VCIC - It's all about team work! (Originally posted on 11/23/08)

Yesterday my team won the Wharton Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC)! We'll present Wharton to compete at the regional VCIC at MIT Sloan next March. Yay! :o)

We had 2 rounds. In the 1st round, we were given a business plan from a medical device start-up to assess. The deliverable included an executive summary (including the due diligence and investment decision) and a term sheet. Even if we decided the business wasn't VC-fundable, we would still submit a term sheet. In the 2nd round, we had 4 business plans ranging from mobile marketing/networking, solar energy to healthcare IT. In addition, we had the chance to hear the pitches given by each entrepreneur who provided the business plan. In the end, each team didn't only need to turn in the executive summary and term sheet but also did a presentation in front of the judges and other audiences (5-minute presentation and 10-minute Q&A).

As we celebrated the success, we all felt great about the effectiveness of our team work. To begin with, we put a great effort on building a team with complimentary skills and ended up with a McKinsey consultant, an MD candidate, a software guru, a healthcare expert and a material/catalysis Ph.D. and inventor. Before the 2nd round took place, we broke down the available time to major stages and shared the workload including the due diligence, valuation, term sheet, presentation, etc. The team was very collaborative. Everybody worked very hard. Different opinions were exchanged in a very constructive way. The team work was so smooth that it definitely contributed greatly to our winning.

Other than sharing the due diligence, I drafted the term sheet. Personally I'm quite happy with what I was able to do this time, because a year ago I had no idea about the subtlety in those clauses like anti-dilution, liquidation preference, etc. and now I can draft a term sheet acceptable to the VC judges. I guess my tuition didn't completely go to the sink. :o)