What is a private equity simulator?

A private equity simulator is a hands-on training environment where you practice the full deal lifecycle instead of watching videos or filling spreadsheets. PE Simulator connects 12 integrated modules from sourcing through exit, with four AI advisors and a gamified VC$ economy, so you make decisions and see consequences in one sandbox.

What makes PE Simulator unique?

PE Simulator is the only platform that covers the full private equity lifecycle in one connected sandbox: 20+ integrated workspaces, six core lifecycle workspaces (Deal Sourcing Desk through Exit Desk), four specialist AI advisors (VIC, Brain, CFO Assistant, VALIA), The Forge decision simulator with cascading effects, and a VC$ gamification layer. Competitors focus on templates or video courses. Here your sourcing work flows into valuation, value creation, and exit planning in one workspace.

Is there a sandbox or hands-on mode?

Yes. Start with the free timed demo at sim.vci.institute/try (no signup, no card). Inside a paid plan, the full simulator is a persistent sandbox: unlimited simulations, cross-module data flow, and AI coaching across every workspace.

Is there a free way to try PE Simulator?

Yes. Two paths: the no-signup timed demo at sim.vci.institute/try (no card, no email), or a 7-day full-access trial on Professional or Team at sim.vci.institute/subscription (card required, cancel before day 8). The demo is the fastest way to see the app. The trial unlocks everything for a week. Free Limited signup stays available with no card and no trial clock.

Can I try it before subscribing?

Yes. Two paths: the no-signup timed demo at sim.vci.institute/try (about ten minutes, no card), or a 7-day free trial from the welcome page (card required, full access, cancel before day 8). After conversion, paid plans include a 7-day refund window. The Daily Deal under Free tools is another no-signup mini-deal if you want a shorter drill.

What AI features are included?

Four specialist AI advisors: VIC (PE expert chat), The Brain (report generation), CFO Assistant (financial analysis), and VALIA (quick prompts). AI is included in all paid plans.

Can I practice the entire PE deal lifecycle?

Yes. All paid plans include 20+ integrated workspaces, including 6 core lifecycle workspaces covering sourcing (Deal Sourcing Desk), valuation (Valuation Desk), growth planning (Growth Planning Desk), value creation (Value Creation Desk), portfolio management (Portfolio Desk), and exit (Exit Desk), plus AI tools, simulations, and certifications. Data flows between workspaces so you run one deal end to end.

What modules are included?

All 12 integrated simulation modules are included in every paid plan: Deal Sourcing Desk, Valuation Desk, Growth Planning Desk, Value Creation Desk, Portfolio Desk, Exit Desk, Operating Partner Desk, Quizzes and Certifications, Brain, Career Coach, Forge, and Digicorn, plus learning paths and certifications in the app. The only Team-exclusive content is the Phoenix, Fake Leader, and C-Suite Arena multiplayer capstones.

Can I get a certification?

Yes. There are 19 certification programs across modules. Each requires passing quizzes with a minimum score. Certifications are verifiable and shareable.

Is there a refund policy?

Yes. We offer a 7-day refund window, no questions asked. You can cancel your subscription at any time.

Do I need PE experience to use this?

No. The Learning Journey starts at Student level with guided paths. Experienced professionals can skip ahead and use advanced modules like The Forge (decision simulator) or The Brain (AI report engine). Start with the timed demo or the 7-day trial when you are ready.

How is PE Simulator different from Wall Street Prep and BIWS?

Wall Street Prep and BIWS excel at Excel modeling and interview prep through video and templates. PE Simulator is a simulation platform: you practice the complete deal lifecycle with interconnected modules, AI feedback, and decision consequences. See our comparison pages at pesimulator.com/alternatives/wall-street-prep and pesimulator.com/alternatives/biws for a feature-by-feature breakdown.

What's actually inside?

9 desks covering the deal lifecycle from sourcing to exit, 8 practice arenas for repeatable drills, and 4 AI advisors wired into the workspaces where you work. One connected deal runs through all of it, not separate exercises. Open the timed demo to feel that connection in minutes.

