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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Startup Valuation Methods by Duke University

4.4
stars
679 ratings

About the Course

How do different types of investors think about an investment opportunity? What kind of securities and contracts do they offer? How should a company decide what is a "good deal"? This course is designed to introduce you to the challenges and pitfalls of financing new enterprises. You will learn the basic tools for valuating companies, including using discounted cashflow analysis in Excel and understanding how to apply this model to your entrepreneurial venture. You will then learn how valuation works with different types of securities that investors use to finance startups, from bank loans to venture capital to angel investing....

Top reviews

CK

Apr 30, 2020

The best ever online course one could find. It is worth every single minute spent. Thank you so much for offering this course. And really so happy to complete this course. Much love to the professor.

NB

Mar 2, 2021

Learned lots of new valuation techniques, it was well crafted and smoothly presented by the professors. The tests were also in line with the course and very helpful in understanding the concepts.

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26 - 50 of 201 Reviews for Startup Valuation Methods

By Omar S

Nov 7, 2021

It's a great course in terms of giving any whose interested in the basics & slightly more technical aspects of VC, startup valuation and financial modelling. I would suggest that candidates give it 2-3 revisions before attempting quizzes as they can get tricky! Overall great course! To some of the lecturers, i would suggest they be revised, specifically for Week 3 & Week 4 as I found the lecturers to rush a little too fast past the more technical topics.

By Sourabh S N

Jul 5, 2020

Certain Concepts could be explained more clearly by walking through the calculations. Specifically to Week 3 - Option Pool. Self learning lead to Cap-Table method which is much easier way to calculate and understand option pools, but then numeric answers don't match. Walking through and example and clearly specifying the assumptions will be helpful.

By Mikhail V

Sep 5, 2020

The course itself is valuable, however, at some point, additional explanation is lacking and would be of great importance. (Week 2-3)

By Michael M

Oct 19, 2020

Covered some very useful and interesting concepts that are applicable to the VC industry. However, the content and teaching of week 3 are confusing and inconsistent unlike week 1 and 2. In particular, the option pool and required equity stake calculations were poorly explained and there are inconsistencies with what was taught, the practice quiz, and the graded quiz when it came to dilution effects.

By Spencer P

Jul 3, 2020

Course material is very poorly explained beginning in Week 3. Examples are not completed. Quiz questions reference material not taught during the lectures. And examples that are completed either skip over important calculations or are better explained in forums and sub-reddits.

By Ong J W

May 10, 2020

This course is a bit technical. For me, a lot of concepts and calculation in week 3 and week 4 are poorly or insufficiently explained. It required a lot of thinking and logical reasoning before arriving to the answers in the quiz.

By Greyson L

Jun 10, 2020

The first two weeks were well made but the second two weeks were often sparsely explained. The quiz in the middle of the first week has material not covered by that point. The discussion of option pools was far too limited.

By Prashanth S

Aug 9, 2020

This course gives an good idea "How Startup valuations differ from mature companies and terminologies and methods used among VC markets and Angel investors. Sill week 3 and 4 could be more extensive and collaborative

By Patrick H

Mar 5, 2020

The general concepts were pretty good and well presented, but there were errors in the lecture slides and I found some of the concepts difficult to understand from what they presented.

By Djafarov O

Feb 1, 2021

In Option pool and Anti-dilution lessons the calculations were not explained in details. One had to go to third-party sites like investopedia to have an understanding.

By Kirthi S G

Oct 27, 2020

I personally felt that the concept required to answer questions in the quizzes were not suitably addressed in the video lectures.

By Stefan M

Jan 18, 2021

In general a good course, but the quiz part was difficult as some questions did not match to what has been teached before.

By Fernando B

Apr 30, 2020

Week 3 is very important however overall the classes were not very clear with a lot of exercise uncomplicated .

By Holger S

Feb 14, 2022

week 3 and 4 were not as good as week 1 and 2. slides contained errors and some obnoxious gotcha questions.

By Francisco R

Apr 22, 2021

Very useful information, but the quizzes were very difficult and you only had 1 attempt every 24 hours...

By Nikesh G

May 16, 2021

Videos are confusing on lots of places and there is not enough reading material provided.

By Aliza

Aug 26, 2020

Good but practical problems are beyond the material which was taught during the lectures.

By Ayman D

Nov 16, 2020

Many classes are not clear enough or require more explanation.

By Gerbert M

Mar 7, 2021

First two weeks are way better than last two weeks.

By Marlon M P

Aug 24, 2020

Week 3 very unclear

By Luciano R

Apr 13, 2020

First part is very valuable. Second part really unclear

By saksham s

Sep 6, 2020

The Course suffers from lack of in-depth explanation

By Het D

Apr 24, 2020

I enjoyed the course, the lectures were kept short and precise. The notes contained all the important information and summarised well, and most importantly as an entrepreneur, the course detailed on each aspect I am currently focussed on. What I did find uncomfortable was that it was based on the perspective of VC's and Angel Investors, I often found the lectures being a bit insensitive on the sentiment of an entrepreneur. I am not sure if you would have received such a review before, but honestly, this is the only thing that made me a bit uncomfortable in this then otherwise amazing course. Thanks!

By Bill S

Jul 27, 2020

Great course; would like to finish the specialisation if I had the funds; Would recommend to anyone. Had a great deal of fun while learning a great deal, too! I liked most how some of the answers weren't spoon-fed to us; some of the answers are hidden. There are concepts and formulations that we are expected to pick up on-the-fly, but that only adds to the value that you can earn from picking up this course. Would definitely run through this course in 3 months or so just to refresh; these concepts seem super foundational to company valuation; it kinda makes me wish I had a degree in finance...

By Jasmine K

Aug 26, 2023

Good to improve knowledge in venture capital. Suitable for VC investors who want to learn valuation methods e.g comparative/ DCF, etc. Extremely informative. Content clearly recorded and concept easy to understand. Brief legal knowledge taught as well regarding types of securities a startup can offer angel investors, and calculations regarding option pool, anti-dilution measures. Improvements: providing working solutions to quiz.