John Colley • Investment Banking Practitioner Series

Master DCF Valuation: Build Professional Financial Models

From blank spreadsheet to boardroom-ready valuation: DCF, WACC, terminal value and 14 AI role plays.

23 students enrolled  |  4 hours of video  |  36 lectures
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The promise

“Build a defensible DCF valuation from a blank spreadsheet — the way it actually gets done on a live deal, not the way the textbook says.”

23
Students
4
Hours
36
Lectures
February 2026
Updated

Why this course

Most analysts can plug numbers into a DCF template. Very few can defend the result when a managing director or an investment committee starts asking real questions. “Why that WACC? Why that terminal growth rate? What if revenue grows at 12% instead of 18%?” That is the gap this course closes.

We start with a blank spreadsheet and build a complete, professional-grade DCF valuation from first principles — revenue forecasts, free cash flow, WACC, terminal value, and the bridge from enterprise value to share price. Then we stress-test it. Sensitivity analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, the ten errors that quietly destroy credibility in front of clients, and the interview questions you will be asked at every level from first-round screening to final round.

You learn the framework on a real listed company — Atlassian — and benchmark your output against the live market price. By the end you can value a real business from scratch, defend every assumption, and present a valuation range that a senior practitioner would sign off on.

What you will master

Every outcome below is built into the course — not a marketing list, the actual curriculum.

Build a complete, professional DCF model in Excel from revenue forecasts to equity value per share
Calculate WACC from first principles and defend every component — cost of equity, cost of debt, capital structure
Value a real listed company using Atlassian as a live case study and benchmark against the market price
Apply sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo simulation to present a defensible valuation range
Bridge from Enterprise Value to Equity Value and share price — the step most analysts get wrong
Identify and avoid the 10 most common DCF errors that destroy credibility in front of clients and committees
Answer DCF interview questions confidently — from first-round screening to final-round technical deep dives
Build an AI-powered interactive DCF model in Claude — no Excel skills required

Who this course is for

  • Finance analysts and associates who build models but want to defend them with greater confidence
  • MBA students and CFA candidates preparing for technical interviews or equity valuation assignments
  • Investment bankers, PE analysts, and corporate development professionals sharpening their DCF technique
  • Non-finance executives and consultants who need to challenge DCF valuations in board settings
  • Anyone who wants to value a real company from scratch using a practitioner’s approach

Requirements

  • No prior DCF experience needed — the course builds the framework from first principles
  • Excel or Numbers helpful for the hands-on modelling sections — a blank template is provided
  • A willingness to think like a practitioner, not just follow formulas
Your instructor

John Colley

Investment banker turned educator. 30+ years across Hoare Govett, M&A, private equity and corporate finance. Cambridge graduate, Bayes Business School MBA with Distinction.

Author of the Investment Banking Practitioner’s Handbook Series — the largest practitioner-authored IB content library available online. Trusted by 150,000+ students across 30+ Udemy courses.

Every course is built on real deal experience — not textbook theory. The voice is a senior banker explaining how things actually work, not a lecturer reading notes.

Ready to enrol?

Lifetime access. 30-day Udemy money-back guarantee. Mobile and desktop. Certificate of completion.

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Part of John Colley’s finance course library on Udemy. More courses at jbdcolley.com