Shahram Hejazi is a venture capital investor & entrepreneur with general management experience in both early-stage ventures and large global companies. As Managing Director and CEO of BioAdvance (an early stage venture capital firm with over 100 investments), he is responsible for its leadership and strategic direction and serves on the Board of seven of its portfolio companies. He is also the founder/CEO of Optimeos Life Sciences, Inc., a gene-delivery spin-off of Princeton University. Shahram joined Princeton University in 2014 as the James Wei Visiting Professor and has been a Faculty since then teaching two courses on the topics of entrepreneurship and venture capital and currently is the Head of Entrepreneurship Program. Previously, Shahram served as the President of Kodak's Molecular Imaging division, was an FDA Industry Advisory Panel Member for Molecular & Clinical Genetic Devices, was the founding CEO of Zargis Medical Corp., and the Global Head of the Strategic Business Development at Siemens Medical. Shahram earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering with emphasis in biophysics from SUNY-Buffalo.
What will students be able to take away from your classes?
I teach two courses. From my VC class (EGR 395) the students will learn:
- Introduction to Venture Capital, funding stages and structure
- Alternative sources of capital such as crowdfunding
- Investment process and funding rounds
- Building a venture fund and raising capital
- Developing an investment thesis
- Financial projections and modeling, including return on investment (ROI) analysis
- Developing operating financial skills
- Understanding valuations and market analysis
- Risk analysis and use of capital to create value
- Finding and evaluating investment deals
- Developing term-sheets, and understanding key terms such as investor/shareholder rights
- Negotiations and deal closing
What are your responsibilities at the Keller Center?
I am a faculty teaching two courses on the topics of:
- venture capital and
- building complex ventures in regulated markets such as biotech
I am also an eLab faculty advisor. Furthermore, I also have been leading the faculty innovation program.
