Invest like a Champion stock pitch competition crowns its first winner

One thousand dollars invested in Apple stock in the year 2000 would be worth more than $200,000 today. And a thousand dollars invested in Enron that same year would be worth nothing at all.

At the time, the Houston-based energy giant was considered a safer play than the Silicon Valley computer makers, but Enron collapsed in 2001. Today, its stock isn’t worth the paper it would have been printed on. Choosing the right investment at the right time makes all the difference. Of course, it is easy to pick winners in hindsight. The future is much more difficult to see.

Notre Dame’s new Invest like a Champion stock pitch competition invites some of the country’s top undergraduate business students to argue for their vision of the future of a publicly traded stock — whether that’s a long play on a plucky startup that could become the next Apple or a short on a stock that could go the way of Enron.

The University of Chicago team took first place with recommendation for shorting a stock. The students conducted primary research in government databases to identify discrepancies between the tone of a company’s public communications and its actual contracts. The University of Pennsylvania finished as runners-up, with Princeton taking third place.

But Notre Dame students also came out on top. The outstanding due diligence of competition participants set an example for students to aspire to, according to Patty Brady, the managing director of the Notre Dame Institute for Global Investing, which partnered with the Notre Dame Investment Club to organize the event.

“It’s one thing to hold an internal competition and see your peers pitch, but it is a totally different thing to invite the seven best teams from across the country to Notre Dame,” said Brady. “It really elevates the conversation and shows our students where the bar has been set.”

The vision for Invest like a Champion draws inspiration from the college football playoff, which pits successful teams against each other to sort out who is truly superior. Stock pitch competitions take place throughout the academic year, allowing Notre Dame to identify teams that have already performed well at other prominent competitions, like those held at Cornell, Dartmouth and the University of Michigan.

“We wanted to bring the best talent to campus and were most concerned with the quality of the pitches that were brought to the table,” said Colin Mahoney (BBA ’25) the president of the Notre Dame Investment Club. Working with Investment Club Vice President Max Lau (BBA ’25) and Chief Investment Officer Garrett Sullivan (BBA ’25). Mahoney reviewed each of the 78 applications to the event. Brady credited the students with making the inaugural event happen and plans to work with the Notre Dame Investment Club to establish the competition as an annual affair.

“For us, it was like a tournament of champions,” said Mahoney. “And looking forward, we want to make an effort to reach out to candidates who have won other stock pitch competitions and invite them to apply. For this to be a learning experience for Notre Dame students, bringing top talent to campus is of the utmost importance.”

For the Notre Dame Institute for Global Investing, the competition is one more touch point with the financial services industry. The Institute regularly takes students to visit financial hubs such as Chicago, San Francisco and New York. During football season, the industry has a strong presence in South Bend that shows up in the form of guest lectures and seminars. The Invest like a Champion competition brings Notre Dame alumni to campus as judges and industry panelists.

At the conclusion of the competition, all participating teams were invited to a surprise event at Notre Dame Stadium, where they saw their team name and stock pitch ticker symbol on the jumbotron screen.

“‘Invest like a Champion Today’ is a phrase we have used for a long time at the Notre Dame Institute for Global Investing,” said Brady. “We want Notre Dame to be the preeminent place to study finance, and this is one step in elevating our brand. It also helps build our community. We received really encouraging feedback, and we hope our students will take some of the friendships they’ve made with them to Wall Street. For the 200 or so students in the Notre Dame Investment Club, events like this create an opportunity for applied learning, which has exponential effects in how we can help them learn and engage.”