Name: Melanie Friedrichs
Hometown: Bethesda, MD
University: Brown University ’12
City: Providence, RI
Anaylst, Andera
What initially attracted you to Venture for America?
I was doing research on social enterprise ecosystem builders, organizations that help small companies with social missions succeed, for the social enterprise non-profit that I interned for the summer before my senior year. VFA didnt know it yet, but they fit right in. Combine an interest in social enterprise with an interest in cities, and a slightly anti-establishment approach to business, and youve got a match made in heaven.
What is the best part of being a VFA Fellow?
The network, hands down. All the Providence Fellows live together, and my roommates are great guys. Love hearing about the startups other Fellows are working for and the fun things theyre doing in their cities. Plus VFA has helped us plug into the local entrepreneurship scene, which in a city Providences size, is small enough to be a community.
What does Andera do?
We make account opening and lending solutions for banks and credit unions. Translation: if you decided to apply for a checking account online at all but the 5 largest US banks, there is a roughly 25% chance that you would be using our system.
What do you do on a typical day at work?
I’m the webinar-whitepaper-blogger-tweeter-mass-emailer-salesforce-report-and-dashboard-builder girl. Essentially Im the public voice of Andera (although I often speak under pseudonyms) and I generate about 50 financial institution leads a month. When I was brought on, my mission was to establish Andera as a thought leader in the financial technology space, easier said than done, especially when youre a 22 year old with no experience in finance or technology.
What’s your favorite thing about Providence?
The history. (Founded in the 1636 by Roger Williams, go religious exile!) The character. (Was very poor in the 1970s, we simply couldnt afford the fashionable concrete architecture!) The size. (Big enough to host a party, but small enough to know the guests!)
What do you hope to accomplish in your time with VFA?
I want to help Providence grow through entrepeneurship, even if my only contribution is as a warm body at networking events. (Every interaction counts!) Mainly I want to learn; about startups, about financial technology (its a fascinating space), and about fragile urban entrepreneurship ecosystems.