Northeast Ohio Student Venture Fund

The Northeast Ohio Student Venture Fund (NEOSVF) is a 501(c)(3) student run non-profit venture capital firm. The fund is focused on investing in high-growth potential, tech-based startups in Northeast Ohio and providing an experiential learning opportunity for students of Northeast Ohio colleges and universities. This is done by teaching the partners about the startups, early-stage financing, and the due diligence process. While participating in the fund, partners are exposed to a number of executive summaries, investment presentations, and become comfortable with asking tough questions directly to entrepreneurs. The fund is typically among the earliest money into companies. The portfolio companies have been able to successfully attract follow-on funding after receiving NEOSVF investment capital. The fund has made ten investments. The Educational Value This serves as an extremely valuable and unique educational experience for us while we provide funding and assistance for promising startups in the Northeast Ohio community. Partners are exposed to startups that are in a variety of tech-based industries from software for healthcare and business to medical devices. They learn to evaluate opportunities unlike anything in a book or class. Additionally, the partners learn soft skills. They learn to work in teams, which includes working with partners from vastly different educational and professional backgrounds.