Week 8: Half-Way Reflection

1). Keeping up with assignments and working ahead when I know that I have a busy upcoming schedule have been the most important for me to succeed. We are all college students and by now we all know how to effectively budget time for work, so I would just say time management skills of keeping up with lectures and assignments. One skill I have developed further would definitely be stepping out of my comfort zone. By no means are many of these assignments typical weekly reading quizzes or assessments. I have learned to just go with the flow and know that even if I feel out of my element, I know that I am growing as a person by accomplishing everything thrown my way.

2). I am currently studying abroad, so I am taking this course in Rome, Italy. I believe it is much harder taking this class abroad because for starters, I don’t speak the same language as the people around me. I have wanted to give up on multiple occasions when assignments have required us to interact with our outside environment such as the customer interviews and free money exercises. It is hard enough going out and immersing yourself in a community you are comfortable with and live in, but for me, I can’t even walk into a café and have a conversation with a stranger because of the linguistic barrier. Another challenge to taking this class overseas is that I am always traveling. I only have class in person on Tuesday and Thursday morning, so I travel about 5 days a week, almost every week. Thankfully, we have the option to work ahead in this course, but feeling as if I am always on vacation, it is difficult to get work done and remember that I am a student first. I have definitely developed a tenacious attitude throughout these past few weeks. One thing that sticks out the most was staying up very late and going to a coffee shop with wifi in Milan just to turn in an assignment. I had to be persistent in knowing that I would find a way to make it work even with the jet lag and time difference. Being persistent and prioritizing have been extremely important.

3). My three tips would be be to 1: Work ahead! I know I mentioned this above as one of the ways I have succeeded in this course, but it is an invaluable tool that the assignments are open for us to complete at our own pace. Take advantage of that and never let yourself get behind. 2: Do the extra credit. Not many upper level courses offer extra credit, especially not an entire letter grade, so go ahead and complete the extra credit because you never know when an emergency or something might arise and you won’t be able to complete assignments. 3: Go with the flow. There will be a few assignments descriptions that you will read and not be thrilled about, but I promise it’s better than cramming for an exam. It could be much worse, so I promise stepping out of your comfort zone a few times won’t kill you.

Week 8: Reading Reflection (Chapter 8)

1). The most surprising thing to me was how easy the financing continuum broke down typical funding of start-ups for me. When I first read the title of the chapter, I sort of cringed because I don’t like finance and often have to study in-depth to really understand detailed concepts. By the first diagram, I actually understood the direction of the chapter and an overview of funding. It provided an outline from the beginning that laid a foundation for terms and concepts to follow.

2). There are many different terms in this chapter that are important to differentiate from one another. Although the book does a good job defining each one, I found myself having to go back and look many of them up again just because there are so many of them that they all ran together at certain points. It is just confusing to have all of these financial terms introduced at once because I found myself having to pause and look up the definition again which slowed down the reading.

3). My first question would be where he came up with the five myths about venture capitalists? Although I understand the larger purpose was to explain that that these are not the case, I was unfamiliar with the majority of the myths he had listed. I am by no means a finance expert, but I found it interesting that those were the five he decided to list when I would have never even thought of most of them. My second question would be how he determines the essential elements for a successful presentation to a venture capitalist? Many of them are common sense such as know the competition, be able to adapt, and have a unique product. My question would just be how he specifically assembled his list in particular and what made those factors be of extra importance than others.

4). There was nothing that I disagreed with in this chapter. This was one of the most detailed chapters in my opinion in terms of systematically explaining a new concept that many people are extremely unfamiliar with. Explaining finance and capital can be very complicated, but I thought the author did a good job going into just enough detail to make it thorough, yet understandable to someone potentially reading it in-depth for the first time.