In this workshop, you'll learn how venture capitalists (VCs) typically value an early-stage innovation-driven venture. To do that we'll go through and give examples on how to forecast sales and how to set pricing, how to forecast expenses and how to figure out the amount of capital needed to finance your business.

While there is a growing awareness and interest in entrepreneurship, for many people it remains an undiscovered country. Full of promise, but completely unknown. In particular, students in sustainability may feel they have even fewer options than their counterparts in business school. To explore this topic, and offer some positive examples of where this path can lead, the MIF is teaming up with the McGill Sustainability Systems Initiative (MSSI) to present a panel discussion.

Now that you have a grasp on how much money you need, this workshop will focus on the "deal". You'll learn what a venture capital fund is, its structure and how they operate, and what venture capitalists (VCs) look for in an early-stage innovation-driven venture. You'll also learn about the typical elements of a term sheet in connection with equity investments and simple agreements for future equity (SAFEs), and caveats when raising money. Finally, we'll explain how a capitalization table works and finish off with a brief overview of minority shareholder rights.