An Analysis of HBS Case

Walnut Venture Associates are a group of angel investors. In 1997 the club had around a dozen individual investors, forming an “angel group”. Their primary targets are investments ranging from $250,000 to $1,000,000. This is due to the gap of capital funds initiated by the VC’s from not considering investments bellow $1 million. Also, angel investors can acquire significant equity at low cost, and help the growth of the company with their knowledge and expertise. By selecting only the most exceptional people and ideas, investments in startups can lead to massive returns on relatively small investments. As unexperienced entrepreneurs, they are a key resource to have in order to achieve quick growth, and secure the company’s early stages.

Fund flows are positively related to past performance, and better performing partnerships are more likely to raise follow-on funds and larger funds. Figure 1 aggregates the historical returns of Exhibition 1 and compares them to the fund sizes of Accel since 1983 vintage. The graph shows that there is a positive correlation between the historical returns of both the average and upper quartile with the fund size of Accel. However, it can be seen that as returns for top performers and average VC funds decline after 1996, Accel was still able to increase its fund size by 83%. Accel continued ability to raise larger funds implies not only the success of the company’s past strategic performance but also the existing high demand for investing with Accel. Hence, it would be justified that for the latest VC fund Accel has proposed to charge a carried interest of 30% rather than 20%. Our analysis then looks into this latest VC fund, Accel Partners VII, and forecasts the NPV and IRR of the investment under specific standard assumptions. Table 2 shows a part of our NPV and IRR calculations under different steady growth rate. It should be noted that for investors to be indifferent between investing in a typical 20/80 VC fund versus the 30/70 Accel VII fund, Accel must outperform the average in every NPV and IRR

— Often, venture capital firms preserve an appropriate percentage of their funds to participate in follow-on fund raisings

How would people feel if a man came into the women’s bathroom and took their little girl or boy from them? The North Carolina House Bill Two is “an act to provide for single-sex multiple occupancy bathroom and changing facilities in schools and public agencies and to create statewide consistency in regulation of employment and public accommodations (NC Sponsors). The House Bill Two, or HB2 is just a small portion of an underlying issue throughout the country. When it comes to the HB2, people need to put their views aside and think about the bigger issue; safety of women and children. The HB2 law, should be followed just like any other law whether they agree with it or not.

Hart Venture Capital (HVC) specializes in providing venture capital for software development and Internet applications. Currently HVC has two investment opportunities: (1) Security Systems, a firm that needs additional capital to develop an Internet security software package, and (2) Market Analysis, a market research company that needs additional capital to develop a software package for conducting customer satisfaction surveys. In exchange for the Security Systems stock, the firm has asked HVC to provide $600,000 in year 1, $600,000 in year 2, and $350,000 in year 3. In exchange of their stock, Market Analysis has asked HVC to provide $500,000 in year 1, $350,000 in year 2,

Apex Investment Partners was founded in 1987 by James A. Johnson and the First Analysis Corporation. In its eight-year life, the VC had raised three funds. The two first which are already closed had, together, a committed capital of around $70M. There were mainly concentrated in four areas: • • • • Telecommunication, information technology and software. Environmental and industrial productivity-related technologies. Consumer products and specialty retail. Health-care and related technologies.

It is important for stockholders to continuously re-evaluate their investments. Although some investors do this more frequently and thoroughly than others, the majority of shareholders do so at least once each year. Therefore, Torres’ desire to update her analysis in order to determine whether Costco was still operating efficiently makes perfect sense. After thorough examination, my analysis proves that Costco remains one of the industry’s leading competitors and there seems to be no reason for Torres to sell her shares as long as she wishes to retain holdings of a retail wholesale club in her portfolio.

Having buy-in from key stakeholders is crucial for the success of an incentive pay system. For example, if top management does not support such a program, lower-level managers will place little importance on effectively administering the program. Hence, a lack of top management support often leads to a lack of accountability. (Gordon, Kaswin)

Private equity investments are primarily made by private equity firms, venture capital firms, or angel investors, each with their own set of goals, preferences and investment strategies.

Venture Capital is a specific term that refers to funding obtained from a venture capitalist. These are professional serial investors and may be individuals or part of a firm. Often venture capitalists have a niche based on business type and or size and or stage of growth. They are likely to see a lot of proposals in front of them (sometimes hundreds a month), be interested in a few, and invest in even fewer. Around 1-3% of all deals put to a venture capitalist get funded. So, with the numbers that low, you need to be clearly impressive.

Angel investors and venture capitalists also have more access to large amounts of capital and have connections that the current investors do not.

Walnut Venture Associates is a small group of angel investors with backgrounds in the software industry. RBS is a small software company that makes billing and enterprise management software specifically targeted at other software companies. RBS and Walnut are deciding whether Walnut should invest in RBS, and then if they are willing, whether RBS finds the terms of the deal satisfactory. This case memo illustrates that the venture capitalists are looking for good managers in a particular industry, while entrepreneurs typically think funding is dependent on having a good idea. It also discusses why or why not RBS and Walnut might be a good fit for each other.

H.E.B, the 11th largest grocery chain in United States, started 30 years ago. When the company was started, it was a predominantly private label company. Recognizing the customer drawing power of national brands, H.E.B took crucial steps to build a strong national brand presence. HEB was known for its superior quality products, its customer service and a broad assortment of merchandise. Additionally the company’s focus on delivering on its promise of everyday low prices, especially to the low income households that it catered to, was amongst its most critical success factors.

Pfeffer, J. & Sutton, R.I. (2007). Do Financial Incentives drive company performance? Harvard Business School

If the same principles are applied in regards to venture capital and taxes we see that the venture capital people would get $44,088 leaving $132,264 before taxes. Taxes would come to $66,132 leaving an increase in cash of $66,132.