UPComingVC is one and only Venture Capital Education Platform not only for startups but foremost for early & growth stage entrepreneurs, investors and aspiring Venture Capitalists so called ‘Wanna be VC’.
The most recent one, 3rd edition, of UPComingVC took place end of January in Paris and gathered more than 50 like-minded individuals.
8 Startups, 8 teams of young investors and 8 well known local VCs worked together to pick up the best startup out of the preliminarily selected 8 business ideas, to put their foot into the VC shoes and play as if they were real investors having few millions to spend.
Real Venture Capitalists (VCs) were mentors to both the startups and challengers. They shared their thoughts, methods, insights and best practices to help young professionals properly run the conversations with startups and pick up most essential information necessary to make decision about funding only one, best promising venture.
It was extremely busy and active day when you could really focus on analysing gathered information, assess prospective early stage companies and work with the team on making decision on what to present to your VC Partners. You need to stretch yourself a little bit having not much time to consider all pros and cons but it really gives a flavour on how the VCs’ job often looks like.
The challenge lets you practice how the VCs think, helps you realize what to focus on and how to cut the talk if it’s sledging to the side and not really going in the desired direction. It’s real life conversation and pitching show on the stage. It’s demanding team working and time management exercise.
It’s an intense day full of emotions, new people, networking opportunities and deep learning sessions.
All in all, I highly recommend you to apply for the next edition that will be announced on the website some time soon. The quality of the event and the organising team do great job! So if you are:
a startup you can expect full-scale training to the fundraising process, opportunity to connect with VCs and prepare the ground for your potential upcoming funding rounds,
an aspiring VC, you will be able to test your investment & due diligence skills in a life-size test with genuine startups and seasoned VCs, to get noticed and hired as a potential Intern/Analyst/Associate,
a VC, you can identify talented aspiring VCs for your team (Interns, Analysts, Associates) as well as meet entrepreneurs, add to your dealflow and transmit your methods.
The last but by no means least, few words about the person who came up with this brilliant idea few years ago. Raphael Grieco is involved in startup community for quite a few years now. He is startup mentor in Seedstars, MassChallenge Switzerland, works with SKEMA Business School, Product Hunt Switzerland just to mention a few. He is extremely inspiring person truly passionate about startup and innovations creation. Together with his team, they have taken up a mission to unlock early & growth stage investor and entrepreneurial talents and they are doing pretty well providing great networking and education platform for the broad range of people interested in VC, startup founding and individual&institutional investors.
This year, the event took place in Station F. It is the biggest startup campus in the world, backed by Xavier Niel and located in Paris. It’s amazing space where you can work in a cosy but quiet corner or sit together brainstorming with others at a big table.
Venture Capital Funds that have been working with UpComing VC so far:
