Venture Capital Investment Conference

Creating a Robust Foundation for Future Venture Capitalists

By Claudio Santaniello and Aditya Shah

VCIC (Venture Capital Investment Conference) is a global venture investment competition, with over 120 schools competing, at both the graduate and undergraduate level. The competition consists of groups of students having conversations with real life startups companies, creating a term sheet analysis and presenting this to a group of judges (experts in the venture space) who then scrutinize their findings. 

As a startup, you will be evaluated by student investment teams who will pitch their investment strategies to actual investors in order to demonstrate their performance. A significant portion of the competing students have direct access to capital through their involvement in student-led venture funds or previous work experience in venture capital firms, such as our own Hillside Ventures fund. This provides a unique opportunity for the startups to gain exposure and potentially secure funding from a variety of sources in the startup ecosystem.

Conversely, this is a great learning experience for students as well; allowing them to interact with startups in ways that they would otherwise not be able to access.

           (L-R) VCIC Opening at UConn School of Business, A Group of students pitching to the panel of judges

Back on February 25th we had the opportunity to host the Undergraduate East Regional Finals at our School of Business here at UConn. The event brought together six teams of students from around the country. The schools that were represented in the competition were Miami University (1st Place), Drexel University (2nd Place), University of Florida (3rd Place), Georgia Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, and Penn State. The startup companies that pitched at the event were Enviro Power, Verdocs, and ExstoBio. The judges that participated in the event were Jordan Lue (Connecticut Innovations), Fanta Traore (Connecticut Innovations), Musan Duric (Werth Ventures), Brandon Milich (Cove Hill Partners), and Sam Nanayakkara (University of Connecticut). All of these students, startups, and judges came together to make this event possible.

In addition to being hosts, six members from our team at Hillside Ventures competed in the Northeast Regional Finals, which was hosted by Dartmouth College. The members of our team (from left to right) included Dhanush Kotumraju, Claudio Santaniello, Aria Penna, Jeeva Shunmugaraja, Shivam Patel and Joseph Roberts. While we didn’t have the anticipated level of success, the learning experience from both a financial and venture perspective made it a worthwhile experience.

Events like the VCIC are key to building a robust venture ecosystem here at the University of Connecticut. Initiatives such as Hillside Ventures, Daigle Labs and the Werth Innovator Program are a few outstanding examples of steps the university has taken to make itself a nationally recognized entrepreneurship school. While it may happen as a consequence of these programs, the end goal of this venture is to allow students to put in place a strong foundation that helps them succeed in every aspect of running a business, from conceptualization to formation and eventual operation.