On Jan. 25, six Dartmouth students won the New England Undergraduate Venture Capital Investment Competition, a competition where students take on the role of venture capitalists and hear pitches from real startups, according to the VCIC website. The students will travel to the VCIC 2025 Global Finals in Chapel Hill, N.C. from April 11 to 12, where they will face eight other regional winners from around the world.
Team member Andrew Swack ’27 said during the competition, the team chose a company to invest in and built a term sheet with “all the details” on the company’s comparables and exit opportunities. Through sessions with judges that included questions about their deliverables, the team convinced the judges that theirs was “the right investment,” according to Swack.
“It’s super rewarding to win,” team member Jake Griffith ’27 said.
The New England competition was held at Boston University. Six colleges — New York University, Saint Mary’s University Sobey School of Business, Amherst College, Tufts University and the University of Connecticut — competed in the New England region, while more than 50 teams vied for regional titles across the country, according to the VCIC website.
The Dartmouth team, composed of Swack, Griffith, Cooper Weissman ’27, Julia Ebner ’28, Shira Elisha ’27 and Taoheng Chen ’28, was mentored by Tuck School of Business professor and venture capitalist Jim Feuille ’79, according to Elisha. The six students were selected after ranking as the top performers during Dartmouth’s internal VCIC competition in the fall, Elisha said. She added that Feuille advised and prepped the team — by hosting training sessions, having them read venture capital books and hosting mock competitions — for 10 weeks prior to the competition.
“He’s brilliant,” Elisha said. “He has so much experience in the industry, and I think that’s why we were able to do so well.”
During the competition, which was organized by the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, each team received three pitch decks that outlined three different startups that exist in the real world and their business models, profits, future plans and reasons for needing venture capital funding, according to Ebner. After receiving the pitch decks, each team had 48 hours to prepare for a “due diligence session” with the founders of each startup, during which they were expected to build rapport with the founders and gain enough information to make informed business decisions. They then presented a written deliverable about the startup they believed should get funding, which was created using the information learned during the due diligence session, and were questioned about their choices by the judges in a partner meeting. Defending the team’s choices is one of the most “important” components needed to win a VCIC competition, according to Swack.
Chen attributed the team’s success to their “bonding” as a group, which has included team dinners and hangouts since the fall.
“It’s less than doing work,” Chen said. “It’s more like, ‘Hey like we’re in this together and we’re going to win it together.’”
According to Elisha, the team’s close-knit nature did not go undetected — the judges “really noticed” the team’s connection and pointed out how they “worked together so well,” she explained.
In addition, the Dartmouth team stood out by choosing to write their deliverable for a startup that none of the other competitors had chosen.
“That was actually super important for us,” Swack said. “We got feedback from the judges that not a single other team had chosen that company as the investment.”
Chen said he felt inspired by the words of his teammate Griffith following their win.
“[Griffith] said, ‘72 hours ago we brought dreams and ambitions to Boston University, and look where we’re at now.’”
Outside of winning, the competition also taught the team members many valuable lessons about themselves and the finance industry. Elisha said she learned to “go with [her] gut feeling,” while Griffith said he learned about venture capital’s ability to create “impact” and “empower change.”
Weissman, who runs a tech startup called “Nerd Apply,” said the competition helped him think about ways he could “expand his mind” when it comes to his own business and “growing [it] fast.”
“It helped me think about how to protect myself as a founder while raising money and how to think bigger,” Weissman said.
While Weissman has outside experience in the startup world, others — like Ebner — said the competition offered exposure to the finance field, to which they otherwise would not have had access. Ebner said the competition made her “even more excited” about pursuing a career in finance.
“I had very little introduction to finance before this, so this was a really cool way to get hands-on experience,” Ebner said. “I think that’s what makes VCIC special. You actually form bonds and learn from people who are real venture capitalists, who are real startup founders, and so you get an up close and personal experience with the entrepreneurial process.”
The team will compete in the VCIC 2025 Global Finals against winners from other regions from April 11 to 12 at the University of North Carolina.
“We’re super nervous but also excited,” Chen said.
