Moso Capital is an experiential venture capital program offered towards Penn undergraduate students. By mirroring a typical investment fund, we train the next generation of investors and entrepreneurs while helping our venture capital partners find the next big idea.

No, we do not make direct invests at Moso. Instead, we partner with an investor and source for companies based on their investment thesis. If we believe the company is a right fit for the investor, we will introduce the company to the investor in hopes of spurring an investment. Find more details about our deal flow process below.

We look at companies based on our investor's thesis. That said, each deal team will look at companies that fit strictly based on their investor's criteria.

We will work with our venture partner to determine the ideal deal flow process that works best for their team, schedule, and workflow. However, generally speaking, here's what a typical deal flow process would look like:

1. Initial Screen: Our deal team will go out utilizing our unique sources of deal flow to source for companies that fits our venture partner's thesis. After identifying a company that may fit the venture partner's thesis, we reach out to schedule a founder meeting. Before the initial meeting, we'll look at any materials sent by the founder, determine whether the business fits the investment thesis, and learn about the industry in which the company operates in.
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2. Founder Call: The initial meeting will be with a member of the investment team, lasting typically between 30 minutes to an hour. We go into the meeting to understand two things: the founder and the business. We want to understand the founder's upbringing, their story and idea, how they came up with the business, if they have founder-product fit, etc. Then , we look to learn more about the business and the industry in which it operates in. We let the founder do most of the talking, so we can truly understand their story and business.
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3. Deal Team Meeting: The member who spoke to the founder will pitch the company to the rest of the deal team. The rest of the deal team will listen to the pitch and ask questions to the member who sourced the company. The member who sourced the company will go back and forth with the founder to get all of the deal team's questions answered.
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4. Diligence: If the company makes it pass the deal team meeting screen, our team will move forward to perform further diligence. We will conduct deeper research on the founder, product, and market. We may pull in Penn faculty for an additional conversation, typically faculty with the most expertise in that company's area.
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5. Final Review & Decision: After the team's managing director approves to introduce the company to the venture partner. Moso partners will take a final look at the investment memo to confirm the referral recommendation. Managing directors will then refer these promising founders to our venture partners.

Moso has multiple unparalleled sources of unique deal flow, including, but not limited to: personal networks, Penn network (clubs and summits), startup pitch competitions, incubators/accelerators, in-depth research through Pitchbook and Crunchbase, other government & academic institutions, investor networks, referrals, etc.

We also love to get face-to-face with entrepreneurs; as such we'll attend pitch competitions/conferences to find the next best idea in the Philadelphia, NYC, and Boston area.

Each deal team comes with a managing director, principal, two associates, and two analysts. Our team structure emulates a typical investment fund allowing us to produce high quality work.

Venture partners get access to their own highly qualified 6-person deal team helping source and conduct diligence based on your investment thesis. In addition, venture partners get access to these following benefits: 

1. Penn hiring pipeline: Work with some of the top students at the Penn, and if satisfied with their work, get the chance to interview them for a summer internship or full time position. Get access to resume drops, email listservs, and speak directly to the next generation of bold and talented investors.

2. Penn startup ecosystem: Gain direct access to the startup ecosystem on Penn campus. Our campus offers summits and startup conferences through clubs, organization, and Venture Lab, Penn's startup incubator.

3. Attractive investment ideas from a Gen-Z perspective: Find interesting and unique ideas from a Gen-Z lens. We might be seeing the next big idea that most people aren't seeing!

4. Access to industry experts and resources: We love to engage with Penn faculty and professors to hop on calls with founders, and help us with extensive research on companies. Penn also affords us a plethora of resources like Tegus to conduct extensive diligence.

5. Highly capable students: Our students have either built their own startups or worked at top investment banks, private equity shops, and venture capital firms.

6. 1-to-1 relationship: Our deal teams will ONLY work with you and for you. They will not work for any other venture partner during the semester. We make sure our deal team understands you and your investment thesis only to produce the highest quality work.

Our biggest differentiator is the structure of our operations. We have deal teams — not separate sourcing and diligence teams. We have a 1 to 1 relationship with our venture partners — not a 1 to 5 relationship. Other organizations may have a sourcing team where they work with 5 different venture partners. Our deal teams will only work for you.

Our philosophy is that quality of work begins with truly understanding our venture partner's thesis. As a result, our deal teams will only work with one venture partner. This allows us to truly understand your needs and wants, your investment thesis and criteria, and that allows us to produce the highest quality of work.

Applications for the spring cycle are off-cycle. Please reach out to Allen before the 1/16th to apply. Feel free to reach out to any of the partners or managing directors with questions.

No, Moso is not a club affiliated with Penn's SAC. We are an independent organization that operates on Penn's campus.

Moso prides itself on being relationship-oriented. In a deal team, you will be working with the same venture partner until you graduate, allowing you to build a long-lasting connection with the investor. If you ever want to pivot to VC, you would have made a meaningful connection during your time on a deal team. For example, if you're a freshman starting off as an analyst, you will work with the same investor throughout your four years at Penn, allowing you to organically foster a four year relationship.

Moso, in addition, has greater autonomy in their deal flow process. Moso will independently source, screen, hop on founder calls, internally pitch these companies, build investment memos, etc. This autonomy gives students flexibility, but also ownership over the work they conduct. Rather than splitting ourselves into sourcing and diligence teams, we have a single deal team working with a single venture partner.

We also love to get face-to-face with entrepreneurs. As such, we'll take trips to startup conferences and events in the local area (Philly, NYC, Boston) to find the next big idea to introduce to our venture partner.

You get direct access to networking, mentorship, and investing exposure with professionals in this space. Moreover, students get the thrilling experience of finding and speaking to founders that might have the next big idea.