RECENT EVENTS
Venture Fellows New York Trek
April 2024
During the Spring Semester of 2024, our Venture Fellows visited New York City, meeting with leading firms such as BDT & MSD Partners and Apollo Global Management. The trip also provided opportunities for Fellows to connect outside the office, including a Yankees game and group dinner at Buddakan, offering a great blend of professional insights and team bonding.
Texas hosts the 2024 VCIC Central Regional Finals
February 16, 2024
Venture Fellows class of 2025 hosted the 2024 MBA Central Regional Finals of the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) at Rowling Hall in Austin, TX, as part of the world's largest venture capital competition where students act as VCs and startups experience the fundraising process.
Venture Fellows Attend the 2024 Texas Private Equity Conference
February 9, 2024
Venture Fellows Class of 2025 attended the Texas Private Equity Conference at the AT&T Center, sponsored by the Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Center for Private Equity Finance. The conference brought together venture capital and buyout communities to discuss current issues, featuring keynote speaker Bill Gurley, General Partner at Benchmark, along with other distinguished panelists.
Venture Fellows take New York!
April 2023
Each semester, Venture Fellows participate in a student-led trek either in the Bay Area or New York. Most recently, Venture Fellows visited New York and met with Primary Ventures, Dell Family Office, and Apollo. In addition, VFs attended an Alumni happy hour while in NYC and bonded over dinner at Tao.
Venture Fellows (from left): Jesse Buller, Tyler Silva, Kevin Rodrigues, Eric Montgomery, Kathryn Moore, and Will Baizer
Venture Fellows at VCIC
January 24, 2023
McCombs' Venture Fellows team traveled to Rice University to compete in the Regional VCIC, where they assessed three start-ups looking for venture funding. The stiff competition included MBAs from top schools around the country, including the creators of VCIC, UNC Chapel Hill. Top local VCs evaluated the investment recommendations from each school, and our Venture Fellows came out on top. They also took home the Entrepreneur's Choice award!
UT McCombs Hosts Central Region VCIC
February 17, 2023
This past spring, Texas McCombs was the host for VCIC for the Central region. In VCIC, student teams from business schools across the US observe start-up pitches and then are evaluated by local VCs based on their investment recommendations. For competing students, having the opportunity to emulate creating a term sheet for an investment in a start-up is a valuable experience!
Robert Smith visits UT McCombs
November 12, 2018
Robert Smith, CEO of Vista Equity Partners and one of the most successful investors of the century participated in a Fireside Chat alongside Britt Harris, CIO of UTIMCO. The event was jointly hosted by Venture Fellows and the Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Center and open to both students and investors.
Bill Gurley speaks at UT and Venture Fellows
September 14, 2018
Bill Gurley, one of the VC industry’s top dealmakers and general partner at Benchmark Capital, spent a morning speaking to UT MBA and alums about how to find success in life. The event was followed by a small-group lunch with the VF Class of 2019 to cover various topics related to venture and investments.
Term Sheet Negotiations - Shearman & Sterling
May 2, 2018
As part of our long-standing relationship with Andrews Kurth (now part of Shearman & Sterling), the VF class of 2018 was invited to the annual Term Sheet Negotiations where students simulated a negotiation between founders while under the mentorship of experienced attorneys, entrepreneurs, and financiers.
Guest Speaker - Manoj Saxena
April 9, 2018
The VF Class of 2019 posing with distinguished speaker Manoj Saxena who covered topics ranging from AI to technology ethics during our spring speaker series.
NYC Trek - Union Square Ventures
April 7, 2018
Brad Burnham from Union Square Ventures stands with VF Spring Trek attendees after he shared his insights into investing in disruptive technology.
VCIC Global Finals (Entrepreneur's Choice)
April 6, 2018
After placing first place in the Southeast Regional Finals, a team of current and former Venture Fellows (from left to right: Jon Broscious, Ashley Hemphill, Eric Blum [CEO of Toolkite], Katie Herbek, Maureen O'Connor, Ming Liu) competed at the Global Finals of VCIC at UNC Kenan-Flagler against 13 other regional champions. The team won the “Entrepreneur’s Choice” award, labeled by some judges as “that day’s most difficult award to win.”
Wharton MBA Buyout Competition (2nd Place)
February 23, 2018
The Venture Fellows class of 2019 fielded a team composed of (from left to right) Peter Fenelon, Nico Gayle, Matt Draheim, and Justin Pitcock to compete in this year’s Wharton Private Equity Case Competition on February 23 in New York. Contestants from 25 top-ranked MBA programs came together at the Penn Club where judges hailed from several New York private equity firms including Court Square, Centerbridge, Atairos, HIG Capital, Apex Capital, and others.