About the Class
Faculty
Introduction to the substance and process of funding technology startups. Topics include a comparative analysis of various sources of capital; templates to identify the optimal investor; legal frameworks, US and offshore, of the investment process and its related jargon; an introduction to understanding venture capital as a business; and market practice and standards for term sheet negotiation. Emphasizes strategy as well as tactics necessary to negotiate and build effective, long-term relationships with investors, particularly venture capital firms (VCs).
Shari Loessberg
Shari Loessberg is a Senior Lecturer in Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
She is an experienced entrepreneur and investor in established and emerging markets. She has particular experience in emerging market venture capital fund formation, entrepreneurship in emerging economies, and the evolving issues and standards of corporate governance in the United States and abroad. She has served on and led a number of public, private and non-profit boards, and is active in a number of educational programs on board education globally.
At MIT, Loessberg focuses on entrepreneurial ecosystem acceleration as a faculty member of the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program, with a primary interest around increasing access to capital. Her teaching focuses on increasing student engagement with and learning from emerging and frontier market startups, scaleups, and ecosystems globally, as well as engaging science and engineering students with venture capital and other funding sources in entrepreneurship.
Loessberg holds an AB from Georgetown University and a JD from the University of Texas.