Corporate Finance
This financial statement provides a snapshot of a company's assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific point in time.
What is the balance sheet?
This type of exit strategy involves selling shares of a private company to the public for the first time.
What is an Initial Public Offering (IPO)?
Private equity firms typically invest in these types of companies that are not publicly traded.
What are private companies?
This document outlines the terms and conditions of a venture capital investment.
What is a term sheet?
This is almost always the first question you will be asked in an interview.
Tell me about yourself/Walk me through your resume.
This metric is used to measure a company's ability to cover its short-term obligations with its most liquid assets.
What is the current ratio?
If you could only choose 1 financial statement and you wanted to assess the overall health of a company - which statement would you choose and why?
Cash Flow Statement - shows how much cash the company is generating and cash flow shows the financial health of a company.
Private equity firms typically use this type of financing to increase returns on their investments.
What is leverage (debt)?
This TV show features entrepreneurs presenting their business ideas to a panel of wealthy investors, hoping to secure funding and strategic partnerships.
What is Shark Tank?
Name two companies that came into FA this semester.
Plante Moran, Polaris, Equitable, GM
This division provides senior management with a forecast of the company's profit and loss and operating performance for the upcoming quarter and year. This division informs management on the progress and effectiveness of the company's investments as well as prepares a budget.
Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A)
A detailed review and analysis of a potential investment or company's finances and operations to understand risks before making a deal.
What is due diligence?
This term refers to the stage when private equity firms purchase a controlling stake in a mature company.
What is a buyout?
This term refers to the initial round of founding provided to startups by venture capital firms.
What is seed funding?
How long should your tell me about yourself response be?
1 - 1.5 minutes
A globally recognized professional certification for investment and financial management professionals, focused on investment analysis, portfolio management, and ethical standards.
What is the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst)?
List the 3 primary valuation methodologies.
1. Comparable Company Analysis (Trading Comps)
2. Precedent Transactions Analysis (Transaction Comps)
3. Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Analysis
This type of firm raises funds from investors like pension funds, endowments, and high-net-worth individuals to invest in private companies.
What is a private equity firm?
Venture capitalists typically invest in these companies, which are young and have high growth potential.
What are startups?
This resource located in Broad provides mock interviews, resume help, cover letters, headshots, and career advising.
Russell Palmer Career Management Center
Walk me through the 3 financial statements.
Income Statement gives the company’s revenue and expenses, and goes down to Net Income.
Balance Sheet shows the company’s Assets – its resources – such as Cash, Inventory and PP&E, as well as its Liabilities – such as Debt and Accounts Payable – and Shareholders’ Equity. Assets must equal Liabilities plus Shareholders’ Equity.
Cash Flow Statement begins with Net Income, adjusts for non-cash expenses and working capital changes, and then lists cash flow from investing and financing activities; at the end, you see the company’s net change in cash.
This valuation method calculates the present value of a company by projecting its future cash flows and discounting them back using a specific rate.
What is a Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis?
This is the fee structure typically used by private equity firms, consisting of a percentage of assets under management (AUM) and a share of profits.
What are the 2 and 20 fees? 2% management fee and 20% carried interest
This metric evaluates how much revenue a startup generates relative to its operational expenses, often used by VCs to assess financial efficiency.
What is the burn rate?
This is the name for a brief, compelling description of who you are and what you bring to the table, typically used in networking.
What is an elevator pitch?