There’s less than 48 hours left to get your Advanced Tickets to the 2013 VFA Summer Celebration. Prices go up tomorrow, May 1st, at 11:59 pm. If you’re planning on buying tickets, now’s the time!
Advanced Tickets (Until May 1st at 11:59pm): $250
General Admission Tickets (After May 1st): $300
VIP Tickets: $1000

Get your tickets today!

In addition to our already impressive list of guests, our newest confirmed VIP attendees include:
Lauren Zalaznick, Executive Vice President of NBCUniversal
Mike Perlis, CEO of Forbes
Cyrus Massoumi, CEO and Co-founder of ZocDoc
We hope to see you there!

Venture for America is excited to announce that we’re sending Fellows to Philadelphia in 2013!

In 2012, we announced our expansion to Baltimore and Cleveland, and are thrilled to add Philadelphia as our 8th VFA city.
With its ever-expanding startup ecosystem, our nation’s oldest and largest multi-institutional research park, and established venture capital community, Philadelphia is a natural fit for VFA. In addition to our original five cities, Detroit, New Orleans, Providence, Cincinnati, and Las Vegas, the Class of 2013 is excited to have the opportunity to hit the ground running as the first Philadelphia Fellows.
For companies in Philadelphia interested in hiring a VFA Fellow, please fill out our company application form.

 
Name:  Astrid Schanz-Garbassi
Hometown: Larchmont, NY
University: Middlebury College ’13
Major: Physics
 
What led you to apply for Venture for America?
In January 2012 I invited myself to VFA’s New York offices. The (then much smaller) team graciously accommodated the intrusion and enthusiastically shared what they were working on. Their passion for the program was totally contagious and I knew I had to get in on it. Also, they were offering a continued education, a chance to make an impact on a cool young company and an off the beaten path city, a new friend group, and to pay me for all of this. Yes, please!
What were you doing when you found out you were accepted?
I was alone in my office at my last job. To this day I wonder how many people saw (and judged) my solo celebration dance through the windows…
Now that you’re a Fellow, what are you most excited about with regard to VFA? What do you hope to accomplish?
Every single person I’ve met through VFA, whether a Fellow, founder, or year-round staffer, is incredible. I’m excited to continue to meet mind-blowing individuals and to be able to call them mentors and friends. I hope to learn voraciously and love every day at work … and to become a diehard fan of all teams in whichever city I land in. Sorry NY.
Best thing about Middlebury College:  Everything. But specifically being surrounded by mountains, eating unrestricted quantities of (local!) ice cream in the dining halls, and the fact that no matter where you are or what you’re doing, when the song “Like a Prayer” comes on you have to take your shirt off (a true Middlebury tradition).
Favorite Book: Pillars of the Earth. Stop reading this and go read that!
Favorite childhood TV show: Wild Thornberrys. Apparently they made a movie!? If you have any interest in (or can be bribed into) seeing it with me, please call ASAP.
Favorite meal: Anything you can eat with chopsticks.
Favorite holiday: Pi day!
Best class you’ve ever taken: “Education in America.” Professor Affolter, you are an amazing and inspiring human being. Your final project prompt, “design your own school,” was the best assignment I’ve ever had the pleasure to pour time into!
Favorite movie quote:  Every line in “Airplane!” Is that a cop out? Okay, for real: “People call those imperfections, but no, that’s the good stuff.” –Goodwill Hunting
Favorite thing to do on Sunday: Round up some good friends and take off for an extraordinarily long and arduous hike. Then retreat, with the same good friends, to extraordinarily comfortable chairs to nurse our aching legs (and some delicious hot drinks).
Favorite entrepreneur: Andrew Yang.
Favorite cereal: Honey Bunches of Oats with “real” bananas and vanilla almond milk, eaten from a grimy camping bowl before a long bike ride.
Most worn article of clothing: My running shoes.
Favorite sports team: Purple Haze—the recreational basketball team I played on in High School with all of my (rather short) best friends. Undefeated four years in a row! Take that, Pink Ladies.
Best trip you’ve ever been on: The bike tour I led around the coast of Nova Scotia with Stephen Coles, the best “co” I could ever ask for (hey Scoles, miss you!). 1,000 miles, 20 amazing high schoolers, very heavy panniers and countless jars of Nutella added up to six of the best weeks of my life.
Favorite historical figure: Gertrude Stein
Accomplishment you’re most proud of: Relationships I’ve made (and kept) along “the way.”

