Dear VFA friends and supporters,
When I started Venture for America in 2011, I believed that we weren’t asking enough of our young people. We needed more of them to take on the challenge of building a new business or organization. Through this, they’d create new opportunities for themselves and others. They would also become the kind of people who could have a positive impact on our economy and country as a whole.
Building a new business is an extraordinarily tough challenge, one that I went through myself unsuccessfully in my mid-twenties. But I’d seen that it was possible and that you can get better at it over time.
Now, three years later, our first Fellows have completed their two-year Fellowship and are starting companies across the country. A majority of our 2012 Fellows are working at startup and early-stage companies in Detroit, New Orleans, Providence, and Cincinnati even after their Fellowship officially concluded earlier this year.
Among the Fellows who have started companies, 3 of these new businesses– Banza, Castle, and TernPro — are in Detroit. They’ve raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in investment capital and have generated over a dozen new local jobs. Our Fellows are building real businesses that are already impacting their communities.
Three years ago, Brian Rudolph was a senior at Emory weighing an offer to join a consulting firm. Brian had a desire to build something and applied to join Venture for America’s first class. A Westchester, NY native, he had never been to Detroit. But he moved there to work at an e-commerce startup, Quikly in August 2012. Months later, his VFA mentor asked him, “Are you going to start a company?” He started working on a pasta made out of chickpeas in his kitchen, eventually coming on a recipe that was high-protein, gluten-free, and delicious. This year, Banza began working with a celebrity restauranteur investor, and will be distributed in over 700 stores by early 2015. It is being manufactured in Michigan, supporting local jobs. Brian has hired an incoming VFA Fellow to help grow the business and is off to the races.
We have 165 more Fellows in the classes of 2013 and 2014 working in cities like Baltimore, Cleveland, Columbus, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Antonio, and Miami. Many of them will go on to help businesses scale or start new ones in the months to come. We’re thrilled to see what they’ll do, even as they’re joined by an additional 140 next summer.
2014 was a tremendous year for VFA. Our budget has expanded from approximately $200k in 2011 to $3 million, thanks to many of you reading this. We will have over 1,500 applicants from universities around the country this year, and had our first Fellows from Stanford and Caltech. Interest in our work is rising: we appeared in Time magazine, Morning Joe, and CNBC this year and a major documentary is being filmed right now on Venture for America with an Academy Award-winning director. Major leaders and companies are embracing our mission of entrepreneurship and job creation in cities around the U.S.
More than any of these other indications, in 2014 I witnessed in full the evolution from well-intended recent college graduate to determined builder and company co-founder. I saw the college senior become the person who was offering a new service, making payroll and leading a team of adult professionals two-and-a-half years later. This transformation is profound. It has the potential to remake the country. This is what makes me the most excited for the future of Venture for America and our Fellows.
Thank you for making all of this possible. Please take this opportunity to continue to support our work – your contributions will allow us to continue to expand to new cities like Pittsburgh, Nashville, Charlotte, Indianapolis, and Birmingham, and provide ongoing professional development and support for our current Fellows. Your support makes a huge difference.
Just as is the case for our Fellows, VFA’s journey is just beginning. Here’s to a fantastic year, and to even better ones ahead!
Warmest regards,
Andrew Yang
Founder & CEO
