Andrew Lowenthal began his career in government with the New York Department of Education, where he learned the vital importance of teaching young people about morality and ethics as early in their education as possible. His passion for social change brought him to Out in Tech, the non-profit that unites the LGBTQ and tech communities. As Executive Director, Andrew’s overseen the election of Out in Tech’s first female president, innovative initiatives to give voices to voiceless LGBTQ people in developing countries, and much more. Tune into this week’s episode to hear how Andrew and Out in Tech are helping LGBTQ students visualize themselves as the tech leaders of tomorrow.
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Originally published by Yitaek Hwang ’16 on the Leverege Blog. 

One of Venture for America’s credos states that “There is no courage without risk.” For many college graduates, joining a small startup carries an inherent risk. This is especially true for many VFA partner companies, located outside the traditional startup hubs like Silicon Valley and New York. But the stories of VFA have been so well publicized by NYT articles on Banza and the documentary Generation Startup, I want to offer a different take on taking a risk at work.

Adding Value When You Don’t Know What to Do

As Calum McClelland shared in his piece about joining a new team, the biggest adjustment transitioning from college to working at Leverege was actively seeking out ways to add value to the company. This was compounded by the fact that I was taking on a new role and learning new technologies that I hadn’t learned in college.
At Duke University, I studied computer architecture and image processing. Coming from a hardware background, I didn’t know how to contribute right away at a software company. It would take time for me to get up to speed on programming and building products for our Internet of Things platform.
While other VFA fellows were already making tangible and visible contributions with the skills they’ve learned in school, I was bit lost as to how I could help the company. Aside from spending time learning a new programming language, it wasn’t obvious how I could be useful.
Thankfully, VFA prepared us for situations like these during training camp.

Subtle Takeaways from Training Camp

Training Camp is a five-week program intended to teach each fellow the skills necessary to start thinking like an entrepreneur. While the experience is different for every fellow, personally I found most value from listening to testimonies and life stories from embattled entrepreneurs.
The most relevant piece of advice came from Melissa Withers, the Managing Director at Betaspring. To summarize, she mentioned that writing an internal newsletter helped her team stay up to date on what was going on both within and outside her old company. So I took this advice and began writing a newsletter about the latest news on the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and everything tech-related.
Fast-forward three months, now the newsletter has over 4.5k subscribers and gaining an additional 500 a week. It forces me to stay current with the latest technology, but more importantly, it drives traffic and potential customers to Leverege and our IoT-for-All publication. Although my original intent was to report on the latest advances for our development team, now it’s also functioning as a piece of content marketing.

Going Forward 

Writing a newsletter may not seem like a huge risk, but from an engineer who was accustomed to writing dry lab reports, it pushed me to translate complicated tech concepts into something more accessible to the general audience. The Internet of Things, and the tech industry in general, often suffers from being “built by engineers, for engineers”. I could have easily fallen victim to this, and the newsletter could have been a waste of time for everyone.
In the short time that I’ve worked at Leverege, risks haven’t been defined by grand steps I’ve taken to change things fundamentally, but by small steps to proactively add value. This is applicable to anyone making a transition in roles or joining a small startup. You don’t always have to take big risks. Sometimes even small ones turn out to be good ones.

Toby graduated from Georgetown University with plans to work in government and, one day, become Secretary of State. After a change of heart, and as a very audacious 22 year old, Toby landed himself an internship at Gilt by knocking on doors and requesting coffee meetings with anyone who would give him their time. At the end of his internship, with no permanent spot of the Gilt team available, Toby took a job in the warehouse cataloguing every item sold by Gilt Man. Eventually he made a jump over to the Gilt City team and made his way up the ladder to become the Manager of Strategy & Business Development. After leaving Gilt, Toby spent some time at other startups before joining the Pager, an on-demand service that connects patients with healthcare in their home, office or hotel. Today Pager is growing rapidly and attempting to transform our healthcare system for the better. Listen to this week’s interview to hear all about Toby’s career and how Pager is investing in AI to streamline the way we consume healthcare.
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Originally published by Calum McLelland ’16 on the Leverege Blog.

Transitioning from academic work to real work has required a significant adjustment. Many of the differences between the classroom and the office are subtle, but they add up to an entirely different mindset and approach. It’s taken me four months at Leverege to feel like I’m beginning to hit my stride, but without the immense support that Venture for America (VFA) has given me, I know it would have taken much longer. Below I’ll share several ways in which VFA has been essential to my professional and personal growth.

