Name: Jake L’Ecuyer
Hometown: Troy, Michigan
University: Michigan State University ‘11
City: Detroit
Senior Analyst, Benzinga
What initially attracted you to Venture for America?
It was a “safer” way to get involved with a startup. Every startup I had worked with always offered me about 10 bucks an hour, and thats not a living. VFA guaranteed a wage and benefits while offering training, but allowed me to work at a startup like I wanted. Giving me a strong network of peers and a brand add to my resume was pretty important too, as the startup I joined may not succeed (as many do not). So it was almost like a 2 year insurance policy for working at a startup.
 What is the best part of being a VFA Fellow?
Having the startup job, but a national brand backing me. It’s essentially the best of both worlds. The network is awesome too.
What does Benzinga do? 
Our goal is to level the playing field between the institutional and retail (every day) investor. We do this with the 3 pillars of our company:
1. Benzinga- Our front facing media brand, where we have full length articles about the markets.
2. BenzingaPro– Our real-time news feed that covers financial markets and provides data on their movements and fundamentals.
3. Marketfy- A marketplace for financial products ranging from books, to training courses, to traders that you can subscribe to and learn to trade their strategies from. The key to marketfy is tracking software that validates every trade made by our mavens (the expert traders), which proves their entries and exits in the market are actually possible, and gives more transparency to their methods for the users.
What do you do on a typical day at work?
I work primarily on the Benzinga news desk as a market analyst. So I arrive at 7am and start analyzing market news, write a few stories for Benzinga.com, help our upper level clients understand why certain stocks, commodities, and futures are moving, and cover things like press conferences and conference calls. I also go on Tide Traders, a stock market internet radio show every day at 11:30am to give a news update. Finally, I go on Stocks and Jocks, a Chicago AM radio show to talk stocks and sports every Tuesday morning with CNBC’s Jon Najarian and ‘The Chief’.  Starting in the near future, we will also have a bi-weekly spot on Chinese national TV to cover the US stock market, which I will appear on once a week. That covers my duties on the desk, but I also run our internship recruitment and full time recruitment, and act as a contributing editor for Benzinga.com.
What’s your favorite thing about Detroit? 
Probably the huge opportunity here. Detroit was at one time such a powerhouse, but is a husk of what it used to be. What many see as a dangerous and failed city, I see as a fantastic opportunity. There is no one saying “you can’t do that” here, if you’re doing something productive or providing value, you get encouragement and support. It’s a city of doers, and I love that. Creative ideas quickly gain support in Detroit as our city scrambles for a solution to its economic woes.
What do you hope to accomplish in your time with VFA?
I want to feel like I have enough knowledge to build a company. So I want the relationships needed, some solid experience, and an understanding of how to build up a customer base and business model. Hopefully by the time the Fellowship is over I will feel comfortable enough to launch something on my own, as my dream is to be completely self sufficient and not have a need for a job or be tied to one location.
 

 
Name:  Mehves Ofelya Tangun
Hometown: Istanbul, Turkey
University: Brown University ’13
Major: Engineering & Economics
 
What led you to apply for Venture for America?
After taking my first entrepreneurship class at Brown University I realized that I really enjoyed drafting business plans and pitching to investors. My entrepreneurship professor Danny Warshay introduced me to VFA. With his advice I decided to apply.
What were you doing when you found out you were accepted?
It was during my spring break when I was in Istanbul, Turkey, suffering from a horrible jetlag. So I was up at 3 am checking my emails in my bed when I received the email from Andrew Yang. At that moment, all it said was: “Let the celebrations begin”. It was a memorable week!
Now that you’re a Fellow, what are you most excited about with regard to VFA? What do you hope to accomplish?
I am very excited to be thrown out of my element and out of my comfort zone so that I could push myself in every project I undertake. As Andrew Yang said: “People spend money and time educating the market for consulting and finance. The theory is you must become a baller before you come back and change the world”. Even though we laugh to this statement, which is said with a touch of sarcasm by Yang; I would like to be trained for the startup sector and I believe Venture for America is the right place for it. So far this is all I want to accomplish- gaining knowledge and experience after a “baller” training.
If you had to live one place for the rest of your life, where would you choose? Barcelona (minus the crisis)
Best thing about Brown:  You are the master of your time!
Favorite Book: The Unbearable Lightness of Being- Milan Kundera
Favorite childhood TV show: Rocko’s Modern Life and The Smurffs
Favorite meal: Dinner
Favorite holiday: Thanksgiving- even though I was introduced to it very recently, I cannot get over the food!
Best class you’ve ever taken: Entrepreneurship and Innovation by Danny Warshay
Favorite movie quote: “Do not be afraid to let go or forget… Because in reality, all that matters never leaves us…” –Mine Vaganti (Loose Cannons)
Favorite thing to do on Sunday: Sunday BRUNCH!
Favorite entrepreneur: Wolfgang Puck or Mario Batali (Going back and forth between the two)
Favorite cereal: Cinnamon Toast Crunch
Most worn article of clothing: Beige Scarf
Favorite sports team: The Celtics
Best trip you’ve ever been on: To the region of Cotes du Provence for wine tasting.
Favorite historical figure: Ataturk- The Great Turkish Leader who brought Democracy to Turkey
Accomplishment you’re most proud of: Opening a bakery from scratch in a small town called Chepkanga in Kenya.

