MBiotech Students Take Top Honours at Venture Capital Competition

Students from U of T Mississauga’s MBiotech program are on a winning streak. For two consecutive years, an MBiotech team has triumphed over U of T MBA student teams to take top Canadian honours at the Venture Capital and Innovation Competition (VCIC), which took place Jan 26-28, at the Rotman School of Management.

From left: Gordon Lau, Diane Saldanha, Saad Mirza, Marinha Capela, Roberto Amato

“It’s only the second year that our students have been participating in this annual competition. Having them win the Canadian round of the VCIC twice demonstrates the value of the MBiotech program’s approach in combining business and science education,” says lecturer Andrew Maxwell who coached the winning team.

VCIC is the world’s premiere educational strategy competition for venture-minded and entrepreneurial MBA students in which the goal is to develop solutions to a business case. Only 20 select business schools are invited to participate and U of T is the only Canadian university among them.

Though the MBiotech students take business courses, such as the Management Innovation course, which covers commercializing technological innovations in both large companies and start-ups, they are not technically MBA students so their stellar performance is particularly impressive. “We were the underdogs and had been preparing all month to ensure that we built the knowledge base and skills to compete adequately against the MBA student teams,” says Diane Saldanha, one of the MBiotech team members.

Each of the eight teams competing in the recent meet was presented with business plans from real entrepreneurs. The students had two days to analyze the plans to determine whether to invest in their companies. “Completing the due diligence that venture capitalists normally conduct in one to two months in such a short time proved to be quite challenging,” says Saldanha.

The students then heard a pitch from the entrepreneurs and had 12 minutes to ask questions about the company in front of a judging panel consisting of academics and venture capitalists and then negotiated with the entrepreneur.

The five-member MBiotech team, consisting of Diane Saldanha, Gordon Lau, Marinha Capela, Roberto Amato and Saad Mirza, impressed the judges on many counts. “We were commended for our preparedness, for having a good understanding of what venture capitalists look for in investment opportunities as well as our ability to build a rapport with the entrepreneur, which is the key to establishing a good relationship,” says Saldanha. The judges also commented on their high level of technical ability, solid understanding of the financial aspects of the business and ability to recognize opportunities within the business, she says.

The team now advances to the next round of the VCIC taking place March 11- 13 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They will compete against teams from the top American business schools such as Harvard and Wharton.

from 'The Mississauga News' by Olena Wawryshyn