Ahead of MIT 100K’s Pitch Competition on November 18, we interviewed Sooah Cho to learn about her career and investments at Underscore VC.
Sooah is a Principal at Underscore VC. She has a diverse background in digital product management, strategic partnerships, investing, and strategy consulting with Fortune 100 and early-stage companies. Prior to joining Underscore VC, she was a product leader at Devoted Health, a FinTech unicorn disrupting health insurance for the Medicare population. She also successfully launched nationwide on-demand prescription delivery products and MinuteClinic’s virtual care products at CVS Health’s Digital Innovation Lab.
Building on her investment experiences at Bain Capital and Quona Capital, Sooah leads Underscore VC’s sourcing and investing efforts in startups focused on FinTech, InsurTech, Digital Health, AI/ML, B2B enterprise SaaS, and beyond. She enjoys designing product-market fit experiments with founders and is passionate about strengthening the startup ecosystem in Boston.
Sooah earned her MBA from Harvard Business School, MPP from Harvard Kennedy School, and BA in Economics from Wellesley College. As a Rock Venture Partner at HBS, she served on the investment committee for the Rock Accelerator program and advised startup founders at the HBS Rock Center for Entrepreneurship.
We’d love to learn more about Underscore as a firm and your unique emphasis on a community-driven approach to venture capital.
Underscore is a fund that focuses on B2B software technology at the earliest stages. I personally spend a lot of my time in the FinTech, InsurTech, and HealthTech verticals. Our fund’s founding premise is based on a community-driven model designed to bring much needed change in venture capital. We love supporting founders in our own backyard in the Boston area especially given our exceptionally strong networks in our incredible startup ecosystem locally. I’m also particularly passionate about working with academic founders coming out of the excellent institutions like MIT that we are lucky to have here in Boston. Boston is a truly unique city that attracts the world’s best talent who come to study here every year. Many people like me fall in love with this city and end up staying after graduation.
To share more about Underscore VC’s community-driven model, our founding partners started the fund after a listening tour speaking with hundreds of entrepreneurs. The main conclusion after that listening tour was that capital is a commodity, but it is invaluable to give founders access to the right people and expertise at the right time. Every founding team has different needs, and we’re able to connect them to the right people through our dynamic community of experts curated by stage, function, and domain. It’s an open source approach to leveraging the best talent to surround the founders with a game-changing community to go the distance. You can learn more about our Core community here.
Can you walk us through a typical day at Underscore?
There’s really no such thing as a typical day at Underscore, and this is probably true across many VC funds. Any given day, we can be involved in a whole range of activities. We describe our investment process with the acronym “SSWIBRE,” which stands for Sourcing, Selecting, Winning, Investing, Building, Re-financing, and Exiting. Depending on the day, I could be meeting with a founder for the first time, leading a diligence sprint to win an investment opportunity, or working closely with portfolio founders on their product & GTM strategy. I also host events and lead various activities within our community. Every day looks very different, and it makes my work at Underscore very dynamic and fun.
But one thing is always consistent — I’m always surrounded by charismatic and visionary founders. It’s fantastic to be at the forefront of technological advances that are about to transform our world. As an extrovert, I love meeting new people and exploring new markets. And there’s nothing more rewarding than partnering with founders as they build and scale their startups.
Can you tell us more about your journey to venture capital?
I came to VC with a mix of product leadership and investment experiences prior to joining Underscore VC. Most recently, I was a product leader at a FinTech unicorn in the area called Devoted Health, and had also built CVS Health’s nationwide prescription delivery and telehealth products. I also had done some investment work with Bain Capital and Quona Capital, which is a fintech specific fund. My training was at Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School, where I completed the joint-degree MBA and MPP.
What benefits do you think the MIT 100K has to startups and founding teams?
Any opportunity to finetune a startup idea through mentorship and feedback really accelerates the process of building and scaling a startup. The MIT 100K definitely plays a big role in the Boston startup ecosystem and Underscore VC works very closely with local academic startup partners like MIT 100K to support founders. Practicing your pitch and fielding questions from judges can provide a helpful foundation for founders as they gear up for a formal fundraising process.
What are some of the best traits in founders and founding teams? Is there a trait, activity, or habit you see super successful founders do that sets them apart?
In the end, Underscore VC is a very people-driven fund. In real estate, the only thing that matters is “location, location, location.” Similarly, in venture capital, we say the most important thing is “people, people, people.” The most successful founders are exceptionally qualified with unique insights into the particular problem that they’re tackling, deep industry expertise, and empathy for the target customer persona they aim to serve.
You can follow Sooah on LinkedIn and Twitter to learn more about her investments and stay in touch.
