Foreign Trade University - Faculty of International Education

              On 23^rd October 2018, students from Faculty of International Education, Foreign Trade University participated in an interesting talk with Jeffrey Cooper - Executive Director of the Richard Petritz Foundation, a private foundation of Colorado Springs. He is also a Principal of New Venture Resources, LLC, (“NVR”) , an investment and venture management firm with a 40 year track record in venture capital investing and entrepreneurship, primarily in technology-based businesses. In aggregate, NVR’s portfolio of venture-backed companies has created thousands of jobs, has been valued in excess of $600,000,000 in market capitalization. The workshop had more than 60 participants who are the students of FTU international programs in cooperation with Angelo State University, U.S.; University of New Brunswick, Canada and University of Bedfordshire, UK. The students are very confident, dynamic and have excellent communication skill in English. Most of them achieved IELTS 6.0 and some achieved IELTS 8.0 or 109 TOELF iBT. They all have the willingness for studying major courses in English at both Foreign Trade University campus and partner universities’ campuses in the near future.

            With many years of experience in investment field, Jeffrey shared with the students about start-ups, especially the roles of angel investors and the managers of different investment funds. He identified the participation of different investors during the development of any start-up and the financial tools frequently applied. Also, he introduced and distinguished from the most basic concepts involving Basic research and Applied research; Ideas and opportunities; Private investment and public investment; Opportunities cost and how investors evaluate their investments.

            In addition, he also stressed on his objective to “Innovative Entrepreneur” - enterprises with creativity and ability to grow rapidly. Creativity could be implied from 4P marketing theory or it can occur during time of creating and delivering products to the market. During a lifetime of each product line, the investment value of creativity is the most significant, which is the valley of death that each enterprise must overcome. During this period, enterprises will need the support from investors in funds, experience and network. The value of each product is evaluated by the function quality over price, which means the value will go up if its quality is improved while its price decreases. This will help in defining the enterprise strategy is to focus on quality or low price. Investors expect for People, Products, Markets and Plans.

Mr. Jeffrey Cooper shared his valuable knowledge and experience with the students

            The billionaire questioned what would the students cared about when they invested or lent money. Students naturally thought that trust would be the main reason for investing or lending, such as the reason for lending, what was the business plan and was the plan potential,… Mr. Jeffrey highly evaluated their thoughts and summed it up as what investors truly cares about. In addition, he gave a function to evaluate the value of enterprise which involves its innovation and business model. An enterprise must have great management strategy to enhance its value.

              He also gave the process of completing an investment and related risks after an enterprise is fully evaluated. Investors will apply compound interest concept. He shared that in his first investing projects, he was very successful and gained large profit, but he could not avoid failure in some projects with only lesson learnt but not any profit.

          Specially, investors care about not only profit but also social responsibility. One of the enterprises that he invested in is called JIBU in Tanzania. The company is using franchising method to rapidly expand its network to provide purified water to the people. The company has helped the government in overcoming lack of clean water and avoiding diseases related to insanitary water.  People therefore can afford clean water and increase their chances of getting employed.

            Jeffrey is also running a creative art hub in the U.S. to support enterprises in the field. He works with a close friend who is a talented designer. She designs clothes line for different customers using Amazon technology and she is looking for partners in Vietnam to expand the market.

Sharing about the social benefits enterprise should deliver

            The students interacted with Jeffrey and questioned about many interesting points during the workshop. For the first time, the students played very well the role of the investors who decide if a senior business man can get his investment approved or not. They played the role very well and received praises from Jeffrey Cooper.

               At the end of the workshop, Mr. Jeffrey Cooper left an important message to the students that they should become rational investors who dare to implement ideas of their own businesses. He showed his willingness to support the students as an angel investor if their projects reach high quality.

Ông Jeffrey Copper đã vui vẻ chụp ảnh lưu niệm cùng các bạn sinh viên Khoa Đào tạo quốc tế

Thông tin về ông Jeffrey Copper

http://www.petritzfoundation.org/biosketch-jeffrey-cooper/?fbclid=IwAR0RptFVSC2sutGusDBwKMsjl40jkUxqZU-JPLZ8O_pyROweA2k8jUasNWM

Thông tin về công ty JIBU tại Tanzania

https://jibuco.com/tz/