Nancy Lublin feels very strongly about law school – “it’s where ideas go to die”. Yet NYU Law School is exactly where she came up with the idea for Dress for Success, now a global nonprofit that promotes the economic independence of women by providing professional attire and career support. When Nancy turned 30 and Dress for Success was thriving, she left to join DoSomething.org to help them survive at a time when their existence was touch and go. While at DoSomething.org Nancy’s team began using text messages to reach their constituents. Unexpectedly people began texting back about their personal problems, some of which were very harrowing. After receiving a particularly harrowing message from a young woman, Nancy conceived the idea for Crisis Text Line which provides free crisis intervention via text message 24 hours a day every day. According to Nancy, Crisis Text Line is more than a nonprofit- it’s a tech company problem solving through products, not people. Today, Crisis Text Line engages with thousands of crisis counselors and has fielded tens of millions of text messages since 2013. Tune in this week to learn how Crisis Text Line is using AI to help people in need.
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Originally published by Hannah White ’16 on the Leverege Blog. 

If I told you I always wanted to work at a startup, or that Venture for America (VFA) was on my radar as my number one post-grad choice, I’d be lying. It was happenstance that my friend chatted me the VFA application link three days before the final deadline. I applied because I was deep in job application season as a second semester senior; to be honest, I wasn’t all that committed to the idea yet. My reason was inconsequential, but I really hate the show Silicon Valley and that clouded my feelings on startups in general. Update: I still hate the show, but I love working at a startup and being a Venture for America fellow. Looking back, I can’t really imagine taking another path.
During the VFA application process, they ask you if in the future you would ever want to start your own company. My response was always yes, but back then I was thinking in terms of becoming a freelance designer and maybe growing that into a little design firm. In my mind, this would have taken place in my late 30s or early 40s, after I felt I had learned as much as possible from working at other companies. Now my response is still yes, but the end goal and timeline are very different. Becoming a freelance designer is a form of entrepreneurship, but VFA showed me how much of a positive social impact the startup community can have through companies like Downtown Boxing Gym Youth Program and the Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys. There are also product companies that recognize problems and strive to fix them like VersaMe, Pathsensors, and ClassTracks. The main goal of every designer is to identify and solve problems through design. Through VFA, I saw this on a larger scale with startups and admittedly was hooked.
When the VFA match portal opens, all hell breaks loose. There are companies reaching out to you, you’re reaching out to companies, VFA team members are trying to keep up to date with every fellow’s journey, and everyone’s email inbox is overflowing. I found out that I got into VFA the Monday before the portal opened, so the turnaround time was basically nonexistent. I was still trying to figure out how to write my “pitch” (opening email) to companies when they were already emailing me. I barely had time to decide what I was really looking for before going into interviews, but here’s the list I pulled from my notebook:

1. Company Size. In a lot of my interviews, I was asked why I wanted to work at a startup as opposed to a more established design firm or product company. It was hard for me to put into words until I thought about how I would draw my explanation. At a bigger company, I would be given a plant that was already grown and told to water and trim it in specific ways. At a startup, I would get to decide which seed to plant, where to plant it, and how to help it grow. (Note: It’s cheesy. I know.)
2. Diversity in Work. I work best when I have multiple projects that push me in different ways and require different branding and goals. I wanted a job where I wouldn’t always be working with the same branding.
3. Founder Experience. I wanted a founder who had experience. VFA sells the program as a hands-on MBA, and I wanted to make sure my ‘professor’ knew what they were doing.
4. Company Culture. I was pretty sure I wanted to be at a tech startup, but there are so many articles out there about stigmas about women in tech. According to the Harvard Business Review, 41% of women in tech end up leaving the field. There are countless articles about the daily problems women face. I wanted to work at a company where I knew I wouldn’t be talked over at meetings or skipped over for promotions.
5. Equity. Equity isn’t the be all end all by any means, but it does mean this company sees the fellow as a real employee. A CEO can only hope that employees always want more equity because it means they believe in the product. Employees can only hope that a CEO will offer it because it means the CEO believes they are an invaluable asset to the team.

