simple valuation of a business and construct its enterprise value, market value of equity, post-money value and pre-money value