Overview
The Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) is the world’s largest venture capital competition with over 70 universities competing. The University of Chicago participates in both the undergraduate VCIC (uVCIC) and MBA-level VCIC global competitions. The VCIC allows students to think and act as venture capitalists and helps the school identify top student representatives for regional and national intercollegiate competitions.

• uVCIC: UChicago undergraduate students can participate in the uVCIC, which is organized by UChicago Careers in Entrepreneurship. For more information on the program, contact Jerry Huang.
• VCIC: Since 2005, Chicago Booth has participated in the VCIC under the leadership of faculty coordinator Scott Meadow and with the support of the Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital (EVC) group at Chicago Booth and the Polsky Center. The Chicago Booth VCIC competition is sponsored by Energy Foundry. Winners from this competition head to the regional bracket with a chance of competing at the national and global finals. Learn more.

Key Dates & Deadline

October-November: Team Formation and Application

• VCIC Info Sessions:
  • Tuesday, October 24, 2017, 12 – 1 p.m. – VCIC Info Session, Harper Center
  • Monday, October 30, 2017, 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. – VCIC Info Session, Gleacher Center
• Application Deadline (via email): Monday, November 20th, 2017, 12 p.m.

December-January: Preparation and Competition

• Early December 2017 – Teams selected and notified
• Thursday, January 4, 2018 – Orientation session for selected teams, Harper Center Room C-03
• Wednesday, January 17, 2018 – Teams receive business plans and begin due diligence
• Friday, January 19, 2018, 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. – Venture Capital Investment Competition, Harper Center Room C-04

UChicago students, faculty, and staff are welcome to observe the VCIC.

February-April: Regional and International VCIC Competitions.

• February 2018: Regional VCIC (Location TBD)
• April 2018: International VCIC, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Application & Egibility

The deadline to apply to the 2018 VCIC is Monday, November 20, 2017, at 12 p.m. There is a $50 application fee that must be paid to the Polsky Center upon submission of the application. The fee must be paid in the form of a check made out to “The University of Chicago” with “VCIC-[TEAM NAME]” in the memo line.
To apply, teams must:
Complete the VCIC Application Form (Word document).
Email an electronic copy of the application to Cerise Miller.
Deliver the $50 application fee to Cerise Miller in the Polsky Center, located in the Harper Center Suite 207.
Eligibility and Team Size:
All currently enrolled Booth students, including Executive MBA students, are eligible to compete. However, students who are current full-time or half-time paid employees of a venture capital firm are not eligible to compete. Students from other universities are not eligible to participate. Please direct any questions about eligibility to Cerise Miller in the Polsky Center.
For Chicago Booth’s VCIC, teams must have between five and seven members. Five team members will be allowed to compete on the day of the VCIC; the sixth and seventh members will serve as advisors/alternates. For regionals and nationals, teams must have exactly five members. Teams may bring one alternate to regionals or nationals to observe. While students may compete in the Chicago Booth VCIC multiple times, students may only compete in a regional VCIC once.
If you’re looking to join a team, or to add people to your team, please check out our team-building spreadsheet.
Participants
Nicole Staple
Sonali Lamba
Mike Shannon
Lenny Lebovich
Sally Bell
Gali Baler

Contact
Faculty Sponsor
Scott F. Meadow
Scott is a clinical professor of entrepreneurship at Chicago Booth and has been the faculty advisor for the VCIC since the program started in 2005. He is the only faculty member at Chicago Booth to have received the Phoenix Award for service to students outside of the classroom in four consecutive years. He has spent more than 25 years as a general partner in private equity, founding such projects as Sports Authority and Sunrise Assisted Living. He is currently an associate partner at Edgewater Funds.

Student Organizer
Greg Johnston
Greg is a first-year Full-Time MBA student at Chicago Booth. He is currently an Associate at Corazon Capital, a VC fund managed by Sam Yagan (co-founder of SparkNotes and OKCupid) and Steve Farsht (Former Partner at Norwest Equity and Board Member of TechStars Chicago). Prior to business school, Greg was a Senior Associate at LLR Partners, a $2.4 billion growth equity firm in Philadelphia, where he evaluated investments in the cybersecurity, intelligence, risk management and enterprise IT sectors. Greg graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with a BS in Economics and a BA in Art History.

Polsky Center VCIC Organizer:
Cerise Miller
Senior Program Manager
(773) 702-3998