At the end of the process I signed on with Leverege. Before they hired fellows, they were a company of 4 and had a founder with a history of multiple successful companies under his belt. They wanted to hear my opinion on various marketing and branding decisions before I signed on, which I took as a good sign (it was). The job description involved marketing, product development, company branding, website design, and more, so I was sure I wouldn’t be ‘creatively bored’. Looking back at all of my pros and cons lists for every VFA partner company I talked to, I still stand by the five factors I considered

VFA Reunion in Cincinnati at Rhinegeist, a local craft brewery and VFA company

Fast forward to present day: I’m sitting at a coffee shop, sipping coffee with two members of the dev team and fellow 2016 VFA fellows (our crew has been dubbed the rat pack by the rest of the team). I just wrapped up designing a user interface for a smart city and am documenting some user interactions on our website using Inspectlet. Later today, I’ll be working on a slide deck with the Director of Sales (who also happens to be a VFA fellow) for his product demos and checking on how our A/B testing for our current ad campaign is going on Google analytics. Each one of our nine team members influences the direction and success of this company. We’re all trying to figure out how to make our company be one of the 10% of startups that succeed and to be honest, I’ve never loved Monday mornings more.

Originally published by Dillon Myers ’14 on the Venture for America Forbes Blog.
My cofounder Alan and I walk into a small conference room to greet a reporter. She’s interviewing us about the technology startup we’re building, called Potluck.
As we shake hands and exchange polite smiles, I notice her glancing around the room before she looks back to us. It’s clear from her intrigued expression that we’re not the cofounders she was expecting. We can’t blame her, though, because we’ve seen it before. It’s a common reaction to the unusual dynamic that makes up our team. Alan and I both attended Washington and Lee University. I graduated in 2014. Alan, in 1970.
“I may have gray hair,” Alan says to break the ice, “but I self-identify as a millennial.”
She laughs. It’s not so much that Alan is older or that I’m fairly young – tech entrepreneurs span every generation – but she’s captivated by the idea that we’re partners.

Millennials vs. Boomers

Every generation has its own merits as founders, specifically in tech. There have been numerous studies and analyses by VC firms, business schools and think tanks to determine whether age and experience are indicators of success, but the results are conflicting.
If we’re judging by frequency, entrepreneurship among 20 – 30-year-olds is at an all-time low, despite increasing interest in the field. In the same report, the Kauffman Foundation also finds the average tech entrepreneur’s age skews older to 39 years, and baby boomers (ages 52 – 70 years old) are twice as likely to launch a new business as millennials.
However, if we take a look at prominent successes, the largest tech companies today – Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft – all had founders under 25 years old at their outset. Even within Silicon Valley’s most prominent incubator, Y-Combinator, the average age of their recent class of founders is 26 years.

Originally published by Forrest Miller ’14 on the Venture for America Forbes Blog.
Early-stage startups are caught in a paradox: they need traction to raise money, but hitting significant milestones is often expensive. When funds are tight, it’s especially important to maximize your only resource: time. Refining your messaging and validating with prospective partners can be performed on a bootstrapped budget. Using your time wisely will ensure that your value proposition is clear and focused for when investors are finally ready to write checks.
This dilemma applies mainly to companies that need to hit big, capital-intensive milestones. If your business’s key metrics are app downloads or daily active users, then get out there and hustle. However, if your company lacks the funds to make a key hire or take a hardware prototype from minimum viable product to consumer-ready, there are still concrete ways to build traction and create value in the eyes of investors.

Validate the concept

Hopefully you have already determined that the problem your business solves is a worthwhile. Meaning, there is a demand for a solution and you’re creating something that meets user needs. Validation is an iterative process, however, and more input is almost always a good thing, particularly when it comes from those who know a lot more than you do about the industry you’re trying to enter.
Connecting with experts in your field will give you critical feedback on the concept and direction of your business and can lead to ongoing advisory relationships, either on an informal basis or as part of an official, compensated advisory board. Either way, these key industry leaders will be an invaluable resource as you refine your business’s value proposition and pitch. After all, if you can convince a successful entrepreneur or a famous scientist that you’re revolutionizing their space, persuading investors of the same should be no problem. Those experts can even directly help you do it. A name and headshot in your deck go a long way; a quote or letter of support goes even farther. Of course, thought leaders don’t exist in a vacuum: they have often led successful companies that have succeeded in your industry. Strong connections with individuals can turn into partnerships with the very organizations your business wants to emulate.

