In this week’s intriguing episode of Smart People Should Build Things, Jeremy speaks with Meg Daly, Founder of Miami’s Underline, a ten-mile park built on the underutilized land below Miami’s MetroRail. Check out this episode to hear Meg chat about her journey spearheading the project that she calls her “crazy idea.”

Click here to listen.

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The 2016 VFA Accelerator has begun!

At 8:30 am on a recent rainy Friday morning in New York City, 12 young entrepreneurs in the final year of the VFA fellowship boarded a bus to Philadelphia for the 2016 VFA Accelerator. It had already been a long week—the night before, they pitched their young businesses at VFA’s 5th annual Summer Celebration, where hundreds of attendees were eager to learn about their projects and companies. And just two days prior, these founders made the trek from Detroit, New Orleans, Baltimore, Miami, Cleveland, and Columbus, leaving the cities where many of their businesses were born to move into a comfortable but modest 8 bedroom house in West Philadelphia, five minutes away from First Round Capital offices where they will spend the remainder of the summer.

The paths that these entrepreneurs took to get here are as varied as the businesses they’re building. But they all share a group of qualities that we think will make them successful—qualities every entrepreneur needs.
An insatiable curiosity to learn how things work—the type that gets you to cold email CEOs in the hopes of learning about their business from the inside, or to spend your weekend learning the intricacies of a new bot API.
A deep sense of ownership over your work. One that doesn’t let you go to sleep until you reply to that customer issue that came in at 11 pm.
A tactful persistence that opens new doors and keeps you going after hearing “no” 100 times, because that means you’re one rejection closer to getting the only “yes” you need.
The humility and self-awareness to help you put aside your pride when you need to ask others for help, or to tell your team that you need to drastically change course on a project they’ve been working day and night to finish.
The ability to emotionally detach. So when something significant happens—like your product crashes and disaster seems unavoidable, or it seems like you’re finally going to catch a lucky break from that investor who says she’s basically ready to wire you the money—you can step back from the situation with an objective lens and make timely decisions based on the facts at hand.
If this sounds like you, maybe you should consider building a company.
As we boarded the bus that morning to head back to Philadelphia for our first official day of the Accelerator, you could feel the mix of excitement and anticipation among the Fellows. Many left stable jobs to make this leap of faith, willing to tolerate uncertainty for the promise of an educational experience few choose to explore. The type of education that can only come from not just observing, but applying, not by simply reading cases but talking to entrepreneurs who have failed as well as triumphed, and not just dreaming of what could be, but by doing, even if success is anything but guaranteed.
I sat near the back of the bus with Zubin Teherani—a 2013 Fellow and the co-founder of LeagueSide, one of the three companies from the last VFA Accelerator cohort still working in Philadelphia. I listened to him juggle calls with his co-founder Evan and calls from customers, all the while bouncing between spreadsheets on his laptop, and I couldn’t help but admire the confidence with which the 25 year old did his job. Maybe it was the countless pitches to brands, mentors, and investors he’d done since starting at the VFA Accelerator last year. Maybe it was the two years he spent living and working in New Orleans doing business development for IDScan during his fellowship. Whatever the reason, it’s increasingly clear that this experiment is working, and that this summer will be a period of discovery and growth for everyone involved.
If you’re a Philadelphia based entrepreneur, or supporter of entrepreneurs, and would like to learn more about what we’re up to at the VFA Accelerator, send a note to sergei@ventureforamerica.org.

Sergei Revzin is the Entrepreneur in Residence at VFA, and is currently running the 2016 VFA Accelerator in Philadelphia. 

Ever think it would be easy to get a food truck up and running? You thought wrong! This week Jeremy chats with Thomas Kelly, Co-Founder of Mexicue, a restaurant that serves delicious food inspired by two of America’s favorite comfort foods: Mexican & BBQ. Six years ago Thomas and his partner saw the food truck craze taking off in California and knew there was an opportunity in New York City. Thomas had no formal training as a chef but managed to buy a food truck on EBay while his partner navigated the shady black market of food truck permits. Today Mexicue has three brick and mortar locations and employs over 100 people. If you haven’t had the pleasure of eating Mexicue, you are truly missing out! Listen to this week’s episode to hear more about Thomas’s path and the ins and outs of the food truck underworld.

