Top 10 Executive Courses for Venture Capital and Private Equity

Oxford Saïd runs the Venture Finance Programme, which gives participants insight into how startups are financed from the perspective of investors and entrepreneurs. The eight-week course, taught part-time and delivered online, provides practical skills to navigate the funding process, assess valuations, determine financial projections and choose an exit strategy.

The Wharton School offers a five-day in-person course entitled Venture Capital. It is designed for both investors and business owners. These participants come away with a better understanding of how venture capital works, the best-practice approaches for sourcing, screening and valuing deals – as well as how to design contracts that protect investors and founders.

Venture Capital: Investing in Early-Stage Startups, is an executive education course offered by Columbia Business School in New York City, the global financial center. Delivered online or in person over five days, the course provides a deep dive into venture capital and angel investing, equipping participants with the skills to evaluate and monitor potential opportunities. They develop strategies to lower risk and boost returns.

London Business School’s Venture Capital executive education course is an intensive four-day program delivered on campus in the UK capital, a financial hub. From origination to due diligence, deal structuring, portfolio management and term sheet negotiation, participants improve their venture capital skills and compare best practices across the investment cycle.

Harvard Business School offers the Private Equity and Venture Capital course, taught in-person over three days in Boston. Participants explore the numerous challenges that investors face over market cycles. They examine the full range of industry models, from growth equity to buyouts, and learn how to build more effective investment strategies, as well as define their approach in the face of rapidly changing conditions.

UC Berkeley offers the Venture Capital Executive Program, in which participants learn how to select and secure VC deals, develop a comprehensive investment strategy and gain a deeper understanding of corporate venture capital. Berkeley leverages its location in the heart of Silicon Valley, with participants interacting with venture investors from the global innovation cluster. The course lasts for five days in-person, or two weeks online.

Spain’s IE Business School offers the Venture Capital course, which focuses on investing in high-growth companies. Participants hone their financial and interpersonal skills through coursework that combines academic theory with real-world case studies and practical group projects. They learn how to screen, valuate, carrying out due diligence, negotiate, manage the portfolio and finally exit the company.

London’s Imperial College Business School runs the Private Equity course, which explores the critical issues for the parties involved in a private capital transaction, including investors, banks, founders, shareholders and advisors. The 11-week online course covers topics such as raising equity and debt, growth capital, leveraged buyouts and distressed investing. Participants also discover the wide array of career opportunities in the industry.

The London School of Economics runs the Effective Asset Management executive education program. On this highly interactive, one-week course that’s delivered on campus, participants deepen their understanding of best practices in the broad investment management industry. This includes recognizing and assessing key strategies in private equity and venture capital.

WHU offers the executive education program called “Value Creation in Private Equity and Venture Capital” from Düsseldorf, Germany. Over two days, participants learn how venture capital works in each stage of the investment lifecycle and how investors manage their portfolios. They also learn the financing techniques and tools commonly used in leveraged buyout transactions. The executives get to network with investment firms in the local area.