Criteria before names
Teams write down what a good company looks like before they look at a single one, so the screen tests the market instead of confirming a favorite.
About
A single company can be a venture bet, a growth round, a buyout, and a credit decision at different points in its life. PMG exists so Michigan students learn to underwrite every one of those moments.
Principle
Principle
Every claim has a falsifier
Each part of a buy case is paired with the one finding that would reverse it. The committee asks whether the team went looking for it.
Principle
Open by default
Membership is open to every Michigan student. Training materials, market maps, and memos are shared with the whole group.
Principle
Simulated deals, real standards
No money is raised or invested. The work is held to the bar a fund would set for its own associates.
Programs
What members do
PMG runs six programs through the fall and winter terms. New members usually start in the Analyst Program and join a sector team once they have the foundations.
For new members
Analyst Program
An eight-week technical curriculum covering accounting, valuation, LBO modeling, venture economics, and credit, finishing with a written investment memo. Interview preparation is built into the last sessions.
Core program
Sector Engagements
Small analyst teams spend twelve weeks on one sector. They map it, screen it, run diligence on a shortlist, and present a recommendation to the Investment Committee.
Decision body
Investment Committee
Nine members hear each engagement's final case, question the team, and record a vote with written reasoning that goes back to the analysts.
Open to all
Case Nights
A live, ninety-minute case built from a real company. Teams get the materials at the start, build a view, and defend it before the session ends.
Open to all
Practitioner Series
Conversations with people who do this work: fund investors, lenders, operating partners, and the people who raise capital for funds. Sessions focus on how decisions get made.
For members
Research Library
Every market map, screen, and memo from past engagements is kept in a shared library, so each new team starts from what earlier teams learned.
Coverage
The full capital structure
Members learn each asset class on its own terms, including what the investor is paid for, what can go wrong, and how the fund behind the investment is built.
01
Buyouts
Control investments in mature companies, underwritten on cash flow, debt capacity, and a plan for exit.
02
Growth Equity
Minority capital for companies that already work, judged on retention, unit economics, and room to scale.
03
Venture Capital
Early investments where evidence is thin, so the market, the product, and the team carry the case.
04
Private Credit
Direct lending and structured capital, where protecting the downside matters more than the upside.
05
Secondaries
Buying existing fund interests and portfolios, and pricing assets another investor chose.
Sector teams
Technology and Software
Vertical and horizontal software, AI-native applications, infrastructure, and data businesses.
Healthcare
Services, providers, healthcare IT, and life science tools.
Consumer and Retail
Brands, restaurants, e-commerce, and consumer services.
Industrials and Business Services
Manufacturing, distribution, logistics, and outsourced services.
Financial Services
Fintech, insurance, payments, and specialty lenders.
Sports, Media, and Entertainment
Teams and leagues, live events, media rights, and the technology around them.
Analyst Program
The curriculum
Eight sessions that take a member with no finance background to the point where they can read a deal, build the model behind it, and write the memo for it.
Week 1
Reading a company
The income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement, and how they tie together.
Week 2
Valuation
Comparable companies, precedent transactions, and discounted cash flow, and when each one misleads.
Week 3
How private funds work
Limited and general partners, fees, carried interest, fund life, and why the structure shapes every decision.
Week 4
The leveraged buyout
Building an LBO from sources and uses through returns, and what actually drives them.
Week 5
Growth and venture economics
Cap tables, dilution, liquidation preferences, and the metrics that matter before a company is profitable.
Week 6
Credit and structure
Covenants, security, recovery, and how a lender underwrites the same company an equity investor does.
Week 7
Diligence
Customer, market, and financial diligence, and how to find the fact that breaks a thesis.
Week 8
The investment memo
Writing a recommendation a committee can vote on, with the falsifiers attached.
Sector Engagements
Twelve weeks from blank page to vote
Each engagement team is led by a Sector Lead and works through the same four phases. Teams choose their own sector focus within their coverage area.
Weeks 1 to 3
Map
Build a market map of every relevant company in the sector, organized by subsegment.
Delivers: market map
Weeks 4 to 6
Screen
Agree on written criteria, then cut the map to a shortlist the team can defend.
Delivers: screening criteria, shortlist
Weeks 7 to 10
Diligence
Pressure-test each shortlisted company and drop the ones whose advantage will not hold.
Delivers: diligence notes, finalists
Weeks 11 to 12
Recommend
Write the case and present it to the Investment Committee for a recorded vote.
Delivers: investment memo
Investment Committee
Nine seats, one recorded vote
The committee is the standard every engagement works toward. It hears the final case, questions the team, and returns a written decision.
Composition
Five officers and four Sector Leads
Executive officersSector Leads
A quorum is five members. A Sector Lead steps out of the vote on their own team's recommendation. Every vote is simulated, and no money is committed.
What a memo contains
Six sections, every time
- Thesis. The recommendation in two sentences.
- Market. Size, structure, and where the value sits.
- Company. Product, customers, and what makes it hard to copy.
- Returns. The model, the base case, and the downside.
- Falsifiers. The finding that would reverse each claim.
- Decision. Invest, pass, or revisit, with conditions.
Calendar
A semester at PMG
Fall and winter follow the same rhythm, so members always know what is coming next.
Week 1
Kickoff
Open meeting for new and returning members, with sector team sign-ups.
Weeks 2 to 9
Analyst Program
Weekly technical sessions for new members.
Weeks 2 to 13
Engagements
Sector teams move through map, screen, diligence, and recommend.
Throughout
Case Nights and Practitioners
Monthly cases and practitioner conversations every other week.
Weeks 13 to 14
Committee Week
Final presentations and recorded votes for every engagement.
Leadership
How PMG is run
Officers are elected every April by active members, and any active member can run for any position.
Managing Partners
Lead the organization, chair the Executive Board and the Investment Committee, and represent PMG on campus and externally.
Vice President of Education
Runs the Analyst Program curriculum, Case Nights, and the engagement calendar.
Vice President of Finance
Manages the budget and student organization account and prepares funding requests.
Vice President of Operations
Keeps membership records, runs elections, and manages the research library.
Vice President of Partnerships
Builds the Practitioner Series and manages PMG's communications.
Sector Leads
Up to four each term. Each leads the engagement teams in one coverage area and holds a committee seat.
Membership
Open to every Michigan student
There is no application, interview, or fee. Students of any major and any level of experience are welcome.
Join on Maize Pages
Register as a member to get meeting notices and program sign-ups.
Come to kickoff
Meet the board and sector leads in the first week of the term.
Start the Analyst Program
Build the technical foundations in eight weekly sessions.
Join a sector team
Sign up for an engagement. If a team has more interest than seats, seats are drawn at random and anyone not placed gets priority the next term.
Questions
Common questions
Do I need finance experience?
No. The Analyst Program starts from the three financial statements and assumes nothing beyond that.
Is there an application?
No. Any currently enrolled University of Michigan student can join by registering on Maize Pages.
How much time does it take?
Most members spend two to four hours a week. Engagement teams meet more often in the last weeks before Committee Week.
Does PMG invest real money?
No. PMG is educational and simulation-based. It does not raise, pool, manage, or invest money, and committee votes commit nothing.
Can I join if I am not in the business school?
Yes. PMG is open to students in every school and college, and engagements benefit from members with engineering, science, and policy backgrounds.