The Rutgers Venture Cup is an competitive venture accelerator. Compete to raise the most funding from investor judges.*

<aside> 💡 Apply for the Rutgers Venture Cup here: https://airtable.com/shrVrik6DTnJdcfMi

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• Background

Competition

The Rutgers Venture Cup has teams of 3-5 students compete as General Partners (or GPs) for funding from a Limited Partner (LP). In order to best replicate the experience, we have partnered with the LP that we know best: the Rutgers Endowment Fund.

Teams will be tasked with undertaking the roles of an early stage venture capital fund, and fulfilling the tasks necessary for real venture capital firms to pitch to LPs.

🏁 Competition Details

1. Form an Investment Thesis
   • Teams will form a unique investment vision central to their venture capital firm that includes their perspectives on the future and how their portfolio startups reflect their beliefs. This will provide judges with a clear understanding of what gives them an advantage over other venture firms.
2. Source Startups
   • Teams will have to find three (3) relevant and high-quality Seed or Series-A startups that fall within their investment thesis and fund construction capacities.
3. Perform Due Diligence
   • Teams will analyze startups' details to identify if they would make profitable investments. Vital information includes but is not limited to quality of management team, market size, existing traction, quality of advisory board, prior funding and investors, product stage, industry and competition. Teams will perform in-depth qualitative and quantitative analyses
4. Valuation & Check Size
   • Team will use their due diligence and portfolio construction to arrive at a conclusive valuation and check size for each of the startups in their portfolios. Teams should also make sure that their chosen industry, startups, raise amount, and check size are all coherent.
5. Portfolio Support
   • Teams have to consider what value they can add to their portfolios after their investments. Their ability to add value to their startups will be able to differentiate themselves from other venture capital firms in their niche and work to improve their companies' valuations and potentially secure deal flow.
6. Presentation and Report
   • Teams will be judged on the clarity of their vision, communication, confidence, and quality of investment analysis.

📚 Curriculum

What's a contest without guidance? We've arranged for a number of resources to help you out with succeeding at the contest.

RVC Venture Capital Hub

We've spent hours cultivating and creating several hours of resources around a curriculum designed to teach you about the venture capital industry from the inside and out. From videos about the venture capital industry to notes from experienced venture capitalists on how to pitch LPs, our curriculum will guide you through the entire process of creating a successful venture capital firm.

Speakers

Office hours with veterans of the venture capital industry. From many backgrounds, but always intelligent, open, and happy to help. We've brought on Principals and Partners from VU Venture Partners, Alsop Louie Partners, and Newark Venture Partners, and are always bringing more to support our students.