Leveraging our past experiences in the Global Finals
After winning the Canadian finals of the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) back in March of 2021, my team and I were very excited to move onto the global finals in April. It was definitely a very fun and unique competition!
Similar to the Canadian finals, we received the start-up pitch decks two days before the competition. Learning from our experiences in the previous round, our team highlighted the later stage and more mature aspects that each company had. This more in-depth approach made our investment decision quite difficult as we discussed two of the companies, ultimately deciding to prepare a thesis for both and decide on the competition day. I think that our team was able to bond well as we decided to take this riskier move and larger workload. The online aspect of the competition also helped our team build communication and collaboration skills as we adapted and learned to communicate concisely through our Messenger chat or brief calls. Given that we had already worked together in the previous round, we were used to each other’s work styles and strengths, and we were able to play on these in the global finals.
One challenging aspect of this round was that it was overlapping with the academic term’s final projects and exam season. I did have to juggle having an exam the day before the competition with the prep work necessary for VCIC. I was lucky to have such a great team who were able to step in and take on extra tasks where needed so that I was able to study. I made sure to manage my time and work efficiently on the VCIC tasks as well as my exam studying to effectively complete both. Even though it was busy and challenging, I am glad I joined the VCIC team.
Ultimately, our team was very proud to have placed fourth in the global finals. Thank you to all the professors and advisors who helped and supported us along the way!