VFA Founder Andrew Yang on how cities tend to breed companies that solve the problems of their region

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By Andrew Yang (originally published in the Huffington Post)
When I visited Cincinnati I met with a company called General Nano – they manufacture a carbon nanotube material that can be used to make planes more resistant to lightning strikes. The U.S. Navy is an investor through the Office of Naval Research. The military comes through Cincinnati in part because G.E. Aviation, which manufactures airplane components, is in the city.
General Nano is an example of a company that would be unlikely to be founded in, say, New York. If you look at the latest wave of New York startups (e.g., Rent the Runway, Warby Parker, Foursquare, Gilt Groupe, Etsy, Kickstarter, etc.) they tend to capitalize on New York’s existing industries (e.g., fashion, retail, etc.). Cities tend to produce startups that are either solving their problems or building on existing strengths.
Other companies in Cincinnati include The Brandery, a startup accelerator that emphasizes brand building, and Blackbook HR, a software solution to help corporations integrate employees into the community and help them feel more rooted. Both of these were born in the shadow of Procter and Gamble, the consumer products giant that is perhaps Cincinnati’s most prominent corporate anchor. In this case, both branded innovation and employee satisfaction are issues of interest to the established organizations of the region.
You can see the same phenomena in other cities. New Orleans is a haven for education reform as the only city in the U.S. where more than half of all public school children attend charter schools. Also in New Orleans are 4.0 Schools, a design lab for education innovation, and Kickboard, an analytics and student tracking software company for teachers.
Baltimore, the home of Johns Hopkins University, has a cluster of innovative health tech companies such as Reify Health, which uses mobile technology to improve and measure medical treatments. Reify Health was started by four Johns Hopkins medical and graduate students who left school to start the company. Baltimore also has cyber security start-ups, like Riskive, that benefit from the city’s proximity to Fort Meade and US Army Cyber Command. Cleveland has companies like Linestream, which provides next-generation motor controls to save energy and money for appliances, and Maker Gear, which sells 3-D printers, in sync with the city’s robust manufacturing base.
There’s an overly simplistic notion that Silicon Valley is the only place for technology companies to thrive. We all remember Facebook moving out West in ‘The Social Network.’ But even Mark Zuckerberg said in 2011, “If I were starting now, I would have stayed in Boston” and advocated “You don’t have to move out here to do this.”
The problems that you see startups tackling are dramatically different in different cities. Silicon Valley is unlikely to produce the same set of companies as New York or Cleveland because the region has a different set of strengths and defining institutions. We need people building companies all over the country to innovate in aviation, consumer products, education, health, cybersecurity, biotech, manufacturing, and everything in between.

Name: Brian Bosché
Hometown: Newport Beach, California and Bozeman, Montana

University: Dartmouth College ‘12
City: Detroit
Recruitment & Development,  Bizdom
 
What initially attracted you to Venture for America?
I was creating a proposal for a Center of Entrepreneurship at Dartmouth College for one of my Public Policy classes, and was interested in what opportunities were available for students in startups after graduation.  After seeing dozens of flyers on campus, I went to the Venture for America info session with Andrew Yang, and was hooked by his vision.
 What is the best part of being a VFA Fellow?
Access. Being a VFA Fellow means I have direct access to leaders in my community, successful entrepreneurs in the VFA mentorship network, and a strong peer community of Fellows around the country.
What does Bizdom do? 
Bizdom is a startup accelerator that helps entrepreneurs launch, fund and grow innovative, web and tech-based startups. As a community organization, we also organize and support entrepreneurship events and trainings in Detroit.  Bizdom is a nonprofit that was founded by Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans, majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and general partner of Detroit Venture Partners.
What do you do on a typical day at work?
Recruitment and Development.  I recruit startups into Bizdom and then vet the candidate pools for each program session (3 per year).  I work with the companies individually on anything they have a need for, including pitch practice, social media, customer service, sales, business development, and mentor outreach.  I also help plan community and entrepreneurship events in Detroit.
What’s your favorite thing about Detroit? 
The potential.  Detroit has had some rough years, and still needs a lot of work, but there are so many people excited to help rebuild the city.  It is amazing being a part of the transformation.  That, combined with Detroit’s rich cultural past, a few successful sports teams, and the label of “Most Miserable City in America”, makes this city a very interesting  and cool place to be.
What do you hope to accomplish in your time with VFA?
Personally, I want to build a broad skill set that will allow me to build a successful company.  For Detroit, I want to build the entrepreneurship community and attract amazing startups and teams to the city.  As a part of VFA, I want to build Startup Effect into a sustainable organization that helps students build entrepreneurship skills and empowers them to be successful.