Takeaways from the Michigan Pitch Competition

Hey guys - thought I would drop some of my takeaways after attending the Michigan Pitch Competition. Honestly was very disappointed by WITG.

Was on a boys trip with some of my buddies from NYC and saw the pitch competition was happening, so decided to stop in for a few hours and watch some shop. Here my takeaways 


1. The Cornell Financial Analysts are the FUTURE of recruiting.

  • These guys were dominant and won for a reason. Decks were perfect, technical analysis was sound and clear, and they didn’t even miss any small nits. I was flipping pages trying to see if the footnote moved position and it was stable every time
  • There’s a reason their placements were lights out, and their performance backed the hype and then some
  • Also saw them at the bar after - strong social skills and networking abilities

2. WITG has fallen off the map

  • I’m not sure if this was an off year, but their pitch was lackluster and a bit uninspiring
  • I feel like they have all the boxes checked, but lack the top bucket ability that the Cornell Financial Analysts had
  • Talked with the bullpen after the pitch and a lot of them weren’t surprised either - it seems the club has gotten complacent in recent success

    I had to run to meet my friends again after that, but overall was shocked by these findings. Hopefully I can make the drive up to Michigan again next year.
28 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Very obviously written by a Cornell student, but the Cornell kids I've seen at pitch comps have stood out as embarrassing. Not in terms of their pitches – their pitches are decent, never seen them place though – but they wear retarded attire, like a polo or a t-shirt, and are on their phones during guest speakers etc.

 

Cornell's pitch is down like 80% since they pitched it (NYSE: FTRE). They didn't make finalist in any of the decent pitch comps since. 

 

"I was flipping pages trying to see if the footnote moved position and it was stable every time"

Yeah, maybe we should stop hiring out of PE/IB and just expand the graduate programs.

 
[Comment removed by mod team]
 

For what it’s worth I flipped through WITG’s deck and while it was fine it certainly wasn’t the clean/ refined product you’d expect & Cornell definitely had the upper hand.

There were inconsistencies in the formatting of fn’s throughout the pages, not in terms of placement per se but while most used #) format there were a few instances of (#) format.

Not the biggest deal by any means but it just shows that it could’ve taken a couple more looks and proofs before submission. In the real world this can be a distraction for a client trying to wrap their minds around tectonic plate shifting mergers and could ultimately lose business.

 

As a former non-target student, I sympathize deeply with the Michigan students. Those of us “non-targetters” are simply not afforded the same quality of education and social experience. Not to mention we often struggle with analytical tasks. 

Thank you for posting this insightful analysis. This type of “hard hitting” content brings truth into the light. And for that, we should all be grateful. 

 

Should be readily available with a Google search.

In the real world you should definitely leverage your resources before wasting others’ time.

 

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