This page contains the newsletter archives, free spreadsheet models and links to resources related to Excel, spreadsheet models, OLAP databases, financial research, telecom, and venture capital.

Newsletter Archives

2005-Oct, Operating Companies: 7 Rules for Modeling
2005-Jul, Rollup Models - Example 1 - Example 2
2005-Apr, Operationalizing A Model: Part 2
2005-Mar, Operationalizing A Model: Part 1
2005-Feb, After The Money Comes: What Next?
2004-Sep, Choosing Among Competing Lenders
2004-Aug, Management Challenges In Budgeting
2004-Jul, Budgeting Principles
2004-Jun, Keeping Forecasts Up To Date
2004-May, Finance and Sales Can Be Friends!
2004-Apr, Income vs. Cash Flow Statements
2004-Mar, Venture Capital 101
2004-Feb, Valuation Terminology
2004-Jan, Jack Tankersley Interview
2003-Dec, Productivity Tools
2003-Nov, Fundraising Action Plan
2003-Oct, Single Customer Models or as (PDF)
2003-Sep, Quickly Creating a Great Financial Package
2003-Aug, Financial Summaries
2003-Jul, Assumptions Tell The Story
2003-Jun, 25-Point Financial Model Scorecard
2003-May, The Wisdom of Joel Spolsky
2003-Apr, Presenting Investment Returns
2003-Mar, Revenue per Headcount
2003-Feb, How Do You Read A Financial Model?
2003-Jan, The 80-20 Rule For Models

Download Excel Models

25-Point Financial Model Scorecard
As discussed in the June, 2003 newsletter. A standardized approach to evaluate whether a model is answering investor concerns.

Cap Table Model
Minotaur Financial created this capitalization ("cap") table allows you to easily see dilution, pre- and post-money valuation, and investor returns for each class of investor and final exit values for the founder(s).

Entrepreneur Model.xls
Minotaur Financial created this extremely simple yet powerful tool for creating a financial forecast for your company.
If you don't want to download the model yet you can see the output as PDF.

Finding and deleting pesky spreadsheet links with Dellinks.xla
Ever get a message that your spreadsheet is linked but you just can't find the link? Dellinks.xla is an Excel add-in distributed by Microsoft to solve your problem. I've used it for years.

Greenbar lines
Some financial people miss greenbar paper. If you're one of them, try the freeware add-in Ledger2.xla. It offers a variety of colors and styles so you can make Excel look like greenbar paper.

Bubble Charts
Some analysts love the ability of bubble charts to show a third dimension of data on a graph. This simple workbook uses macros to automate creating the proper sized bubbles.

Currency Translation Proof-of-Concept
Currency translation can wreak havoc on financial spreadsheets. This simple guide shows how your spreadsheets can work out right even under fluctuating exchange rates.

Power Utility Pak trial software
John Walkenbach (see below) created this incredible set of Excel utilities. I don't use it every day, but when I'm faced with what looks like a lengthy manual process of spreadsheet manipulation, I often find the Power Utility Pak to be a time-saver. Add in that the evaluation version is FREE and the full version costs only $40 and you can't go wrong.

Joel's Time Estimating workbook
Everyone wants to know when the large spreadsheet you're developing will be done. Joel Spolsky (see below) knows how to answer them with his article Painless Software Schedules. In the article, he discusses an estimating method which I've created in this workbook.

Excel / Software Experts

John Walkenbach has written about 30 spreadsheet books and about 300 articles and reviews for magazines such as InfoWorld, PC World, PC/Computing, Windows, and several others that no longer exist. For about three years, he wrote the monthly spreadsheet column for PC World. His "Spreadsheet Page" is filled with useful Excel tips, utilities, and a great collection of spreadsheet jokes.

Joel Spolsky is a software developer in New York City. He's famous to me because he was part of the team which developed VBA for Excel. Joel ostensibly writes on software development, but since he's a really smart guy much of what he writes has general business applications. For example, check out The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing. You can check out his articles archive here and read his weblog here. Don't forget to subscribe to his email list on his homepage!

OLAP

OLAP stands for On-Line Analytical Processing. Minotaur often uses OLAP databases in conjunction with Excel.

The OLAP Report is the definitive source.
Applix's TM1 product is my preferred tool for OLAP development.

Venture Capital Related

Meritage partners with communications companies as an equity investor, providing not only the funds needed for growth but also the expertise and network to get there.

Bill Snow's Venture Capital 101 is a delightfully irreverant tutorial in the basics of the VC world.

Caynenne Consulting's Entrepreneur's Library is filled with well-categorized resources.

The Colorado Venture Capital Association is a start to finding venture players on the Front Range.

Financial Research

I usually start with Yahoo! Finance.
SEC data is available for FREE at Edgar.
MSN's Stock Screener is a great research tool (download required).
I often find it useful to convert old numbers into current values using the Inflation calculator.

Telecom

Spectrum Allocation (PDF)
Detailed chart showing how the radio frequency spectrum has been allocated by the U.S. government.

Next steps

Learn more about Minotaur Financial and David Brode on About Minotaur.