UNC-CH’s Kenan-Flagler team takes home first in Venture Capital Investment Competition

The entrepreneurial team from UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School defended their home turf on Friday and Saturday.

The Tar Heel group won the 12th , or VCIC.

Andrew Pearson, Elin Szymanowski, Tom Birchard, Diana Selezeanu and Lewelyn D’Souza took home the first-place prize of $5,000 in cash.

Four rreal companies participated in eight due diligence sessions, negotiating terms with the eight finalists – Avavia Biologics, Coldstor Data Inc., Entex Technologies and Republic of Fun, according to Private Equity Wire’s Daniel Primack, who was one of the judges.

Wayne Flournay represented Entex and Mike Rasmussen represented Republic of Fun.

"It was my fourth year participating, and can safely say that the quality of both the teams and the presenting companies improve each year," he wrote at PEHub on Monday.

Second place went to Oxford; third went to MIT, which fielded the winning team a year ago.

However, the other major award – “Entrepreneurs’ Choice” – was won by the University of Chicago.

VCIC’s finals capped a series of 40 events that drew teams of MBA students and real entrepreneurs from around the globe. Eight finalists advanced to Chapel Hill.

The VCIC competition is not a business plan event. Rather, teams play the role of a venture capital firm as they review:

• Read real business plans from entrepreneurs currently seeking VC funding
• Watch entrepreneurs "road-show" pitches
• Sit down one-on-one with each entrepreneur
• Choose a deal (one venture to invest in)
• Negotiate a term sheet with that entrepreneur
• Sit down one-on-one with VCs for feedback

The UNC-CH team won the Southeast competition on Feb. 20. Duke finished second.

Other regional winners were: