At the Venture Capital Investment Competition, Students Evaluate Startups Under Pressure

For 36 hours in February, a team of SOM students became venture capitalists. Managing a fictitious $100 million fund, they evaluated real startups, met with founders, and defended their investment decisions. “You’re pressure-tested in a way you often don’t get in simulated environments,” says Parmjot Gill ’26, who describes the experience as “sleepless.”

The marathon team effort took place at Northeast Regionals of the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), organized by the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina. The competition simulates the entire venture capital process: Students conduct due diligence on real startups that are in the process of raising capital, structure term sheets, and present to a mock investment committee. More than 120 undergraduate and graduate institutions participate in the competition each year.

The SOM team came together through an internal qualifier hosted by the Private Equity & Venture Capital Club. Gill and his teammates—Ojaswi Atrey ’26, Ari Kanner ’27, Duyen Pham ’26, and Kenza Moussaoui Rahali ’26—represented four SOM degree programs and brought expertise in healthcare, engineering, tech, financial services, venture capital, and consulting.

From the start, the team leveraged this diversity of experience. Twenty-four hours before Northeast Regionals, participating startups released their pitch decks to the student teams. The SOM team assigned companies to members based on their backgrounds. After assessing them individually, the group came together to identify the factors that would “make or break” each investment decision.

At the regional competition, they interviewed founders in person. Between interviews, the team compared notes and received feedback from judges, seasoned investors who were observing their process. “I think we showed not just great teamwork but an ability to adapt,” says Atrey, an MBA student. “Over the course of the four sessions, we could actually see ourselves improving.”

Then, the team had only a couple hours to align on an investment decision before presenting. They chose to invest in an AI company, which drew mixed reactions from the judges.

“Some said, ‘We don’t believe in this.’ Others were like, ‘This is the future,’” says Rahali, a Master’s in Global Business and Society student. “It was great to see because that’s what happens in real life. Investors come in with different perspectives, and those perspectives are going to shape their judgment. There’s no clear right or wrong answer.”

During one-on-one partner meetings with judges, one judge challenged the decision outright, saying he thought the team had made a mistake.

“When you’re selling to a dozen different VCs, it’s really tough to read the room,” says Gill, a Master of Advanced Management student. “You don’t know how each person thinks, since you haven’t been exposed to them, but they’re your peers on this investment committee.”

The SOM team regrouped and, in the next round, addressed the skepticism and refined their argument for why the investment was the right one for their firm. Rather than adopting a generic investor lens, they drew on their collective backgrounds and focused on what they each knew best. The team members say that this clear investment philosophy set them apart—and led them to the regional title.

“At the end of the day, it’s not just playing on VCIC’s terms,” says Gill. “It’s also playing on our own.”

The win meant that the team advanced to the competition’s finals, where they competed against 11 business schools from around the world.

Experiences like VCIC are valuable because they bridge theory and practice, team members say. Even with academic exposure to venture capital, developing the mindset and frameworks for real-world application—especially across such a wide range of industries—can be challenging.

“For example, you can’t evaluate an established software company with revenue-generating customers in the same way you would an early-stage deep tech company,” says Gill.

In preparation for finals, the SOM team worked with Yuan Liu ’22, an MBA alum and regionals judge, who gave them feedback on their process.

Liu, who leads venture efforts at the Corporate Entrepreneurship Network, says VCIC captures many aspects of real-world venture capital that are difficult to replicate in a classroom. To succeed, students must learn how to navigate social dynamics with other investors and build rapport with founders. At regionals, Liu says, the SOM team’s poise and adaptability under pressure stood out.

Rahali, who had no venture capital experience prior to VCIC, now analyzes her work at a medtech startup through an investor lens: “When I’m crafting a deck, I’m thinking about what investors will want to see and the questions they’ll have. I can do this because I was in the shoes of one.”

For Gill, who brought a decade of venture capital and startup experience to the competition, the experience reinforced the value of working with a diverse team.

“It’s a reminder that there are constant learnings from each person at every experience level,” he says. “Everyone comes from such different places, but the richness of those perspectives—and conversations—is so good. That’s where the true learning happens.”