Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC)
Compete in the NCAA March Madness of Investing
The Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) hosted by University of North Carolina is the nation's premiere investment strategy competition for venture-minded or entrepreneurial students. VCIC offers you and your team an opportunity to judge five real startup entrepreneurs seeking funding for their businesses. Each team evaluates the strength of each venture by acting as a venture capital firm and presents an investment offer and recommendation to invest in one entrepreneur. A panel of 8-10 venture capital judges the university teams on their overall selection, investment offer and ability to work with the founder. Winning teams can earn cash at both the regional and national competition.
Benefits to students of participating in VCIC:
- Improving your due diligence analysis skills
- Networking with founders of startups
- Learning the ins and outs of investment offers
- Meeting private equity and VC investors
- Competing in a “live” Shark Tank like competition
Meet the Coaches
The coaches for the SDSU and Lavin Center teams are Paige Doherty and Robert Schulte.
Paige Doherty is an alumna of SDSU involved in both the Lavin Entrepreneur Program
and VCIC competitions. Doherty now works as an emerging fund manager and a Development
Success Engineer with WorkOS, which generates APIs through pre-built features. Previously,
she worked at a software-focused growth equity firm. Robert Schulte is an alumnus
of the SDSU entrepreneurship graduate program, the Founder and CEO of Luma Tax, and
a serial entrepreneur. Schulte has over twenty years of experience in entrepreneurial
ventures, from ideation to acquisition.
Together, Schulte and Doherty are committed to elevating the VCIC Program’s quality
through a comprehensive approach that balances entrepreneurial and investor experiences.
Schulte says, “While we want to increase the competitiveness and visibility of the
SDSU teams, our primary goal is to create a world-class forum for students who wish
to expose themselves to investing and venture capital as a career.”
The VCIC program looks to recruit students across disciplines to provide them with opportunities and access to the real-life mechanics of entrepreneurship and venture capital investment.
Rough Timeline of the Competition
April to May:
Recruiting students to form a team
June to August:
Learning the ins and outs of investing
September to December:
Practice what you learned on real entrepreneurs
January to February:
Compete in the regional competition
March:
Compete in the national competition
If you believe you have what it takes to be on the SDSU undergrad or graduate VCIC teams, then apply below. If you have any questions, please email Paige Doherty at [email protected]