Dear VFA Friends and Supporters:?   It's been an exciting spring here at Venture for America, from new Fellows and VFA team members, to our upcoming Summer Celebration and a VFA book in the works. Read on to learn more! Tickets are now on sale for the 2nd Annual Venture for America Summer Celebration! On May 30th, we will gather leaders in tech, media, finance, and business, including key note speakers Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, and Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post, to celebrate VFA's newest class of Fellows.   Venture for America Summer Celebration Thursday May 30th, 2013  7:00-10:00pm IAC HQ, 555 W. 18th Street, NYC Special Guests include: Arthur Sulzberger, Chairman of the Board for The New York Times Jennifer Hyman, Co-founder and CEO of Rent the Runway Bill Ford, CEO of General Atlantic Dave Gilboa, Co-founder Warby Parker Bob Safian, Editor-in-Chief of Fast Company David Tisch, Co-founder of TechStars NY John Katzman, Founder of 2tor and Princeton Review Alisa Volkman, Co-founder of Babble.com and many more. General Admission tickets go up in price from $250 to $300 on May 1st, so get your tickets today! Event sponsors include American Express OPEN Forum, Huffington Post, Beam, and Bonobos, among others.  Buy Tickets Now!   Welcome to the Class of 2013 We're thrilled to announce that we have confirmed the Class of 2013, and are set to add 70+ aspiring entrepreneurs to our 40 Fellows who are already living and working in Detroit, New Orleans, Providence, Cincinnati, and Las Vegas.  This inspiring group of young people includes engineers from Johns Hopkins and UPenn, a physics major from Middlebury College who started a bike-room to produce power on campus, a Duke varsity football player who started his own textbook business, a former U.S. Marine, and former employees of Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, and Ernst & Young.  We look forward to sending Fellows to all five current VFA cities, along with three new cities: Baltimore, Cleveland, and Philadelphia. It's an impressive group of college seniors and recent grads, and we are excited to see the amazing work these young people undertake on the ground at startups and early-stage companies in cities that need them. ??To see the full list of new additions to VFA's Class of 2013, visit ventureforamerica.org/2013fellows.   Join our Team Venture for America is hiring! We currently have three opportunities available: Recruitment Associate, Director of Development, and Director of Programs. If you or someone you know believes in Venture for America's mission and is looking to join an innovative and rapidly expanding national organization with a vibrant, fun company culture, visit our Careers Page for more information.   If you're still in school and are looking for ways to get involved with Venture for America before graduating, we are also looking for Campus Ambassadors at colleges and universities around the country. Get the details here: Become a Campus Ambassador. Smart People Should Build Things In other exciting news, Harper Collins will be publishing a book, 'Smart People Should Build Things' by VFA's founder Andrew Yang in January 2014!  As the publication date nears, we'll be releasing sneak peaks of the book, which describes the inspiration for VFA and tells the story of our founding. How Can You Help? Recently, 2012 Fellow Max Nussenbaum wrote an article for the Huffington Post about his time in Detroit so far working for the startup "Are you a human?" and the opportunities he sees living in a non-traditional city. Check out Max's article "Move Where You Can Matter" to get a first-hand account of how becoming a VFA Fellow can change the perspective and trajectory of recent grads from across the country.  Below is an excerpt from the application essay of one of our newest Fellows, Charlie Mohn of Georgetown University: "Growing up in low-income neighborhood in Seattle, Washington, I saw a run-down community turn into a vibrant business district in the course of a decade. This gradual but steady transformation has been the result of one main catalyst: entrepreneurs. If it weren’t for these people who were willing to take a chance on my neighborhood to start their business, my community would still be plagued by the crime and violence that characterized the area in my childhood. Because of this experience, I realized that I wanted to start a business someday that would benefit my local community.    As someone who was interested in entrepreneurship, I always felt that I needed to work in consulting out of college. A few years of helping out large corporations would allow me to develop the skills necessary to start my own business someday. I thought that I needed to ‘make it’ in the corporate world, and then I could turn towards my local community in Seattle. I realize now, however, that with a program like Venture for America, I can make a positive impact right out of college.   With Venture for America, I feel that I will be able to build the network that I will need to start my own business, or work in an early stage company. I believe that I will be able to gain skills in sales, marketing and project management. As someone with a finance and consulting background, I would also gain value from learning more about entrepreneurial finance, and the financial strains small businesses face. Finally, I want a first-hand perspective on why an early stage company is or is not successful. With Venture for America, I will develop the skills that will someday allow me to start a company that benefits immigrant communities in Seattle."   We’re excited to give Charlie and dozens of other young entrepreneurs like him the opportunity to get the first hand experience they need to one day go on to build businesses and create jobs in places where they can truly make an impact. We would like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who has been with us since the beginning and joined along the way. To donate and help support our newest class of Fellows, visit ventureforamerica.org/donate.  We're looking forward to an exciting year, and don't forget to get your tickets to the upcoming Summer Celebration before it's too late!    All the Best,   The VFA Team

