Explanations to the inner workings of one of the least understood, but arguably most important, areas of business finance is offered to readers in this engaging volume: venture capital. Venture capitalists provide necessary investment to seed (or startup) companies, but the startup is only the beginning, there is much more to be explored. These savvy investors help guide young entrepreneurs, who likely have little experience, to turn their businesses into the Googles, Facebooks, and Groupons of the world. This book explains the often-complex methods venture capitalists use to value companies and to get the most return on their investments, or ROI. This book is a must-have for any reader interested in the business world.

From nineteenth-century whaling to a multitude of firms pursuing entrepreneurial finance today, venture finance reflects a deep-seated tradition in the deployment of risk capital in the United States. Tom Nicholas’s history of the venture capital industry offers a roller coaster ride through America’s ongoing pursuit of financial gain.

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: In today s modern economy a country s or region s competitiveness lies in its capability to innovate. Whilst earlier old and established companies were reliable producers of innovation as well as jobs, that is changing. The big corporations are outsourcing and downsizing, and the new technologies are emerging from companies that did not exist 20 years ago . This quotation taken from the Handbook of Research on Venture Capital points out the increasing relevance of the Schumpeterian growth regime of today s advanced economies which means that growth and wealth is unlikely to be maximized if most new business developments are carried out by old long-existing corporations. While in Europe only few global champions have been created in the past 50 years the United States economy seems to be capable of continuously creating great, leading-edge companies. Why is Europe lagging behind in enabling new ventures to become global champions? Why are successful high growth companies like Amazon, AMD, AOL, Apple, Cisco Systems, eBay, Genentech, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo and recently Google all US based corporations and not of European or Japanese origin? One reason is seen in the outstanding capability of the US economy to put innovative business ideas from individuals, universities and other research institutions into practice and thus create with the help of a well developed venture capital industry new global champions. A strong and sophisticated VC industry is widely recognised for providing a major contribution to turn innovation into (internationally) successful high-growth corporations and therewith foster economic growth. Taking Germany as the largest economy in Europe this thesis will try to work out the main differences of the VC market in Germany - which is still considered as lagging behind - and its correspondent in the United States. While most of the previous comparative studies focus on single aspects of the VC market and the VC investment process this work will try to provide a brief but comprehensive empirical analysis of the entire venture capital investment process (from fundraising to exiting investments). As business in general and the venture capital industry in particular is considered to be increasingly influenced by socio-economic and cultural factors this thesis draws special attention to differences related to the influence of culture on both VC markets. Hence it will be [...]

"Innovation and entrepreneurship are ubiquitous today, both as fields of study and as starting points for conversations among experts in government and economic development. But while these areas on continue to attract public and private investments, many measurements of their resulting economic growth-including productivity growth and business dynamism-have remained modest. Why this difference? Because not all business sectors are the same, and the transformative gains of some industries have been offset by stagnation or contraction in others. Accordingly, a nuanced understanding of the economy requires a nuanced understanding of where innovation and entrepreneurship occur and where they matter. Answering these questions allows for strategic public investment and the infrastructure for economic growth.The Role of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Economic Growth, the latest entry in the NBER conference series, seeks to codify these answers. The editors leverage industry studies to identify specific examples of productivity improvements enabled by innovation and entrepreneurship, including those from new production technologies, increased competition, new organizational forms, and other means. Taken together, the volume illuminates whether the contribution of innovation and entrepreneurship to economic growth is likely to be concentrated, be it selected sectors or more broadly"--