If you work in private equity, sit next to it, or are training for it, yes. That includes PE professionals, bankers, M&A advisors, consultants, operating partners, C-suite and post-integration leaders, and MBA students. Students use guided paths, professionals skip ahead, and teams add multiplayer capstones. Try the 10-minute demo first if you are unsure, then start the trial when it fits.

How is this different from a course?

A course shows you a finished model and asks you to follow along. Here you build the model and make the calls, and the sandbox reacts, wrong answers included. The desks and arenas give you a place to practice what a course can only describe. Open the timed demo and you will feel the difference.

Do I need Excel skills?

No prior Excel modeling is required. The simulator builds the model with you inside each desk, and the AI advisors are available if you get stuck on a specific calculation. Excel skills help outside the sim, but they are not a prerequisite to start. Open the timed demo and begin without a spreadsheet.

What happens after the trial?

After 7 days, your subscription auto converts to the plan you selected, Professional at $39 a month or Team at $69 a month. Cancel any time before day 8 to avoid being charged. After conversion, you keep a 7-day refund window. See pricing if you want the tiers side by side before you start.

Can I try without signup?

Yes. The timed demo at sim.vci.institute/try needs no signup and no card. A card is required only for the 7-day trial, and only to start it. The Daily Deal under Free tools is another no-signup mini-deal. Use the timed demo when you want the fullest free look.

How much does it cost?

Professional is $39 a month or $390 a year for individuals, students, and solo practitioners. Team is $69 a month or $690 a year with multiplayer capstones and 100 AI queries per day. There is no separate Student or Edu price. Both paid plans start with a 7-day free trial that requires a card but is not charged until day 8. Compare plans on the pricing page, or start at sim.vci.institute/subscription.

The private equity simulator for analysts, MBAs, and deal teams

Practice the full private equity deal lifecyclebefore you invest in or interview for one.

9 Desks8 Arenas4 AI Advisors

Nine desks, one live deal, sourcing to exit. Rehearse the lifecycle and leave the mistakes in the simulator. You make the calls, the model reacts, and an AI advisor tells you what a partner would have done.

Start 7-day trial

Start 10-minute demo

7-day trial. Card required. Cancel before day 8. A 10-minute demo is available with no signup.

Stripe secure checkout
7-day refund window
Trust center

Backed by VCI Institute, 2,500+ learners in 50+ countries

Elite Practical Deal Lifecycle, M&A and Private Equity Training

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One platform, four ways in

Practice. Learn. Certify. Play.

Everything in the simulator sits in one of four places. Pick the one that fits your day.

Practice

Run a live deal from sourcing to exit.

Deal Sourcing Desk
Valuation Desk
Deal Store: 100 plus deals and your own company

Explore Practice

Learn

Build knowledge one step at a time.

25 learning paths
13 books and 185 cheat sheets
16 deal case studies

Explore Learn

Certify

Show your skills and your progress.

Quizzes and exams
Certificates and badges
Career DNA

Explore Certify

Play

Test your judgement under pressure.

Solo: The Forge, Board Simulation
Duels: Ladder Duel, The Closing Table
Team capstone: The Phoenix

Explore Play

Certificates show your practice and results. They are not an accreditation.

Watch

See the simulator before you start

Three short films. The product, the institute behind the curriculum, and a walk through a live deal.

Who trains here

Private equity grade.Built for the desks around the deal.

A PE lifecycle sandbox for PE professionals and the advisors, bankers, and operators who sit next to them.

Investors and sponsors
- Private equity professionals
- Operating partners
- Value creation advisors
Dealmakers
- Investment bankers
- M&A advisors
- Strategic consultants
Builders and leaders
- MBA and graduate students
- C-suite leaders
- Post-integration leaders

Built with

Practice on names you know

Scenario cases modeled on public transactions.

Dealflow

One deal, end to end

You run a private equity deal through its whole life: source it, value it, plan the growth, create the value, operate the company, and exit. AI advisors sit at the table. Every stage leaves an artifact you keep.

Self-paced. Always on. Start with the 10-minute demo.

