CU-Boulder MBA students won the $2,000 second-place prize at the western regional Venture Capital Investment Competition hosted at CU-Boulder on Feb. 5. The team will advance with first-place finisher UCLA to the finals held at the University of North Carolina on March 23.
"This competition gave our students a great opportunity to compare their skills to those of students at other schools," said Professor Chris Leach, the teams faculty adviser. "With a second-place finish in the West and an invitation to the nationals, its clear our team is talented, well prepared and nationally competitive."
The top two teams from each of the four regions advance to the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, competition to vie for $34,000 in prize money. Teams competing in the western regional competition included UCLA, winner of the $3,000 top prize, San Diego State University, recipient of the $1,000 third-place prize, as well as the University of Arizona and University of Washington.
The CU team includes MBA students Scott Heinemann, Jose Kalaw, Nathan Foran, Chris Dietz, Andrew Wilson, Robbin Crane and faculty advisor Professor Chris Leach. The national competition pays for all of the teams expenses.
The competition entailed teams of five MBA students being placed in the role of venture capitalists. They were charged with allocating a mock investment pool among real companies. The students evaluated five companies that were seeking venture capital financing, prepared written term sheets for their proposed investments and presented their analysis of each company to a panel of real venture capitalists.
The sponsors, whose support made the regional competition possible, include The Wallach Co., KPMG, Boulder Ventures, Ltd., and Sequel Venture Partners. Two of the sponsors also provided judges: Kyle Lefkoff of Boulder Ventures, Ltd., and Tom Washing of Sequel Venture Partners were joined on the judging panel by Peter Van Genderen of Stolberg Equity Partners and Rand Lewis of Centennial Funds.
The CU competition was organized and administered by the Graduate Entrepreneurs Association, a group of MBA students majoring in entrepreneurship.