Altus started because our founder got rejected from every club he applied to freshman year and ended up working at a startup instead. That turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. After a year of building, operating, and working in VC, he wanted to bring that same opportunity to more Penn students — and help early-stage founders get the support they can't afford yet. We pair small teams with founders for a full semester and do the work alongside them.
The Altus Strategies team — Spring 2026
Our Principles
Animare
Latin for "to inspire, to liven up." We want Altus to be a pillar of entrepreneurial spirit at Penn — a place that makes people curious about building something, even if they never thought of themselves as founders. The goal isn't to make better slide-makers. It's to show people a path they didn't know was there.
Navare
Latin for "to do one's best." Excellence is non-negotiable here. The founders we work with are putting everything into their companies — the least we can do is match that energy. If the work isn't good enough to use, we haven't done our job.
Speaker event with Pear VC — a collaboration between Altus Strategies and G Fellows
Inside Altus
General body meeting — where the whole org comes together
Midterm review — project teams present progress to the org
Where Our Board Has Worked