Name: Melanie Friedrichs
Hometown: Bethesda, MD

University: Brown University ’12
City: Providence, RI

In the efforts to revitalize the motor city, CEO of Quicken Loans Dan Gilbert is at the forefront, financing “one of the most ambitious privately financed urban reclamation projects in American history.”

The New York Times recently published a feature about Dan Gilbert and his work in Detroit, and reported that the billionaire has already spent about $1 billion acquiring real estate with plans to “activate the streets”. With about 80 small companies having moved in to buildings owned by his real estate company, Bedrock, Gilbert seeks to “turn downtown into a high-tech hub, where young entrepreneurs both live and work.” Check out the full article about Gilbert and Detroit’s struggle over the past several decades.
Venture for America is proud to have its Fellows living in Detroit, becoming ingrained in the city’s revitalization efforts everyday. Already, VFA has Fellows working for Detroit Venture Partners, the venture capital firm investing in Detroit startups where Dan Gilbert is a partner, along with a handful of DVP’s portfolio companies including Are you a Human? and Quikly, among others.
Just last month, 2012 VFA Fellow Max Nussenbaum of “Are you a human?” wrote an article for the Huffington Post called “Move Where You Can Matter”, where he talks about his experience living in Detroit and extols the opportunities available there for young people and entrepreneurs.
Check out the video below for a glimpse inside Gilbert’s M@dison Building, which houses Detroit Venture Parters along with many other startups. We look forward to sending even more Fellows to Detroit in 2013!

DETROIT VENTURE PARTNERS from Hendrickson Video on Vimeo.

 
Name:  Adam Joseph
Hometown: San Francisco, CA
University: University of Virginia ’13
Major: Global Development Studies
 
What led you to apply for Venture for America?
Coming out of school, I wanted to pursue a unique opportunity that would give me solid skills in the business world while surrounding myself with bright, motivated individuals. Venture for America fit that model perfectly, and also seemed like a great opportunity to become involved in the startup world while mitigating a lot of the risk.
What were you doing when you found out you were accepted?
I was actually on my way to a football game, surrounded by 30 fraternity brothers, when Andrew called.  We lost the football game, but it was a great night.
Now that you’re a Fellow, what are you most excited about with regard to VFA? What do you hope to accomplish?
I’m most excited to start working and having an impact in whichever city I end up in.  I’m also really looking forward to Training Camp this summer, so I can get to know the other Fellows and explore Providence.
If you had to live one place for the rest of your life, where would you choose?
Somewhere that has baseball, so probably San Francisco.
Best thing about University of Virginia:  Being surrounded by my friends all the time.
Favorite Book: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
Favorite childhood TV show: Keenan and Kel.
Favorite meal: My mom’s pasta Bolognese.
Favorite holiday: Halloween.
Best class you’ve ever taken: Design Themes of Great Cities
Favorite movie quote: “An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition.”
Favorite thing to do on Sunday: Eat and sleep.
Favorite entrepreneur: Muhammad Yunus.
Favorite cereal: Cinnamon Toast Crunch
Most worn article of clothing: Black ‘Electric’ tee-shirt
Favorite sports team: San Francisco Giants
Best trip you’ve ever been on: Cozamel, Mexico with my family for Christmas last year.
Favorite historical figure: Has to be Thomas Jefferson.
Accomplishment you’re most proud of: Winning money the first time I gambled at a casino.

