EELC Sends Three Students to Venture Capital Competition
For the third straight year, Indiana University is sending a team to compete in the international
Venture Capital Investment Competition. This year's team includes 3L's Matt Martin, Ben Schmidt,
and Lili Yan, all from the Elmore Entrepreneurship Law Clinic.
"In the past two years, we have been pleased to include JD/MBA candidates on our team," said Mark Need, EELC director and faculty advisor to the team. "With two 1st-year MBAs selected for this year's team from the Johnson Center's Entrepreneurship Academy, we were pleased to round out the team's skill set with business-oriented students from the Law School."
VCIC was created and is coordinated by the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School. A highly competitive invitation-only competition, it places students in the position of venture capitalists who must, in a very short competition period, evaluate business pitches and plans from five "real" entrepreneurs, negotiate terms, and generate term sheets for investment in the company of their choice. "The competition is very unique," Need said. "Traditional 'business plan' competitions are ubiquitous in MBA programs. VCIC gives the business plan competition model a twist, allowing students to sit on the other side of the table, perform due diligence, evaluate investment options, and generate term sheets and presentations, all within a few short hours." A panel of actual venture capitalists judges the competition.
On Feb. 14 and 15, this year's team will travel to Philadelphia (Wharton) to compete in the Mid-Atlantic regional competition, competing against teams from Georgetown, Maryland, Rochester, Vanderbilt, and Virginia.