Lawyers and Entrepreneurship Boalt Room 111 Mondays, 9:00 to 10:50 2 Units Course Description Research Projects Grading

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1 Lawyers and Entrepreneurship Boalt Room 111 Mondays, 9:00 to 10:50 2 Units Instructors: Robert J. Majteles Office: Phone: rob@treehousecapital.com Course Description Lawyers can become great entrepreneurs. Even a cursory look across the entrepreneurial landscape reveals lawyers leading many great companies, from start-up to established enterprises, and leading many great and dynamic investment firms with all manner of strategies. Still, too many business attorneys don t grasp what it truly means to add value, and too few law students set about to purposefully use their legal education to help them become great entrepreneurs. Learning, as lawyers do, how to locate, define and champion clarity out of confusing and conflicting fact patterns is wonderful training for any entrepreneur. In addition, lawyers and entrepreneurs both benefit greatly from learning how to balance the demands of being a great, subjective, advocate while at the same time being disciplined by the objective facts. This course will focus on business plans and investment screens as a way to provide students with a deep understanding of the building blocks of any entrepreneurial endeavor whether it is from the operating or the investing side of business life. This class will depend upon rigorous and dynamic student classroom participation and will utilize readings, case-studies and guest speakers to help students learn to develop, critique, and utilize business plans and investment screens. In addition, the guest speakers all current or former lawyers, some practicing law and some active as investors or operating managers, will share their views of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship and the ways in which their legal backgrounds contributed to their own professional successes. Research Projects Students will work in teams to research, develop, write and present a business plan and an investment screen. Grading Students grades will be determined as follows: 65% based on the research project and 35% based on class participation.

2 Syllabus & Class Schedule I. Section One: Introduction The first set of classes will provide an overview of the course and of business plans and investment screens and the purposes they serve. A.) Class 1: Course Introduction and Overview Date: Sept. 8, 2008 Discussion: Introduction and Introductions What is a business plan? How do you write one? Why is it useful? Why is it not useful? Who uses it and why? What is an investment screen? How do you write one? Why is it useful? Why is it not useful? Who uses it and why? Structure of, and expectations for, the class II. Section Two: Business Plans The second set of classes will focus on business plan how and why to create them, how and when to use them. This section of classes will culminate in student teams authoring business plans and presenting them in summary fashion to the class. A.) Class 2: Business Plan Basics Date: Sept. 15, 2008 Case: Pure Software Case: EROX Corporation B.) Class 3: Business Plan Basics Date: Sept. 22, 2008 Reading: How to Write a Great Business Plan Guest Speaker: Jon Norberg, Contego Capital Project Deliverable: Final Teams and Three Proposed Business Plan Concepts NO Class Date: Sept. 29, 2008

3 C.) Class 4: Business Plan Basics Date: Oct. 6, 2008 Reading: Crossing the Chasm, pp 3 to 59 Guest Speaker: John Milani Project Deliverable: Business Plan Concept Outline D.) Class 5: Business Models Date: Oct. 13, 2008 Reading: Why Business Models Matter Guest Speaker: Jon Gavenman, Heller Ehrman E.) Class 6: Business Models and Comparative Advantage Date: Oct. 13, 2008 Case: Tivo (2003) Case: Accrue Software, Inc Project Deliverable: Business Plan F.) Class 7: How Do Investors Evaluate Opportunities? Date: Oct. 27, 2008 Reading: How Venture Capitalists Evaluate Potential Opportunities Guest Speaker: Chris Nicholson, Vector Capital G.) Class 8: Student Presentations Date: Nov. 3, 2008

4 III. Section Three: Investment Screens The third set of classes will focus on investment screens how and why to create them, how and when to use them. This section of classes will culminate in student teams authoring investment screens and presenting them in summary fashion to the class. B.) Class 9: Great Investment Process at Work Date: Nov. 10, 2008 Case: Maverick Case: Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co., 2001 Project Deliverable: Final Teams C.) Class 10: Thinking About Human Capital Date: Nov. 17, 2008 Reading: Right Away and All at Once: How We Saved Continental Reading: Retention through Redemption Guest Speaker: Hildy Shandell, Opus Capital D.) Class 11: What is a Company Worth? Date: Nov. 24, 2008 Case: Numeric Investors L.P. Reading: How Fair Value and Target Price Differ?, Debbie S. Wang, Morningstar Reading: Chapter 9 Qualitative and Quantitative Factors in Security Analysis and the Margin of Safety Concept from Graham and Dodd s Security Analysis Discussion: What is the basis for performing fundamental financial investment analysis? E. ) Class 12: Make the Investment? Date: De. 1, 2008 Case: StorageNetworks Case: Framework

5 IV. Section Four: Conclusion: Ethics and Decision-Making Date: Dec 8, 2008 Reading: Venture Capital Vignettes Supplemental Reading: Ethics in Venture Capital Discussion: Doing Right and Doing Well Project Deliverable: Investment Screen Instructor s Biography Robert J. Majteles: Mr. Majteles is the founder of Treehouse Capital LLC ( which he founded in order to make investments of time and money in interesting people doing worthy things. Treehouse s portfolio of private and public technology companies have been very successful in a wide array of markets and circumstances. Prior to launching Treehouse in 2001, Mr. Majteles was a successful CEO of three different technology companies and generated superior investment returns for his shareholders. In addition, Mr. Majteles has also been an investment banker and a merger and acquisitions attorney. Mr. Majteles received a law degree from Stanford University in 1989 and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University in Mr. Majteles is also a Lecturer at both the graduate and undergraduate levels at the University of California, Berkeley.