By Mike Tarullo, VP of Corporate Development

(originally published on Huffington Post) When I was 22 and graduating from college, there were a couple paths to take. The first path was to follow my dreams, a dangerous idea because the dreams of a 22-year-old are pretty underdeveloped. Yet, this is what our baby boomer parents often tell us to do. David Brooks does the subject a great deal of justice in an op ed in which he explains, “Most successful young people don’t look inside and then plan a life. They look outside and find a problem, which summons their life.” Young people are often guilty of deciding on our passions in a vacuum and it’s no wonder with the cacophony of “follow your dreams” reinforcement we receive. To me, it’s sort of how great novelists aren’t very often great until their midlife, when they’ve seen enough of the world and its inhabitants to write about them with art and perspective. The dreams of my collegiate career and that of many others are only slightly more substantial than being a football player or an astronaut. The novel I would write at 22 would have protagonists with the depth of the Hardy Boys; in a couple decades I could produce something more nuanced (hopefully). Many promising young people I interact with tell me they’re hell-bent on doing something that’s good for the environment, or that they want to revolutionize education, or work in health and wellness. These are useful callings, but in many young people they are passions born from analysis, not experience. They have been told to do something that they love, and have selected something from a fairly limited worldview that seems lovable. What most young people do is look at the outputs of an industry and say, “that one,” rather than look at what one’s day to day would actually look like. There is a remarkable lack of transparency across all career paths as to what you actually do all day, and when it’s demystified, working to save education or the environment might not be as stimulating or high potential as one thinks. The second path was to follow my peers. There are places with brightly-lit roads to guide you there, undeniably attractive promises of advancement, prestigious firms, piles of cash, and whatnot. Many people take this bottom-up path, viewing your career as a series of steps to climb. It’s a much more practical path than the first, and rather a strong start out of the gate in some respects, though it occasionally leaves one wanting in the self-actualization department. Often, these young people promise themselves that they’ll be successful first, and do something they love later. However, if you’re over 30, you might have noticed that the majority of your friends are still doing some permutation of what they decided to all those years ago – unfortunately, the same incentives that draw you to that brightly lit road are fairly good at keeping you on it. I, seemingly blind to everything around me, was not offered any of these incentives, and thus “resisted” the siren’s call. There’s nothing wrong with this second path; it’s definitely the most stable choice, and has generally good returns for the first four tiers of Maslow’s Hierarchy (the 3rd tier might be an independent variable, but that’s a blog post for someone else). For many people, it’s a great choice, and the presence of a clear target (e.g. your boss’s job) makes it easier to achieve. These two paths seem different, but they have something in common. Both treat your career as something you create, linear steps that can be considered in advance and charted for optimal efficiency. However, careers in your 20?s aren’t that deterministic anymore. Stable jobs aren’t so stable, brightly-lit tracks are subject to culling of the herd at each level (law, banking, etc. are necessarily pyramids), and opportunities come from the periphery as often as the direction you’re pointing (source: that often-quoted “7 career changes in your lifetime” statistic, which even if its actually only 3 or so, is still a boatload of career changes). So if the bottom-up, step-by-step approach isn’t for you, what approach should you take to your first couple jobs? I think there’s a third path: follow the headroom. The common thread I’ve found among people who are happy in their early-career jobs are that they’re challenged and encouraged to grow. If every time you evaluate an opportunity, you strip away the externalities, like perceived prestige, “mission,” industry, or even money (to an extent), what you’ll be left with is what you actually think of the opportunity. It’s a challenging intellectual exercise, but I think it’s worth it. Prestige, mission, industry, and money are ways to get you to focus on something other than what you’ll actually be doing every day. The most important things in a workplace for a young person? Finding a team that you’ll be excited to work with every day, and a boss that will give you the headroom to grow and expand your capabilities. Who cares what industry, or what the name of the company is, or even what they’re paying you at first? Too many of us, I think. That’s why people wind up trying to switch jobs all the time – maybe if they had more prestige, or $20k more, or worked in education instead of engineering. These are externalities. They cannot save you from yourself, and they won’t motivate you to do good work. I’m hoping this is happening for me: I’m working in talent/staffing, a field in which I definitely had no interest at age 22. I got there by doing a couple dead-end jobs in politics and marketing that sounded cooler, and had cooler clients. Unsatisfied, I bailed to the unsexiest company I found, which paid me half my previous salary, but where the founder seemed like he would give me the most opportunity to grow. A couple much more interesting years later, I took the same approach to getting the job I have now: strip away the externalities, look for headroom. The top of Maslow’s pyramid looks an awful lot like an ideal job, to me: creativity, problem solving, spontaneity, morality. If you’re really engaged in creative problem solving that makes you feel good, the following will happen:

1. Esteem – people will respect you for being a good problem solver.
2. Belonging – your self-confidence and happiness brings you the right kind of friends and significant other.
3. Safety – you’re good at what you do because it engages you; you’ll get rewarded for it.

