Jim De Wilde - Venture Capital

I recently signed up for a Venture Capital competition. I've been trying to find more opportunities to work with classmates. The PSO has made a good effort to mix up the groups we work in, Q1,2 Teams, Q3&4 Teams, 24h case comp and MarkStrat (to date). However, I was looking for more opportunities. I'm also doing the CIBC IB Comp and the Investment Challenge with different teammates. I came into this competition hoping to find an opportunity to work with some friends on something interesting.

It turns out this VC competition is a big deal, forcing you to "compete" for a spot in the competition before you can even participate by sending in an essay with all the profiles of your team members. Quite a few teams got cut also as the interest seems to be quite high. Our team was lucky enough to snag a spot and I turns out there are some ROCKSTAR teams in the competition.

Right now we are listening to a prep talk from a venture capitalist, Jim de Wilde. He comments that venture capital is not just capital applied to starting a profitable bowling alley. Jim de Wilde has a very specific definition of what constitutes a true definition: "Looking to create new value."

He took a look at Silicon Valley and how it is a prime example of how VC in Canada differs from VC in the US and is giving us the foundation for what perspective to take and how to think about the competition we are about to participate in.