How to Value a Business or Investment

Learn how to determine if an investment in your business will be profitable and use those same concepts to value an entire business.

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Meet Your Instructors

Nic Barnhart

Cofounder & CPO, Pareto Labs
Finance/Analytics, ZipRecruiter

Tommy Moreno

Cofounder & CEO, Pareto Labs
Strategic Planning, Disney

Elaine Paul

CFO, Lyft
CFO, Hulu

Matt Kuta

President, Voyager Space Hldg
Private Equity, Goldman Sachs

Nick Van Dyk

Chief Strategy Officer, Nexon
SVP, The Walt Disney Co.

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Curriculum

01

Introduction to Valuation

We introduce you to the basic terminology and concepts of valuation and give you a preview of what you will learn in this course.

02

Return on Investment (ROI)

Learn when to use ROI at work and how to calculate it for any short term project. We walk you through an example of using ROI to determine whether hiring additional staff at a food truck is a good investment.

03

The Building Blocks of Valuation

Understand the fundamentals of valuation as we introduce terms and definitions of key concepts like cash flow, time value of money, and discount rates.

04

Net Present Value (NPV)

Use net present value to determine whether an investment is a “go” or “no-go.” We discuss the components of the NPV formula and teach you how to use this valuation method through a case study: deciding whether or not to purchase a second pizza oven for our food truck.

05

Valuing a Business Using Discounted Cash Flow (DCF)

Learn how to use a discounted cash flow analysis to determine the value of a single business. We take you step-by-step through the calculations to value a food truck business.

06

Valuing an Acquisition Using Discounted Cash Flow (DCF)

Understand the concepts of cost and revenue synergies while calculating the value of an acquisition using the discounted cash flow method. We use the example of acquiring another food truck and combining the businesses.

07

Valuing a Business Using Comparables

Learn a second method investors use to value businesses, comparables analysis. We walk you through an example by valuing a food truck business by basing it on the prices of other similar businesses.

08

Executive Interview: Valuation at Amazon Studios

Sit down with the CFO of Amazon Studios, Elaine Paul, to hear about how valuation concepts are used inside corporations every day to make better decisions.

09

Executive Interview: Disney’s Acquisition of Pixar

Hear directly from Nick Van Dyk, former SVP of Corporate Development at The Walt Disney Company as he tells stories about executing multi-billion dollar M&A deals including Disney’s acquisition of Pixar.

10

Executive Interview: From Goldman Sachs to Buying Space Companies

Learn from Matt Kuta, a former Air Force fighter pilot who worked in investment banking and private equity at Goldman Sachs before starting a holding company that acquires businesses in the space industry.

What people are saying about this course…

"Everything is better explained than any finance or accounting class I took in college."
Mark F
"Simple to understand, straight forward application of formulas."
Henry G Director of Sales
"Amazing content. I can't stop consuming. I love the clear breakdowns, the fun examples, the executive inputs and the different point of views."
JV H Financial Operations Analyst
"I like the way complex decision making processes, particularly those with analytics behind them, are broken up in to layman's terms. Very helpful."
Mike S EVP
"I like the conciseness and the clean structure."
George M
"You provide the information in terms that anyone can understand."
Terry M Business Owner