Proactively build relationships

Building connections with larger companies in your industry can be beneficial in a variety of ways. Discussing your technology confidentially with big players in your space can help further validate your concept, and line up a potential acquirer down the line. These companies, with their comparatively vast resources, can be invaluable channel partners as you scale and bring your product to market. This type of relationship can also allow you to focus on your business’s core competencies while leveraging a partner’s expertise in other areas to avoid reinventing the wheel.

Perhaps the best outcome of building these relationships with more mature companies is introductions to their investors. By definition, VCs and angels who have put money into these entrepreneurs are invested in them and what they think, and your contacts are likewise going out on a limb for you. These mutual relationships not only get you in the door faster, they foster a sense of trust that can otherwise be difficult and time-consuming to grow organically.

Nail the investment pitch

All of this validation and relationship building is done with one goal in mind: to raise the capital your business needs to hit key milestones. When you do get in front of investors, the work you’ve put in will result in a clear and compelling pitch. Selling your concept to key opinion leaders and entrepreneurs in your space will be just as intense as pitching to investors, maybe even more so; that’s why they’re the experts. Getting in front of these different audiences will allow you to A/B test your messaging and collect and synthesize organic feedback on how you’re conveying your company’s value proposition. You truthfully can’t know what will work unless you’ve tried it. How do different types of people respond? Which parts of your pitch resonate with whom? Find the answers to these questions early and trim the fat from your pitch. Likewise, what questions continually come up? Should you change your pitch to address them, or is it better to anticipate getting them and then nail the answer?
Combined, these elements will create a crisp message with a strong narrative supported by data and, ideally, experts in your space. Your pitch will convey a compelling value proposition because, not in spite of, the narrow focus your limited resources demand. Keeping your direction tight, with no superfluous information, will reflect well on your team and convince investors of exactly where their money is going.
Getting your startup off the ground is daunting, and trying to make significant progress on a tight budget reduces your margin of error even further. However, you don’t need a big VC check to thoroughly validate your concept, build relationships with key players in your industry, and practice pitching your company. Focusing your limited time on these critical areas will be invaluable to refining your value proposition and creating the traction and momentum your startup needs to excel even after raising money.

Originally published by Calum McLelland ’16 on the Leverege Blog.

It’s National Entrepreneurship Month and Venture for America has been sharing some excellent resources on building companies and becoming entrepreneurs in the Build Something Toolkit Series. This week, the focus has been on building the right team.
One day I am going to found a company and, as VFA has been exploring this week, building the right team will be essential to its success. But I feel extremely unprepared to start my own company right now. This was my primary reason for applying to Venture For America. I wanted to learn what it’s actually like at a startup and to build the skills I’ll need to be successful when I do start a company. After all, the skills and mindset necessary to succeed at a big company are far different from those necessary to succeed in the fast-paced and less structured environment of a startup.
So rather than focus on how to build a team, in this post I’ll be sharing some pointers on joining a team and making an impact. From peers, mentors, and from my own experience succeeding and failing at Leverege, I’ve learned that it’s all about having the right mindset.

Developing the right mindset:

When I began at Leverege, I found myself frustrated. I wanted to add value and contribute to the company, but many days I found myself unsure what I should be doing. Unlike working at a bigger company, I don’t have a clearly defined role and I’m never handed a list of specific tasks or goals to accomplish. After some time, I came to realize that the fault was mine; I had the wrong mindset.
At a bigger company, it’s good to come in, put your head down, and knock out the tasks that you’ve been assigned. This is much like school where you’re given an assignment and you get rewarded for completing it on time and with high quality. Though I’d be warned by peers and mentors alike, it wasn’t until I started working at Leverege that I realized just how different it is to have a startup mindset.
At a startup, you can’t wait for someone to tell you what to do. Because the company is so small, every person (including your “manager”) is working hard to move the company forward. This means that they often don’t have the time to manage you and tell you what to do.

