Course Information
The Capital Market Readiness workshop is by invitation only.
Please fill out the questionnaire below to apply for an invitation. You will receive confirmation of your acceptance or rejection within 10 business days of application. This application fee is non-refundable.
Private Equity is reshaping the middle market landscape - consolidating competitors, customers and suppliers in every sector of the economy. This Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship at FSU Certificate Program provides emerging growth company leaders with unprecedented education on Private Equity investors and the Growth Challenge associated with transitioning No Man's Land – that stage of growth when the Company is too Big to Be Small and Too Small to be Big.
This two-day research based - graduate level course is designed by Professor Doug Tatum, author of No Man's Land – Where Growing Companies Fail and a Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship Faculty member. It is designed to provide a Founder with critical information about the “New Normal” in the Capital Markets dominated by Private Equity and the difficult and many times fatal No Man's Land Transition.
The Course is a place to get unfiltered, detailed information and advice about how to navigate the critical issues that you, as a Founder of an Emerging Growth Company will face when transitioning your company to scale.
For questions about this program, please email jimmoraninstitute@fsu.edu.
Certificate Program
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Application Deadline: January 30, 2026
Workshop Dates: February 16-17, 2026
Location: Los Angeles, California
Application Deadline: February 6, 2026
Workshop Dates: February 23-24, 2026
Location: Washington, DC
Application Deadline: February 13, 2026
Workshop Dates: March 2-3, 2026
Application Fee: $100
The $100 Capital Market Readiness Application Fee is non-refundable. After you complete your application, our team will evaluate your answers and reach out with your next steps.
Workshop Cost (upon acceptance): $5,000
RETURN AND ACCESS COURSE MATERIALS*
*access only available to those who have applied and been accepted into the program
About the Instructor
Doug Tatum, CPA
Teaching Faculty II and Entrepreneur in Residence
Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship
Doug currently serves as a member of the Teaching Faculty at the Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship at Florida State University. He also serves as the Advisory Board Chairman for the Business Dynamics Research Consortium, a national research institute at the University of Wisconsin - Extension. Its mission is to study exceptional growth companies, the capital markets, and overall business activity to learn more about their impact on employment and economic growth. He is the Former Chairman of the Board for the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), a global not-for-profit organization with 58 Chapters and 14,000 members in the US and internationally, representing middle market private capital investors, intermediaries, and the middle market deal community. In 2017, he was given ACG’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the organization’s Intergrowth 2017 conference in Las Vegas, recognizing his dedication to ACG and the middle market community in the U.S. and around the world.
In addition to his academic activities, Doug is Chairman of Newport LLC, a national partnership of CEOs and senior executives who advise emerging middle market companies and assist private equity firms to invest in and grow portfolio companies.
Previously, Doug was Chairman and CEO of Tatum LLC, which grew into a highly respected national professional services firm with 30 offices and over 1000 professionals and employees. The company was sold to Spherion in 2010.
Doug is the Managing Director of TIP Seed Fund LLC, a newly formed seed stage VC fund with investments and investment rights in a diversified portfolio of companies with unique and proprietary products in the consumer, high-tech, and nutraceutical to pharmaceutical marketplaces.
Doug is the author of No Man’s Land: Where Growing Companies Fail, a leading text about growth companies that has been translated into several languages and has won four National Best Business Book awards. His insights about the economy and business have been cited in hundreds of media outlets, including Inc. Magazine, The Financial Times, and The New York Times online.