Click here to listen.

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Last week we heard from VFA Fellows Evan Brandoff and Zubin Teherani. This week, Jeremy sits down with Evan’s big brother, Randy! Randy began his career at the private jet company, Marquis Jets which was eventually acquired by NetJets, a Berkshire Hathaway company. Randy stayed on as the CMO and helped create Avion Tequila. After 11 years Randy was ready to start his own venture, Eleven James, an annual membership club that gives you unprecedented access to hundreds of the world’s most exquisite watch brands and styles. Download this week’s episode to hear about how Randy is building a luxury watch business by treating his customers like gold and how he was able to walk away from a Warren Buffet owned company.

Click here to listen.

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Summer is finally here! You’ve finished the semester with flying colors, and now you’re excited about the internship you landed at [insert your dream company/organization in the industry of your choice here]. But how can you guarantee that your internship is mutually beneficial — that is, how can you add value AND gain valuable experience from your stint in the work world—in just a few short months?

While there’s no formula for success as a summer intern (as with most things in life…), here are a few things you can do to set yourself up to be a valued contributor on your team while simultaneously ensuring you gain professional skills and grow as a person.

Set goals.

As we’ve mentioned before, we’re partial to SMART goals—goals that force you to set a timeline for an achievable, specific achievement, one that’s concrete enough for your progress to be easily quantified. When your internship begins (or even if it already has!), talk to your manager about sitting down for 30 minutes to discuss 3–5 skills/experiences/opportunities you’d like to set as goals for the summer. Then, over the course of your internship, track your progress — at the end of the summer, hopefully you’ll have a concrete understanding of how far you’ve come!

Pay attention to the little things.

In a perfect world, you arrive on time, prepared with any supplies you’ve been asked to bring. (A few things to consider: Will a laptop or desktop be provided for you? Should you have a notebook at the ready? etc.) Dressing for success is also key — if you’re unsure of what to wear, ask someone. Every office has different expectations, especially in the summer when the indoor/outdoor temperatures can vary drastically (pro tip: bring an extra layer for those days when the AC is pumpin’ just a little too much). Finally, do everything you can to avoid typos or errors in work that you produce for your team — the extra 5 minutes you spend proofreading could be the difference between impressing your colleagues and disappointing them.

Ask questions.

Whether you’re wondering how you can be most helpful, where you should start on a project, or if you’ve reached an appropriate finish line, asking questions is a great way to ensure you have all of the information you need. One of the first things I learned when I joined the VFA team was that asking questions would be the key to my success — and I’ve really latched onto that (just ask my boss — I asked her questions pretty consistently throughout my first couple months). To avoid interrupting your manager every five minutes, it can be helpful to schedule one or two check-ins per day and save your questions to ask en masse, unless they’re time sensitive. One tip: before you ask, make sure the question can’t be answered with a Google search or a little digging on your company’s website!

Network (and keep in touch).

Over the course of a 10 week summer internship, you will likely work approximately 49 days, accommodating for the 4th of July holiday :). That means 49 (or more!) opportunities to grab lunch or coffee with a fellow intern, manager, or colleague to create a relationship and learn about their career path. The key, though, is maintaining those connections after classes begin again in the fall — sending your manager an email with an article they might enjoy or reaching out to fellow interns about their plans for after graduation are a couple of great ways to maintain the network you develop this summer.

Work smarter, not harder.

Your productivity will likely not be reflected in terms of how late you stay at the office or how quickly you’re able to complete a project. Instead, focus your energy on being smart about how you spend your time — the more thoughtful you are about this, the more efficient and effective you’ll be at work. Trust me, coworkers are more likely to notice that you knocked it out of the park on a project in a timely manner than they are to notice that you’re sticking around the office after hours. Bonus points if you’re able to build a smart and efficient process that can be employed even after your internship concludes.

One last thought: every internship is an opportunity — even if you spend more time getting coffee and making copies than you’d like, 90% of the time, having goals in mind, being detail-oriented (and impressing colleagues as a result!), being curious, and building relationships will ensure that you leave the experience as a more savvy and marketable professional. Now, get out there and kill it this summer!

