Plenty of colleges and universities hold mock venture capital competitions, where students pitch business ideas to pretend investors. But at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, real entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to students acting as investors with actual venture capitalists acting as the judges.
In fact, UNC’s Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) has helped a dozen alumni find actual jobs at venture capital firms after graduation, according to an article in Tech Journal South. About a quarter of participating entrepreneurs end up raising capital after the event as well.
Many of the competitors aspire to become venture capitalists. Six VCIC alumni have gone on the prestigious Kauffman Fellows Program, working with VC firms from Silicon Valley to Munich, Germany.
Nevertheless, organizers stress that the purpose of the event is truly educational. Its focus is on teaching students about financing new ventures by exposing them to the best deals and investors. Students learn how to evaluate and value a company, how to draft a term sheet for investing in a company and how to do due diligence in researching the potential start-up. Students get to see all the pieces that must come together for a successful VC investment.
About 50 schools across the country participate in the VCIC, with regional competitions to determine who reaches the finals in North Carolina in April.
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