Live deal pipeline
Screening framework
Market comparables

You

Screen targets against your thesis
Score six deal drivers
Shortlist and commit

You

Screen targets against your thesis
Score six deal drivers
Shortlist and commit

AI at the table

Deal profiler builds the target from a URL
VIC challenges your screen

You keep

Screening scorecard
A deal thread that follows you

Read the private equity deal lifecycle

Beyond the deal

Game simulations from crisis decisions to a full fund career. Multiplayer for teams.

Proof you keep

Certification exams and certificates built to carry onto LinkedIn.

Try before anything

10-minute demo. No email, no card. Then a 7-day trial.

Access Proprietary Deal Flow

Move up the simulation. Unlock proprietary private equity deal flow.

Aldermore 2026
RWC 2026
WeWork 2019
Refinitiv 2018
Arm 2016
Envision Healthcare 2018
Careem 2016
Enron 2001
Action 2011
Twitter 2022
Chrysler 2007

Company names and logos appear in educational case scenarios only. No affiliation or endorsement is implied.

Why not a course

Everyone else teaches you the deal.We make you run one.

Reading about a deal and running one are different skills. Only one of them gets hired.

Courses and prep programs

Watch someone else build the model
Static case PDFs
You learn what happened
Finish with a certificate

The PE Super Simulator

Build with feedback
Live, reactive model
You find out what you would do
Finish with a track record

Ask us anything

The questions people ask before they start.

Short, direct answers pulled from what ships in the product today. Pick a question, or jump straight to the path that matches you.

Type a question, or pick a chip below.

The timed demo at sim.vci.institute/try takes about ten minutes and needs no signup. A 7-day trial gives you time to work through more than one desk before you decide. Start with the demo if you want the shortest path in. The Daily Deal under Free tools is another no-signup mini-deal if you prefer a shorter drill.

See the full FAQ

Built by operators, validated by practitioners

Private equity training that earns the marks, not just displays them.

The PE Super Simulator was built in collaboration by Valuethropy and VCI Institute, informed by alumni of top business schools and the firms they came from. Every module is informed by people who have actually run deals.

2,500+

VCI Institute learners

50,000+

VCI Institute subscribers

50+

Countries

4.8 / 5

VCI Institute course rating

Figures from VCI Institute, the curriculum partner behind the simulator.

Built in consultation with top business school faculty and alumni

Built with alumni and operators from

The closest thing to running a real deal I have used. The decision pressure feels right, not artificial.

Operating Partner

Mid-cap buyout fund

Fills the practice gap that books and case studies never address. Our associates train on this before live deals.

Managing Director

Growth equity firm

The AI advisors are not a gimmick. They actually respond to what you build, which is rare in this category.

Industry advisor

Industry network of 1,000+ advisors

What learners say

“Closest thing to a partner-level case interview. The outputs made my plan obvious.”
PE ASSOCIATEMid-cap buyout

“The most practical finance content I have seen. Tight, deal-tested frameworks we could apply in our portfolio the same week.”
OPERATING PARTNEREnterprise value creation

11 career levels

Progress tracked from Student to Managing Director.

Every simulation earns XP toward the next level. Vice President is where most learners aim first.

Student
Starting your PE journey
Intern
Learning fundamentals
Analyst
Building analytical skills
Associate
Executing deals
Vice President
Leading deal teams. Target
Director
Directing portfolio VC
Principal
Shaping strategy
Partner
Driving fund performance
Senior Partner
Leading the firm
Managing Partner
Building institutions
MD
Industry legend
Partner's whiteboard
Easter egg. The deal that never leaves the board.

Built by MBAs. Pressure-tested by operators. So the hub earns the marks, not just displays them.

Four specialist AI advisors

Ask, generate, model, and actwithout leaving the sim.

VIC, The Brain, CFO Assistant, and VALIA are wired into the workspaces where you work. Each one is built for a different moment in the deal lifecycle.

SUPERSIM / THE REAL AI CFO

Video

See what the AI advisor says when your sourcing thesis breaks

Example from VIC on the Deal Sourcing desk.

SUPERSIM / VIC

You

We can pay 14x EBITDA if growth stays at 12 percent.