Hello VFA world!
For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Joel and I am a 2015 Venture For America Fellow. Here’s everything you need to know about me in 5 bullet points:

1. I started two companies in college and I’m obsessed with startups.
2. I’m the guy that is way too passionate for his own good but will use that to solve the problems in education.
3. I work at an amazing company called Indigo Project that helps schools personalize learning so they can teach their students based on who they are and what they care about.
4. I truly love to talk—bad habit I picked up as a philosophy major 😉    
5. I’m addicted to improv comedy (performing and watching), and of course, coffee.
6. Bonus bullet point: This may come as a surprise, but I was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and speak fluent Spanish.

About two months ago, I got an email from Amy Nelson (Managing Director at VFA) about this great opportunity called the Emerging City Champions Fellowship. After about two weeks of staring at the email and contemplating whether or not I wanted to apply, I decided to go for it—and I’m beyond excited to announce that I was accepted into the program!

So what is this program all about?

The Knight Foundation partnered up with 880 Cities to create the Emerging City Champions Fellowship, a program that selects 20 civic innovators from across the nation and gives them $5,000 to implement a project to transform their cities.
Let’s rewind back to about a month ago. I was sitting in my apartment in Boulder, Colorado and I had decided to apply for this awesome opportunity, but had no idea what I wanted to do for my project. So I asked myself, “How can I add the greatest value to the city of Boulder based on my experiences so far with VFA, what I do at Indigo Project, and the things that I care about?” After about 100 Post Its and 10 ideas for potential projects, I finally came up with an idea called The Young Knights Project, a student-led movement to bridge the gap between the city of Boulder and all of its high schools.

So what does that even mean—and how will we actually do it?

For the next year, I will be mentoring 10 high school students in Boulder to help them spearhead the creation of innovative job opportunities for other high school students in the city. We will be partnering with companies and organizations in Boulder to create 30 new internship, job, and volunteer opportunities that are not only innovative, but also relate to the things high school students care about. As we build more partnerships, the 10 student leaders that I mentor will be in charge of bringing those opportunities back to their schools and offering them to their peers.
Imagine you are in high school and you need a summer job. Instead of having to opt into the readily available jobs for high school students, like working in a restaurant or in retail, now you would have access to more meaningful opportunities that are directly related to the things you are interested in. We want to make summer jobs more accessible to go beyond working at Chipotle or Starbucks to include internships in Boulder at places like Google, Galvanize, or possibly even an apprenticeship under a Boulder entrepreneur, professional skydiver, or a heart surgeon. You never know…
The possibilities for the opportunities we create are limitless, and at the end of the day, they will be dictated by the 10 high school student leaders of this movement and their peers. That way, we only create opportunities that align with the students’ strengths and passions, and hopefully that paves the way in engaging our students and the city of Boulder unlike ever before.

As I was brainstorming for this project, I wanted to make sure that it was scalable, as well as sustainable. In order to meet these two requirements, we are also going to build an online platform where companies and organizations will be able to post new opportunities that are only open to high school students in Boulder (hopefully other cities in the future as well!). Any student that is interested will then be able to find those opportunities and apply to them via our platform.

So there you have it. The Young Knights Project.

A movement to connect the city of Boulder with all of its high schools unlike ever before. And by doing that, we will create a space where students will have access to opportunities that they care about.
My next stop is Toronto, where The Knight Foundation and 880 Cities will host a 4-day intensive training in June for the 20 civic innovators. We will be learning all about what it takes to have the greatest impact and then head back to our cities to start building momentum.
If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading. Shoutout to Amy and all of VFA once again for their support. I’m truly excited to represent Venture for America as an Emerging City Champion for the class of 2016.
Let’s do this!

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For more info on the Emerging City Champions Fellowship, click here.
For more info on my project, check out this video!
 
 
 
 

These days, it’s borderline hackneyed to say, “If you can’t learn to code, learn to sell.” And yet, I’ve noticed that many of the brilliant young grads I work with give sales some serious side-eye. I get it. Back in my business school days, if someone told me they had a sales background, I immediately knocked a few points off my mental estimate of their IQ. But I was totally wrong, and if you’re making the same assumptions, you are too. Here’s why.

Why sales?

This should probably be obvious, but if you have a product and no one buys it, you do not have a company. Unfortunately, this fact sometimes gets overlooked. I recently read a book by a rather famous venture investor that claimed to be the end-all be-all guide to starting a startup, and literally none of the chapters were about acquiring customers and selling your product. I was baffled.

