Startup Toolbox Workshop

Agenda

Entrepreneurial finance.  The financial metrics you need to focus on in a startup venture. Translating your business model into financial projections.  Understanding cash flow.  Projecting revenues and expenses.  Estimating startup costs and capital expenditures.

Building the venture team.  Who should be on the initial team and when do you add people.  Why you should strive for balance.  When do you give out Founders stock.  How to create a shared vision.  Who should be on your Advisory Board.  When do you need a Board of Directors and what is the best composition.  When to grant stock options and to whom.

Venture capital.  Angel/seed versus venture capital.  Which is appropriate at what stage.  How vc’s are different than angels.   How angels invest.  How  venture capital works.  The structure and needs of venture funds. What is a  venture portfolios.  What type of returns does a typical portfolio earn.  Timeframes in which vc’s expect return from their investment.   How investors make money from their ventures.  How investors will value your business.  The process of raising capital.

Pitch training.  The elements of a pitch.  Things to say and not to say.  How long it should be.  What investors consider are the three most important elements of a business.    Designing slides for optimal communication.  How much material belongs on each slide.  Storytelling, how to capture the audience.  Use of videos to message.  Pitch practice.

Speaker

Stephanie Marrus is Director of the Entrepreneurship Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), the leading graduate healthcare/life science and medical institution in the US.    

During a 25-year plus business career, she has worked with hundreds of companies in science- and technology-
based industries as a corporate executive, business consultant and mentor, many with their technological roots at MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford and UCSF.    In addition to her business career, she served as Deputy Secretary of Economic Affairs for a Massachusetts governor where she led economic development, business policy and chaired an environmental cleanup fund board.  

She has been president of a medical research foundation and serves on the Advisory Board of a social venture startup accelerator.

Stephanie has had roles as CEO, COO and VP Business Development for public and private companies, led business development and M&A transactions, headed corporate development, strategy, marketing, communications and investor relations.  Her sector experience is in technology, life sciences/healthcare and consumer products.  

She has translated her business experience to the classroom and teaches experiential courses in entrepreneurship globally.  In addition to teaching at UCSF, Berkeley and Stanford, she has lectured in Europe, Latin America and Asia.  

She has been affiliated with Stanford University’s Technology Ventures Program and UC Berkeley’s entrepreneurship programs. She holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, an MA from Columbia University and an AB from Cornell University.