VCI Institute
The exercise book for private equity.
A gamified private equity practice platform.
Most finance education asks you to watch. This one asks you to answer. More than seventy interactive exercises and a capstone deal, every one of which marks itself, explains itself in red pen, and generates fresh numbers each time you open it.
- You cannot memorise your way through it. The numbers change on every attempt.
- Twelve books, from the three statements to exit, plus a capstone deal that runs end to end.
- Paper LBO trainers, auction rooms, waterfall sandboxes, covenant countdowns.
One payment. Twelve months of access. Also included in VCII All Access at $79 a month.
VCI Institute
The Exercise Book
for Private Equity
More than seventy exercises. Twelve books.
Open it and try one. No sign up.
Try one right now.
No sign up. Fresh numbers every time you press try another.
Answer in millions. Round to one decimal place.
That is one of more than seventy. Every one of them marks itself and explains itself the same way.
Get the whole book, $99before you decide
This is not a question bank.
Every exercise is a working instrument. Sliders that move the answer while you watch, a bidding room that takes the asset away if you are timid, a stopwatch that reports how long the arithmetic took you. Three of the seventy, unretouched.
The waterfall sandbox
Move the hurdle, the carry, the catch-up. The four tiers redraw as you drag and the LP and GP totals recompute on every keystroke. Three challenges sit underneath, including the one where the GP earns a full twenty per cent.
Book 8 · Returns and fund maths
The auction room
Three rounds of sealed bids against live rivals. Your IRR at the price is shown while you move the slider, so you watch your own return being spent. Bid under the clearing price and somebody else buys the company.
Book 9 · The deal process
The value bridge calculator
Decompose any sponsor return into earnings growth, multiple change, deleveraging and entry fees. The arithmetic is printed beside each driver, so you can check the split rather than take it on trust.
Book 10 · Value creation levers
Seven kinds of exercise, repeated across the books
Twelve books. More than seventy exercises.
Each book opens with its own glossary, then a set of drills, games, sandboxes and index card decks. Work them in order or open whichever one your week demands. The books are the spine of the platform, not the whole of it.
Book 1
Reading the statements
One event, three statements. Make it balance. Revenue is not cash. Red pen audit.
Book 2
Ratios and analysis
The margin ladder, ROE and ROIC, leverage and coverage, the DuPont detective.
Book 3
Working capital and cash
DSO, DIO and DPO. Weather the season. Hunt the leak from EBITDA to cash.
Book 4
Quality of earnings
Sort the nine. Run rate and pro forma. Accept, haircut or reject the add-back table.
Book 5
Valuation fundamentals
Time value, the EV to equity bridge, multiples, peer sets, the tombstone wall.
Book 6
DCF and cost of capital
CAPM, WACC, unlevered free cash flow, terminal value two ways, the sensitivity heatmap.
Book 7
The LBO
The paper LBO trainer, sources and uses, the debt paydown puzzle, covenant countdown, capital stack builder.
Book 8
Returns and fund maths
MOIC and IRR, returns attribution, the waterfall sandbox, carry and catch-up, the J-curve, the IRR sprint.
Book 9
The deal process
Put the process in order. Hold your nerve in the auction room. Deal terms on index cards.
Book 10
Value creation levers
The value bridge calculator, the pricing lever, the procurement lever, the 100-day board.
Book 11
Boards and judgment
The board meeting, five questions before the vote. Evidence, promise or red flag?
Book 12
Exit
Sell now or hold one more year. Who gets the cheque. The exit readiness sprint.
The Deal: the capstone
One company, five chained rounds. Source it, price it, structure it, hold it, sell it. Bid too low and a rival takes it. Lever too hard and the downside breaks you. At the end it re-runs your deal, changing one decision at a time, and tells you the return you left on the table.
Finish it and the Certificate of Completion unlocks.and then there is the rest of it
The twelve books are where you start.
Included at no extra cost: three long simulations that run an entire mandate end to end. Not a drill you finish in ninety seconds. A seat you hold for half an hour, where every decision you take narrows the ones you get later.
The Value Creation Plan
Five companies on the desk, each with a flagged risk and a real reason somebody bought it. Choose one, build the hundred day plan, allocate the money, then live with what the plan does to the exit.
The Deal Maker
Nine stages from mandate to investment committee. Spend execution tokens on sourcing channels, set the diligence plan, price it, write the legal mix, then face the vote on the memo you produced.
The Sale Process
Ten decisions across the months before an exit. Vendor diligence or not. A walk-away number written down or left to the moment. One buyer, two, or a broad auction. The price at the end is yours.
1
The Deal capstone
One company, five chained rounds. At the end it re-runs your deal changing a single decision at a time and shows the return you left behind.
156
Terms, defined
A glossary opens every book and a master A to Z sits at the front. What it is, why it matters, and what to watch for on each one.
90
Lessons in all
More than seventy exercises, the three simulations, the capstone, thirteen glossaries and the orientation you start on.
∞
Repeats
Fresh numbers on every attempt, so a drill you have beaten once is still a drill the following week. Nothing is stored, nothing is scored against you.
So the ninety nine dollars does not buy twelve books. It buys more than seventy exercises, three full simulations, a five round capstone, a hundred and fifty six term glossary and a Certificate of Completion, for twelve months. A dollar and a third per exercise, every one of them repeatable without limit.
Two ways in.
Buy the book on its own, or take it inside All Access.
On its own
$99 one payment
Twelve months of access, because reps take a year, not a weekend.
- Every exercise across twelve books
- Three long simulations, twenty five to forty five minutes each
- The Deal capstone, five rounds end to end
- A glossary opening every book, one hundred and fifty six terms
- Fresh numbers on every attempt, unlimited repeats
- Red pen marking and explanation on every answer
- Certificate of Completion
- Works on a phone, nothing to install
Everything VCII
$79 a month
The exercise book plus the full masterclass library. No minimum term.
- The Exercise Book for Private Equity
- Total Value Creation, APEX, ALBOM, GEOM and AIVCA
- Both CFA Success Accelerator prep packs
- The Strategic Power Pack
- One free certification on day 181, a second on day 366
- Ninety days of PE Simulator at Professional level from day 91
Prices in US dollars. Seven day refund on either route.
Questions? Write to support@vciinstitute.org.