So you see, I don’t think we need to abandon the idea of doing what we love, just re-imagine what it means to find our way there. When it comes to careers, Maslow might have it backwards.

Name: Alison Schmitt
Hometown: Rutherford, NJ
University: University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business ’12

City: New Orleans, LA

LAST WEEK, NEW ORLEANS ENTREPRENEUR CHRIS SCHULTZ VISITED KIPP CENTRAL CITY SCHOOL IN NEW ORLEANS TO TAKE PART IN THE STARTUP EFFECT, A NON-PROFIT STARTED BY FOUR VFA FELLOWS. NOW, CO-FOUNDERS MIKE MAYER AND BILLY SCHRERO ARE TEACHING ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN MIDDLE SCHOOLS TO EMPOWER YOUTH WITH THE NECESSARY TOOLS TO THINK INDEPENDENTLY, PROACTIVELY, AND CREATIVELY, RESULTING IN INNOVATION AND VALUE CREATION.

SCHULTZ, WHO HAS CO-FOUNDED LAUNCH PAD & FLATSTACK, AND IS CURRENTLY LAUNCHING A NEW VENTURE CALLED NIKO NIKO, INVESTS IN NEW ORLEANS COMPANIES THROUGH VOODOO VENTURES. BASED ON HIS SUCCESS LAUNCHING COMPANIES, HE HAS TAKEN AN INTEREST IN MENTORING OTHER ENTREPRENEURS, WHICH LED HIM TO BECOME INVOLVED WITH THE STARTUP EFFECT.
READ ON TO HEAR MORE ABOUT CHRIS’S EXPERIENCE HANGING OUT WITH THE STARTUP EFFECT KIDS AND THE WORK MIKE AND BILLY ARE DOING IN NEW ORLEANS. ULTIMATELY, THEY HOPE TO SPUR ENTREPRENEURIAL THOUGHT WHERE IT MATTERS MOST – IN THE MINDS OF THE YOUTH IN THESE GROWING CITIES WHERE VFA FELLOWS ARE PLACED.

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By Chris Schultz, Co-founder of LaunchPad & Flatstack in New Orleans (Originally published in Huffington Post)
“Who wants fireballs going out, and who wants her shooting flames?” Lionel asked.
The hands went up for fireballs, and Lionel spun around the flame out of the trumpet arms on Fiona Flames, the new character that he prototyped in real-time the ideas being generated by the class of 7th and 8th graders at KIPP Central City in New Orleans.
We were in front of this eager group thanks to a new program called Startup Effect, launched by newcomers to New Orleans, Billy Schrero & Mike Mayer, two Venture for America Fellows working with startups in the city.
Startup Effect is an after-school program designed to expose middle school students to real-world startups and inspire them to “Work Smart! Act Now! & Dream Big!” the call and response mantra that Schrero and Mayer shout like coaches during the fast-paced afternoon session.
Lionel Milton is the creator of Mardi Brah, an iPhone football skills game set in the streets of New Orleans, and he had come on this day to get real product feedback from the students who were, in fact, the target audience for the game. The Mardi Brah challenge was prototyping and the students had been taught the importance of “play & refine” and once you design something, you have to test and evolve. The week prior, they had designed a stick figure drawing of a new character for Mardi Brah, and Lionel was here to turn it into a real character in the game, right before their eyes.

Lionel took the prototype the students had created and sketched the female character before digitalizing it and putting it up on a giant screen where the students could provide input and watch the prototyping process. The kids were mesmerized as Lionel constructed Tutti based on their input, carefully running through color choices and adding details like a hair bow and getting her eyes just so. By the time we got to the fireballs coming out of the trumpet-arms, the students had seen their vision executed and the prototype was ready for the game.
Startup Effect is a powerful new program on many levels. The students at KIPP Central City are being exposed to real companies and learning cutting edge startup thinking, and getting started early. The mantra keeps reminding the students that they have the opportunity to do anything they want, they just have to work at it.
Schrero and Mayer are going beyond their full-time positions as Venture for America Fellows with Staff Insight and Federated Sample in New Orleans. They’ve taken it to another level and decided to make an impact beyond just working hard and helping those companies succeed. They have build a program in Startup Effect that will positively impact students in New Orleans and is scalable across Venture for America cities.
It’s a virtuous cycle of paying it forward, and we’re fortunate to have Venture for America & Startup Effect in New Orleans.
Work Smart! Act Now! & Dream Big!