V2 Venture Vetting

A New Model for a Student Entrepreneurship Competition

The venture and the entrepreneur, rather than the Business Plan, are vetted by potential investors

Focuses entrepreneurs on the actual tests that they face to get funding

Investors follow their usual practice to evaluate venture proposals

Intensely interactive and conversational

Not a tournament– separate judgments on each venture

A New Kind of Entrepreneurship Competition

Complements ubiquitous Business Plan Competitions

Follows actual practice. Focus is on the venture, rather than the plan. Conversations support investors’ judgments, and reflect their experience and intuition in funding decisions.

Supported by research findings that business plans have limited value in funding and performance of start-ups (Kirsch, Goldfarb, and Gera, 2009)

Why V2 Venture Vetting

The foundation is a “cell” of three investors and four entrepreneurs. The Competition is scalable by adding cells.

Venture Audit: each entrepreneur submits a “Pitch Deck” before the competition. It consists of up to 10 slides with notes.

A panel of USD experts narrows the Pitch Decks to four finalists to be presented by their entrepreneurs on the day of the competition.

Some Pitch Decks not selected as finalists may be invited to present at a Poster Session on Competition day

On Competition day, each entrepreneur gets 10 minutes to clarify the business model before a panel of investors, then 10 more to convince each investor individually in a one-on-one interview

How it works …

The Rounds …

The second phase is a circuit of fast (10-minute) one-on-one meetings where each investor asks each entrepreneur the key questions to finalize their decisions. One hour total.

The Rounds …

Next, each investor decides whether to make an offer and for what portion of their available funds

An interactive debrief wraps up the day of

Competition

Audience participates in-person and via the information network

Results are archived in the data base and accessed via the web page

Investors and entrepreneurs meet for a plenary wrap-up. Results are announced, and feedback given to all the entrepreneurs. 20 minutes

SPECIFICATIONS

Participants and Support Three investors and four finalist entrepreneurs will participate.

Facilities

The first phase is located in the IPJ Theater The second phase in IPJ breakout rooms Debrief is in the IPJ Theater

RESULTS

Outcomes in terms of mechanics, learning, satisfaction of participants were sufficient proof-of-concept to run V2 as a bigger

campus-wide entrepreneurship competition in April 2013.

Market trial of V2 in April 2012 with three Angel investors and four USD entrepreneurs.

V2 BRANDING CAMPAIGN 2013

V2 BRANDING CAMPAIGN PROPOSAL 2013

CORE ELEMENTS CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT OF DIEGO TORERO REINFORCING A USD CAMPUS WIDE INITIATIVE ASPIRATION MARKETING OF TOM BREITLING AS A SUCCESFUL USD ALUM ENTREPRENEUR BRAND AWARENESS OF ULTIMATE GAMING AND DOUBLE OR NOTHING ON ALL MARKETING ITEMS

MAIN PROMOTIONAL BROCHURE

Distribution: 1,000 Brochures ( Before the event ) 200 Brochures ( Day of the Event)

EXTE

RIO

R

INTE

RIO

R

WALL BANNERS

BUILDING DISPLAYS & PROMO ITEMS

Customize V2 Coaster Distribution: 6,000 pieces

Wall Banners (2) and Building Displays (5) Distribution: Student Life Pavillion, Business School, International Office ,etc

Workplan Calendar and next Steps ..

3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 1 V2 CAMPAIGN PROPOSAL 2013 BRANDING - Develop a strong visual Identity for 3 Challenges

- Design Creative Print Advertising and Promotional Items

WEB SERIES PRODUCTION - Film Series of Videos in episodic form with an engaging

story about Diego Torero and Mitch Thrower promoting the

various events of the three challenge s .

PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MEDIA - Weekly Film Series presentations in classrooms , TV screens

and key events inside and outside of campus. - Diego Torero Valet Service Campaign

SOCIAL MEDIA AND ONLINE MARKETING - Upload Web Series to USD Website and drive traffic

through social networks.

BRANDING - Receive approval from Tom Breitiing about print advertising and promotional items.

JAN FEB MARCH APRIL MAY

WEB SERIES PRODUCTION - Develop an engaging video with a storyline about Tom Breiting and Diego Torero promoting v2

PUBLIC RELATION AND MEDIA - Video presentations in classrooms, TV screen Displays and publicity on key events.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND ONLINE MARKETING - Upload Web Series to USD Website and drive traffic to V2 social networks