Will Gornall Associate Professor of Finance CV Papers Code and Data Teaching Slides
William Gornall
Sauder School of Business University of British Columbia 2053 Main Mall, Vancouver BC  V6T 1Z2, Canada (604) 827-4372 will.gornall@sauder.ubc.ca
Peer-Reviewed Publications
The Value of Privacy and the Choice of Limited Partners by Venture Capitalists with Rustam Abuzov and Ilya A. Strebulaev Forthcoming in Journal of Financial Economics Cite in Bibtex We show the venture capitalist response to open information laws prevented public LPs from investing in the best-performing funds
Customer Data Access and Fintech Entry: Early Evidence from Open Banking with Tania Babina, Saleem A. Bahaj, Greg Buchak, Filippo De Marco, Angus K. Foulis, Francesco Mazzola, and Tong Yu. Forthcoming in Journal of Financial Economics Cite in Bibtex We provide a global overview of the causes and effects of open banking, policies that empower customers to share their banking data with fintechs A previous version of this manuscript was distributed as "Customer Data Access and Fintech Entry: Early Evidence from Open Banking" (2022) by Tania Babina, Greg Buchak, and Will Gornall.
Do Employees Cheer for Private Equity? The Heterogeneous Effects of Buyouts on Job Quality with Oleg Gredil, Sabrina T. Howell, Xing Liu, and Jason Sockin, Forthcoming in Management Science Cite in Bibtex We link private equity leveraged buyouts to reduced perceived job quality through risk-bearing channels
Gender, Race, and Entrepreneurship: A Randomized Field Experiment on Venture Capitalists and Angels with Ilya A. Strebulaev, Forthcoming in Management Science Cite in Bibtex We study gender and race in high-impact entrepreneurship using a field experiment Mentioned in BJ, Economist, Guardian, MarketWatch
Venture Capitalists and COVID-19 with Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan, and Ilya A. Strebulaev, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 2021, 56(7), 2474-2499 Cite in Bibtex We survey 1,000 venture capitalists on how they were affected by COVID-19 Mentioned in Inst. Investor, HLS Corp. Gov. Forum
Squaring Venture Capital Valuations with Reality with Ilya A. Strebulaev, Journal of Financial Economics 2020, 135(1), 120–143; Doriot Award Cite in Bibtex We model venture capital-backed company exits and show post--money valuations exceed fair values by 48% Teaching slides about post-money valuation and value Code Tool to value employee stock options Mentioned in Barrons 1, 2, BC Business, BIV, BJ, Bloomberg, Bloomberg, TV, Business Insider 1, 2, CNBC, Economist 1, 2, El Economista, Entreprenuer 1, 2, Financial Post, Forbes, Fortune 1, 2, G&M, Inc., Institutional Investor, JDSupra, 36kr 1, 2, Les Echos, MSN, NBER, NY Mag, NYT, Pitchbook 1, 2, 3, Reuters, Stanford, Tech Crunch, TechVibes, The Real Deal, Wired, WSJ 1, 2, 3
How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions? with Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan, and Ilya A. Strebulaev, Journal of Financial Economics 2020, 135(1), 169–190; Jensen Prize Cite in Bibtex We survey 885 venture capitalists to learn how they make decisions Summarized in this Harvard Business Review article Teaching slides on the venture capital investment selection process Mentioned in Bizztor, Chicago, Havard Law School Forum, Stanford, VentureBeat
Financing as a Supply Chain: The Capital Structure of Banks and Borrowers with Ilya A. Strebulaev, Journal of Financial Economics 2018, 129(3), 510-530 Cite in Bibtex Modeling supply chain interactions between bank and borrower capital structures shows why highly levered financial intermediaries can offer the lowest interest rates Code Mentioned in Fortune
Locally-Capped Investment Products and the Retail Investor with Carole Bernard and Phelim Boyle, Journal of Derivatives 2011, 18(4), 72-88 Cite in Bibtex A popular but poorly understood type of structured financial product is overpriced and marketed with unreasonably optimistic prospectuses
Working Papers
A Valuation Model of Venture Capital-Backed Companies with Multiple Financing Rounds with Ilya A. Strebulaev Cite in Bibtex An option pricing model of venture capital-backed companies and their security values that incorporates the dilutive future financing rounds
Safe Assets and Dangerous Liabilities: How Bank-Level Frictions Explain Bank Seniority Cite in Bibtex A theoretical model of how bank fragility explains why bank loans are senior in firm capital structure
The Economic Impact of Venture Capital with Ilya A. Strebulaev Cite in Bibtex We use data from public companies to quantify the role of venture capital in the economy Spreadsheet classifying companies as VC-backed Mentioned in National Review, Tech Republic
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
The Contracting and Valuation of Venture Capital-Backed Companies with Ilya A. Strebulaev, Cite in Bibtex In: Eckbo, B.E., Phillips, G.M. , Sorensen, M. (eds) Handbook of the Economics of Corporate Finance. Amsterdam: North-Holland, an imprint of Elsevier, 2023. 1, 3-76 We outline key considerations for startup financing in a handbook chapter that may be a useful reference for faculty, students, and practitioners
Venture Capital Valuation with Ilya A. Strebulaev, Cite in Bibtex In: Cumming, D., Hammer, B. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Private Equity. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2023. 1-5. We provide a brief outline of startup valuation considerations
How Venture Capitalists Make Decisions with Paul A. Gompers, Steven N. Kaplan, and Ilya A. Strebulaev, Harvard Business Review 99.2 (2021): 70-+ Non-technical summary of insights from "How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?"
Code and Data
Tool to value employee stock options You may also be interested in Andrew Metrick and Ayako Yasuda's tool
Code to value a venture capital-backed unicorn (following Squaring Venture Capital Valuations with Reality)
Code to replicate Financing As a Supply Chain
Spreadsheet classifying Compustat companies as VC-backed as used in The Economic Impact of Venture Capital

Updated 2017, you may also be interested in Jay Ritter's data

Teaching Material
Slides on post-money valuation versus value

Based on Squaring Venture Capital Valuations with Reality

Slides discussing the venture capital investment selection process

Based on How Do Venture Capitalists Make Decisions?

Handbook Chapter: The Contracting and Valuation of Venture Capital-Backed Companies

This may be useful as a reference for an MBA or Undergraduate finance course in VC

Undergraduate Course Outline COMM 470 Venture Capital