Getting access to top tier venture capital firms can be challenging as most of the fund allocations are dominated by large established institutional limited partners. Venture capital firms are also subject to macroeconomic trends in the market which may affect the various stages of their investment cycle that includes: fundraising, deal structuring and negotiation, valuation, portfolio management and exit.

Many venture capital firms have shut down as they struggle to grapple with the macroeconomic conditions, failed or mistimed investments and underperformance of their investment returns. To this end, the Johns Hopkins Private Equity & Venture Capital hosted John Avirett, Partner at Greenspring Associates (“Greenspring”) at the Carey Business School on Apr 21, 2016 for a session on “Building a Sustainable Platform for Venture Capital” to understand what it takes to become successful venture capital firm.

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The Johns Hopkins Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) was held on Nov 21 at the Carey Business School and was organized by the Innovation Factory and the Johns Hopkins Private Equity and Venture Capital Club. A strong turnout featured a total of 8 Venture Capital Student (VCS) teams (5 members each), 6 Startups and 7 Judges. VCIC is the world’s largest venture capital competition among top graduate students from 70+ prestigious business schools from all around the world. Unlike most competitions in which student-entrepreneurs pitch to VCs, in this competition, the graduate students are the VCs.

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The Private Equity and Venture Capital Club (PEVC) at Johns Hopkins held its kick-off meeting of the 2015-2016 academic year on Oct 19, 2015. Students and faculty members alike eagerly attended Monday’s meeting to learn more about the club’s future as well as the private equity industry as a whole. PEVC aims to create industry exposure among wide array of students through professional development, education, and experiential learning. PEVC is working hard to secure a compelling speaker series that features industry leaders that carry a breadth of knowledge and experience to share. Chris Hoehn-Saric of Sterling Partners and Shane Kim of Camden Partners are scheduled to speak in November. In addition to speaker series, the club plans to promote education through a variety of courses including financial modeling and leverage buyouts.

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