Companies

Venture for America offers talented college graduates the opportunity to work for 2 years at a promising start-up or early-stage company in the United States.

Venture for America Companies receive substantial benefits, including the ability to hire a select Venture Fellow and access to Venture for America’s recruitment infrastructure.

VENTURE FOR AMERICA COMPANY CRITERIA

If you are a company that would like to have a Venture Fellow working for your company beginning in August 2012, the criteria are as follows:

  1. High potential/high-growth. Prospective companies should have the potential to enhance American competitiveness and job growth. Current industries of focus for Venture for America include:
    • Energy, particularly renewable or sustainable energy development, including green manufacturing
    • Biotech and healthcare innovation
    • Materials sciences, including nanotechnology
    • Information technology
    • Internet applications, including consumer markets
    • Education innovation, particularly application of technology

    Companies that (i) employ innovative business practices or (ii) have demonstrated the capacity to create jobs and economic value will also be eligible to receive Fellows from Venture for America.

  2. Start-up to Early Stage Company. Defined as a company that is less than 10 years old with fewer than 50 full-time employees. Exceptions to these criteria may be made for companies whose founders or senior leadership agrees to mentor applicable Venture Fellow(s) and ensure successful integration.
  3. Preference for Companies based in lower-cost cities. Venture for America is designed to enhance the talent pool for companies that are not located in customary destinations for college graduates. As a result, preference will be given to companies located in cities that are not experiencing a net inflow of college graduates.
  4. Effective Management. The company must have demonstrated leadership with the motivation to create opportunities for others.
  5. Financial viability. Companies must fall into one of the following categories in order to demonstrate financial viability:
    • Clear path to breakeven; or
    • Recipient of financing that will ensure at least 12 – 18 months of operation at current burn rate; or
    • Founder(s) with demonstrated track record(s) and access to resources.

If you are a high-potential start-up or early stage company in need of high-quality talent to fuel your growth, please apply below to become a Venture for America Company. Applications are considered on a case-by-case basis, and will include an interview and visit by a Venture for America representative.

VENTURE FOR AMERICA COMPANY OBLIGATIONS

Venture for America Companies must commit to the following:

  1. Agree to pay the Venture Fellow $32-38k/year plus Benefits (incl. Health Care) for 2 years. Additional compensation optional.
  2. Pay $2,500 per Fellow to fund Training Institute.
  3. Sit-down with Company Founder, CEO, or Senior Exec at least once a month (e.g. lunch).
  4. Host one event per year for Fellows in City
  5. Point of Contact responsible for Venture Fellow as manager (can be same as #3).

The Venture Fellow will be expected to contribute to the successful growth and development of the company in any reasonable capacity dictated by the Company’s needs and management. The VFA Company will aspire to stretch the Fellow in terms of capacity and contribution as well as provide exposure, training and mentorship.

APPLY

If you are interested in becoming a Venture for America company, please submit an application at ventureforamerica.org/companies.

We will reach out to confirm your qualifications and to find out more about you.

Please email companies@ventureforamerica.org with any questions.

VENTURE FOR AMERICA RECRUITMENT DATABASE

Our mission is to help start-ups like yours all over the country have access to the talent they need. For those companies not currently located in one of our target cities, we are going to build a database of recent college graduates that you, as a qualifying start-up, can access for FREE. We expect to have thousands of applicants for only 50+ Fellowships this first year. For the best applicants that are not accepted, we want to help them find great opportunities as well. We believe that this is the best way for our country’s economy to grow again – for young, smart graduates to find their way to promising companies like yours.

If you feel that access to this database would be a value-add for your business, please complete an application form at ventureforamerica.org/companies.

We will then reach out to confirm your qualification. We do ask for a contribution of $1-2k only upon successful hire in order to fund our operations. Venture for America is a 501c3 non-profit, and this is tax-deductible.