VIC

A 14x entry only works if the growth rate and the exit multiple both hold. Stress the downside before you commit the screen.

VIC

PE Expert Advisor

Your personal PE expert. Ask anything about deals, valuation, strategy. Get instant, expert-level analysis.

Analyze margins vs. industry benchmarks
Surface top risks in any deal

The Brain

Report Generation

Turns simulation work into professional deliverables. Memos, risk registers, value creation reports from your data.

Generate IC memos from pipeline
Create risk registers from portfolio data

CFO Assistant

Financial Modeling

Specialized support for numbers-heavy tasks. Forecasts, normalization, board-ready materials.

Build financial forecasts
EBITDA normalization assistance

VALIA

Quick Prompts

Contextual quick prompts. Surfaces relevant actions based on where you are. One click, no typing.

In Sourcing: Score deal, draft memo
In Valuation: Run sensitivity, compare

Three ways to start

Choose how much you want to commit.

Every path leads to the same product. Only the first step is different.

Best for most people

7-day free trial

You are ready to practise.

All four areas, all desks
Save your deals and your scores
Cancel any time

Start 7-day free trial

Card required. Nothing charged before day 8.

Opens in our secure app. Checkout by Stripe.

10-minute demo

You want to see it first.

One guided deal, start to finish
No card, no sign-up
Your score at the end

Try the 10-minute demo

On this site. No card needed.

Watch and read

You are still researching.

24 second video with chapters
Full brochure and area extracts
Share with your team

Watch the video and download the brochure

Free PDFs. No sign-up.

Brochures

Read it on the train. Forward it to your team.

One full brochure and three short extracts, one for each area.

Full brochure

14 pages, PDF, 1.2 MB

Download

Practice extract

5 pages, PDF, 0.6 MB

Download

Learn and Certify extract

4 pages, PDF, 0.5 MB

Download

Play extract

3 pages, PDF, 0.4 MB

Download

Prefer to talk it through? Send the brochure to your team lead, then start the trial together.

Simple pricing

Start where you are.Scale when you need to.

Professional for individuals and learners. Team when you need the multiplayer capstones and higher AI limits.

Free 7-Day trial on our Pro and Team Tiers.

Card required at checkout. Full access. Cancel anytime before day 8. Free Limited signup stays available with no card.

Stripe secure checkout
Card details never touch our servers
7-day refund window
Delete your data anytime
Trust center

Trust and security details

Professional

Individuals, students, and solo practitioners

$39/mo

Less than one hour of consulting fees.

All 12 simulation modules
All 4 AI advisors (VIC, Brain, CFO Assistant, VALIA)
50 AI queries / day
Super Prompts, The Forge, The Digicorn
Power Hour up to 2x VC$
Unlimited simulations and lessons
VC$ Exchange access
Export (PDF / Excel)
Verified certifications

Start Professional

Checkout opens in the simulator app. Stripe handles payment.

Free 7-day trial

Team

Advanced multiplayer and higher AI limits

$69/mo

A fraction of one analyst seat per month.

Everything in Professional, plus:
Phoenix, Fake Leader, and C-Suite Arena (multiplayer capstones)
Invite-based multiplayer groups
100 AI queries / day
Power Hour up to 3x VC$
Team dashboard and creator mode

Need your own brand on the desks. See the white label PE training platform.

Start Team

Checkout opens in the simulator app. Stripe handles payment.

Compare

Wall Street Prep $499 · see why

BIWS $497 · see why

CFI courses · see why

PE Simulator from $39/mo

Enterprise solutions

For universities, business schools, training centers, and firms.

If you train cohorts at a university, business school, training center, or corporation, we can scope a custom enterprise deployment. That can include white-label branding, tailored content and deal knowledge bases for your organization, seat pricing, SSO, and curriculum design. Contact us to create the solution. The PE Simulator is built in collaboration by Valuethropy (AI and platform architecture) and VCI Institute (curriculum and certifications). For curriculum and cohort questions, the VCI Institute team handles support. For platform and AI questions, reach us via valuethropy.ai. VCI Institute's curriculum has reached 2,500+ learners across 50+ countries.

