Venture Capital Club Expands Operations
Members of Rivers’ Venture Capital Club set a new goal for themselves at the end of their first year —to establish a competitive venture capital league with neighboring high schools. To date, they have enlisted three other schools – The Winsor School, Needham High School, and Newton South High School - to form a core group of competitors and have scheduled several competitions for the upcoming year. Leading the club this year are Matt Jones '19 and Leighton Young '19, while Bradley Stoller '19, who organized the club last year, has moved on to become the regional president of the organization, now called High School Venture Capital Competitions.
“Already this year, there are 108 students signed up for the four chapters, and we will have four different competitions,” said Stoller. “On November 17th, Rivers and Newton will be competing in a semi-final competition, and the top two teams will advance. In early December, Needham and Winsor will have their own semi-final competition with the top two teams advancing as well. On January 26th, the top four teams will compete in a finals competition. Lastly, similar to last year, the top team will go on to compete unofficially at Boston University.”
The Venture Capital Club was founded last year by Stoller, patterned after college and business school teams that compete at venture capital competitions. The club members spent last fall learning the strategies needed to compete effectively, and had a chance to test their skills when one of the college teams failed to show up for the BU competition and the Rivers team was pressed into action. The club then held an intramural competition last December, dividing themselves into two teams and presenting their pitches to a panel of experts in the field.
A competition is typically divided into four steps. Prior to the event, each team receives PowerPoint pitches from local, functioning start-up businesses, which describe their current operations and expansion plans. Teams must research the start-ups, their industries, and their competition and reach out to real industry executives to collect information and determine valuation.
At the competition itself, the entrepreneurs present their pitches live, followed by four steps: Due Diligence, Team Investment Decision, Fund Executive Review, and Negotiations. The “venture capitalists” involved in the competition can be actual finance people, attorneys, or business executives, and they serve as the judges. At Rivers, parents and alumni served as the start-ups or judges, although the club would welcome industry executives who are interested in serving in that capacity for a competition.
With just one intramural competition under their belts, the winning Rivers team was invited to compete unofficially at Boston University in January. The judges said that, had they been official entrants, they would have placed third, beating out four of the seven universities competing that day.
“We were so honored and excited; we simply couldn’t believe it!” said Stoller. “I’m excited at the many exciting opportunities this newly founded organization will present this year.”
© 2021 The Rivers School. All Rights Reserved
Rivers admits academically qualified students and does not discriminate against students or families on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or ethnic or national origin in the administration of its educational programs, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletic programs, and other school-administered programs.