Sales are more important than ever because venture cash is tightening up. When unicorn companies take big markdowns because their sales projections weren’t tied to reality, it will impact everyone. Investors are going to be looking closer at the top line. With funding timelines extending, companies need to have money coming in the door to stay afloat. That means more than just creating a product—it means getting the product in the hands of a paying customer.

On a personal level, if you are good at sales you will probably always have a job. (Or at least, most of the time.) When times get tough, smart companies actually beef up their sales teams. You’re likely to get paid more than your friends over in community management or social media because it’s much, much easier to measure your effect on the business.

Who can sell?

Believe it or not, not everyone is temperamentally suited to sell. But all you humanities and social science majors should rejoice because sales might very well be for you. (Take it from me, I studied philosophy and government — double whammy! — and have thrived in a sales role.) Why? Because you are probably a better-than-average communicator. Persuasion is a skill. Psych majors can rely on their understanding of human motivation to craft a proposal. English majors can fine-tune an email that will rise above the noise. Poli Sci folks probably understand how to leverage their networks to get to a decision-maker. Companies will pay you for this.

Sales can be shockingly creative. Yes, there are sales roles that require 100 cold calls a day and some super robotic, semi-automated funnel process. But the person who can design improvements to that process and get it adopted by the whole company? Nearly guaranteed a promotion. Look for companies that give their sales staffs leeway to customize the product or deal structure (subscription vs. one-off or whatever the case may be), as you’re likely to be able to think creatively in the job.

The added bonus of sales: nothing feels better than landing a big sale. Trust me. Having a tangible professional accomplishment to point is so, so amazing.

Okay, I’m super convinced sales is for me. Where do I start?

If you’re still in school, try a public speaking or debate class. I rely on my debate background for thinking on my feet and developing customized tactics essentially every day. Develop your listening skills — good sales requires understanding what the customer wants and making them feel heard, not pushing features. Seek out heads of sales or business development for informational interviews or even to shadow at a pitch meeting — they are likely to be super flattered (as long as you are humble and non-creepy in the request).

If you’re already looking for a sales job, find a strong mentor. You are unlikely to start as the sales lead on day one, but this is the kind of job that is definitely best learned by doing. You’ll get it wrong a few times and maybe say something embarrassing to a potential client, but having the resilience to keep at it will make you an excellent salesperson (thick skin is a huge requirement of the job).

A final (anecdotal) note: throughout my career, I’ve noticed that the women I know don’t tend to seek out sales roles as frequently as men. I think this is a mistake. Not only can gaining sales experience accelerate your career, I legitimately think that women are better than men at sales on average. If you’re a woman interested in sales, go for it. Ignore the “bro sales guy” stereotype (and culture, if possible) and just crush the numbers — you’ll rise to the top!

Evan & Zubin met at Venture for America’s second ever Training Camp and knew it was business partners at first sight. Evan spent his VFA Fellowship in Detroit as VP of Business Development at Benzinga while Zubin worked as the Manager of Business Development at IDScan in New Orleans. They always kept in touch, bouncing startup ideas off of each other in preparation to build a company. Evan had his “AHA” moment at a basketball tournament in Detroit where he realized that the best way for companies to connect with families was through youth sports games. He called Zubin with his idea and LeagueSide was born! Evan & Zubin joined the first ever VFA Accelerator at the end of their Fellowships with just an idea and finished 3 months later with real clients and a growing business. They have since hired a VFA Fellow as their first employee and continue to grow and scale at a rapid pace. Check out this week’s episode of the Venture for America podcast to hear more about LeagueSide’s fumbles and recoveries and their passion for lowering the cost of youth sports for kids.

Click here to listen.

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Sarah Kunst grew up in a tiny rural town in Michigan with one gas station and one stop light. At Michigan State University she was the ultimate brand rep on campus, working for Red Bull, Apple and 2 other brands simultaneously. Sarah’s experience and hustle took her many places after college including Chanel, Guest of a Guest and a major VC firm. Today Sarah is working on her fitness app, Proday, which features a variety of engaging training routines led by fitness celebrities and world-renowned athletes. Download this week’s episode to hear about how Sarah is building her company and all of the tidbits and tips she has for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Click here to listen.

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