This is the final word on my final Fall 2009 class. To be clear, Venture Capital was a class that I took at the law school (I know that many MBA programs offer courses by the same name).
- Getting into the Class. No problems here. The class was fairly small (~20 students).
- Deliverables. None other than the final exam, which was a 90 minute, in-class, closed-book exam.
- Reading Assignments. No text. One-off cases and news articles were the only assigned readings. Sounds great, right? It was, since I was taking such a heavy courseload last semester. Because I wanted more depth in the substance that was presented in class, I spent a lot of time reading various blogs written by VCs or lawyers that explored course topics in detail. The two blogs that I found most useful for this purpose were Feld Thoughts by Brad Feld and Startup Company Lawyer by Wilson Sonsini parter Yokum Taku.
- The Professor. She was fair and practical, but if you like a lot of structure, you will probably struggle with her style. Overall, I am just thankful that someone is teaching this course at the law school (in order to justify all the outside reading I’ve done in this area) and that the someone is a young, female professor. This was the first transactional class I’ve taken that has been taught by a female professor, yet alone a young one, and it is meaningful to me to see a woman at the front of the classroom. She practiced in this area before entering academia and, as I’ve said many times at this url, I appreciate law professors with practical experience.
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