InSITE fellows Mike Katz, Gregory Pennington, and Shirley Xu are part of the five-member team Smeagle & Cup that was chosen to represent Columbia Business School at the Fifth Annual National Sustainable Venture Capital Investment Competition, taking place at UNC, March 19-20, 2010.
To reach nationals, team Smeagle first competed in the Columbia Venture Capital Investment Competition. In that competition, an initial field of more than thirty teams was narrowed down to seven that participated in Finals on February 12th, 2010.
To prepare, the teams were given business plans two days in advance of Finals. On competition day, teams conducted blitz eight-minute due diligence sessions with each entrepreneur and negotiated a term sheet with their favorite investment prospect.
The competition was judged by an exceptional panel composed of Somak Chattopadhyay (VP, Greenhill SAVP), Sarah Tavel (Senior Associate, Bessemer Venture Patners), Charlie O’Donnell (Entrepreneur in Residence, First Round Capital), Owen Davis (Managing Director, NYC Seed), Raymond Thek (Vice Chairman, Lowenstein Sandler), Matthew McCooe and Chris Brady (Chart Venture Partners), and David Birnbaum (Alloy Media + Marketing).
The judges were impressed by the whole field and praised team Smeagle in particular for its negotiation skill, understanding of deal terms, and rapport with entrepreneurs.
— Shirley Xu and Greg Pennington