The right mindset means creating tasks instead of waiting for them, constantly seeking out ways to add value.

So how do you do that? When I realized that I needed to be proactive in identifying ways to contribute, I was met with a new problem. I found it easy to generate ideas, but I struggled deciding which would be most valuable to pursue. Some days I’d spend 8 hours working on something only to realize at the end of the day that I hadn’t added all that much value. And the opposite problem can arise too, of struggling to generate ideas in the first place.
I’ve learned that it’s critical to take time to understand the goals and direction of your company. Arrange time to sit down with team members and learn the company’s priorities. When you understand the bigger picture you’re better able to determine what actions you should take. After I spent time with the CEO to get a better understanding of our overall direction and goals, I began asking myself, “what can I do today that would best move Leverege in the right direction?”. This approach and greater understanding clarified my day-to-day tasks, allowing me to focus my time and effort on the things that matter.
But it’s not enough determining what you should do, you need to actually do it.

The right mindset means focusing on output rather than input.

At a larger company, it’s easy to get away with doing the minimum. You can come in on time, put in your eight hours of moderate work, and collect your paychecks. But at a startup, doing the minimum could mean that the entire company goes under. It doesn’t matter how many hours you worked or how hard you tried, if you don’t deliver results the company will suffer the consequences. With 9 employees at Leverege, if I don’t contribute that means that the company is missing 11% of the work. No company can afford that.
I’ve learned that it’s critical to evaluate yourself on your output rather than your input. Being in the office 50-60 hours a week doesn’t matter if half that time is wasted on irrelevant tasks. To ensure that I’m operating with a sense of urgency and continually driving output, I’ve found the following strategy to be effective:
On Monday, I spend time in the morning setting actionable goals for my week. This provides me with clarity on what I need to accomplish and also lets me share my plan with relevant members of the team. That way, they can provide feedback and let me know if there’s anything important that I’m missing.
On Friday, I take time to reflect on the previous week and evaluate my performance. Did I accomplish the goals and tasks I set on Monday? If not, how can I improve and do better next week? Again, it’s helpful to share with relevant team members to get their valuable input. This sharing could be via a weekly recap email or a 1-on-1 check-in.
I’ve found this shift from focusing on input to focusing on output to be difficult. Sometimes I’ve spent hours working on something only to have it completely scrapped, useless. It can also be exhausting, it can mean working odd hours to make sure that a critical project is finished on time. This is why it’s important to work at a startup for the right reasons.

The right mindset means living to work instead of working to live.

I have several friends who work to live. They endure an uninteresting, tedious 9-5 job to earn a paycheck so that they can have fun on the weekends. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this approach, but it won’t work at a startup.
At a startup, you live to work. You need to buy-in to what you’re doing. You need to want to be challenged and personally grow every day. You need to be driven to produce results and forge your own path. If you just want to show up and put your head down as you would at a big company, you won’t make it.
I’ve learned that working at a startup is different and it’s hard, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I love being at Leverege. I love coming in to work every day. Too many people I know view work as a necessary evil and they will spend (quite literally) the majority of their lives doing something that they despise. When you live to work and when you view your career as more than just a way to earn money, life is exciting to live.
At Leverege and at VFA, we believe that our career is a choice that indicates our values. If you have any questions about my experience at Leverege or as a VFA Fellow, please don’t hesitate to let me know! You can reach me at calum@leverege.com

Ben Uyeda has always been a builder. From building swords out of car suspension leaf springs as a child to starting an architecture firm directly out of college, his passion for design has been motivated by necessity and accessibility. Ben’s first company, Free Green, creates free energy-efficient house plans and HomeMade Modern, his DIY resource for homemade furniture, gives the average person the skills to build something of their own. When he’s not creating businesses, Ben’s a teacher at Northeastern University, a real estate developer, a startup advisor, and much more. Tune into this week’s episode to hear how Ben created such a thoughtfully and personally driven career path and how he almost went into martial arts full-time.
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