White-label branding for your institution or firm
Custom content and knowledge bases for your curriculum or deal desk
Cohort licensing with admin dashboard
SSO, billing on invoice, MSA available
White-glove onboarding and live walkthroughs

Talk to enterprise

Secure checkout via Stripe (handled in the simulator app)
7-day refund window
Cancel anytime
Card details never touch our servers

Trust and legitimacy

A real business.Clear rules. Fair treatment.

We take payments seriously, respect your privacy, and design toward strong security practices. You should know who you are buying from before you start a trial.

Stripe secure checkout
Professional and Team billing runs through Stripe inside the simulator app. Card details are processed by Stripe. They are not stored on this marketing site.
Privacy respected
This marketing site collects almost no personal data. Analytics use Google Consent Mode. You can accept or decline cookies, and you can ask us to delete marketing contact data.
SOC 2-aligned practices
We design and operate toward SOC 2-aligned practices for access control, change management, and data handling. This is not a claim of current SOC 2 certification.
Fair treatment
Paid plans include a 7-day refund window. Cancel anytime. The timed demo needs no signup and no card if you want to try before you commit.
Real operators
PE Simulator is built by Valuethropy (AI and platform) with VCI Institute (curriculum and certifications). Legitimate product work, not a slide deck reskin.

Read the full trust center, privacy policy, and terms before you buy.

Trust center Privacy policy Terms of use

Questions

Answers before you start the trial.

A short list of what new users ask most often. More detail lives inside the product and at valuethropy.ai and vci.institute.

Your first deal is waiting.

Stop reading about LBOs. Start running them. Start a 7-day trial for full access to 20+ integrated workspaces and all 4 AI advisors. The trial requires a card. You are not charged until day 8 and can cancel anytime. A 10-minute demo is available with no signup.

Start your free 7-day trial

Start 10-minute demo Talk to sales

Stripe secure checkout
Card details never touch our servers
7-day refund window
Delete your data anytime
Trust center

Checkout via Stripe
Card details never touch our servers
7-day refund window

Compare plans Trust and security

7-DAY TRIAL · CARD REQUIRED · OR 10-MINUTE DEMO

Practice the full private equity deal lifecyclebefore you invest in or interview for one.

Practice

Learn

Certify

Play

See the simulator before you start

Private equity grade.Built for the desks around the deal.

Practice on names you know

One deal, end to end

01Source and screenDeal Sourcing DeskLive deal pipeline

02Value and underwriteValuation Desk and Financial LabsDCF and multiples

03Plan the growthGrowth Planning DeskDriver board

04Create the valueTotal Value Creation Desk98 value levers

05OperatePortfolio and Fund DesksKPI cockpit

06ExitExit and Sell-Side PlannerExit readiness

Move up the simulation. Unlock proprietary private equity deal flow.

Everyone else teaches you the deal.We make you run one.

The questions people ask before they start.

01How long does it take?

02What's actually inside?

03Is it for me?

04How is this different from a course?

05Do I need Excel skills?

Private equity training that earns the marks, not just displays them.

Progress tracked from Student to Managing Director.

Ask, generate, model, and actwithout leaving the sim.

See what the AI advisor says when your sourcing thesis breaks

VIC

The Brain

CFO Assistant

VALIA

7-day free trial

10-minute demo

Watch and read

Full brochure

Practice extract

Learn and Certify extract

Play extract

Start where you are.Scale when you need to.

Professional

Team

For universities, business schools, training centers, and firms.

A real business.Clear rules. Fair treatment.

Stripe secure checkout

Privacy respected

SOC 2-aligned practices

Fair treatment

Real operators

Answers before you start the trial.

What is a private equity simulator?

What makes PE Simulator unique?

Is there a sandbox or hands-on mode?

Is there a free way to try PE Simulator?

Can I try it before subscribing?

What AI features are included?

Can I practice the entire PE deal lifecycle?

What modules are included?

Can I get a certification?

Is there a refund policy?

Do I need PE experience to use this?

How is PE Simulator different from Wall Street Prep and BIWS?

Your first deal is waiting.