Getting my job at Leverege

Before I dive into the ways VFA has supported me as I’ve worked at Leverege, it’s important to point out that without VFA, I wouldn’t be at Leverege in the first place.
I absolutely love working here. The team and culture are incredible, the industry is fascinating, and I’m learning so much every day. I knew that I wanted to work at a startup to gain the skills to start my own company one day, and Leverege couldn’t be more perfect.
But how would I have found this opportunity on my own? Small companies like Leverege (there are 9 of us) don’t have the budget to heavily recruit and promote themselves. If it wasn’t for VFA, there’s no way I would have come across Leverege, let alone had the chance to apply.
I am extremely grateful for VFA; they do the hard work of finding incredible opportunities at startups so us VFA fellows don’t have to.

Supporting me in my job at Leverege

In addition to getting me here, VFA has also been essential in helping me during these first few months. Working for a startup is hard. It means working in ambiguity and often having no idea of what to do or how to tackle a problem. This ambiguity can be great, it’s pushed me to figure things out on my own and grow immensely, but there have also been times when I’ve felt like I’ve hit a brick wall.
Fortunately, I’ve had VFA’s network there to rescue me.
VFA Connect is a web-portal with over 550 mentors and alumni that can be searched and contacted. About a month ago I was stumped by a particular problem in business development, so I searched through VFA Connect for mentors with experience in business development and in SaaS. Of the mentors I reached out to, every one of them responded and was incredibly helpful in providing advice and direction.

Beyond my job at Leverege

In addition to the professional support, I’ve also personally grown because of VFA. There are over 170 fellows in the 2016 VFA class like me, amazing individuals who make me want to be better. We’re there for each other when things are hard, providing needed advice or simply listening and understanding. We’re also there to congratulate when we succeed, whether that’s in our role at our company or in pursuing one of our side-projects.
Being surrounded by so many incredible peers has absolutely made me better as person, and it’s made me want to be better as a person.
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Overall, I am so thankful for the opportunities and support. Whatever may happen, I’m confident that VFA will continue to be there for me.

We’d like to invite you to ring in the holidays with Venture for America and join us for a movie screening and party to celebrate another great year!

In 2016, we welcomed 170 new Fellows and 13 team members; seven of our Fellow founder teams participated in the VFA Accelerator in Philadelphia; and Generation Startup, a feature film following six of our Detroit Fellows, inspired viewers across the country.
It was a year of immense growth, and we couldn’t have done it without your support! But we’re far from done, and we need your help to continue changing the face of entrepreneurship in America.
Join the VFA Team, supporters, and Fellows for an exclusive screening of Generation Startup from 6:00pm-8:00pm followed by a festive reception with music, hor d’oeuvres, and an open bar of holiday cocktails.
Your donation of $75 or more will allow us to continue to create a world where talented college grads help shape their communities, make a positive impact, and experience the growth, personal development, and learning that come with being an entrepreneur.

Click here to purchase tickets

 Your donation includes a live screening of Generation Startup. After the movie, meet the filmmakers and featured Fellows and unwind and get to know the #vfamily over music, hor d’oervres and an open bar of holiday drinks.
Check out the Generation Startup trailer here.

As 2016 comes to a close, we’re reflecting on some of our best moments from the past year. There are so many — and we don’t like to play favorites — but our 5th annual Summer Celebration was definitely a night to remember!

For those who haven’t joined us in the past, Summer Celebration is our annual gathering of friends and supporters, including leaders in business, tech, media, and more, brought together to celebrate our graduating class of Fellows and our continued commitment to revitalizing cities across the country. The money we raise at Summer Celebration supports our nation’s best and brightest aspiring entrepreneurs as they create jobs in the cities and communities that need them most.
This year on June 2nd, over 500 Venture for America supporters, Fellows, and team members descended on the iconic IAC building in Manhattan. Special guests included Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Co-Founder & CEO of Glamsquad; Neil Capel, Founder & Chairman of Sailthru; Chieh Huang, CEO of Boxed; Betty Liu, news anchor at Bloomberg; Andy Weissman, Partner at Union Square Ventures; Andrew Essex, CEO of Tribeca Enterprises, and many more!
We began the evening with a VIP reception for our event sponsors and kicked off the night with a Johnnie Walker Blue toast to VFA and the evening ahead.

At 7pm the crowd began to file in and enjoyed a full bar, courtesy of Diageo, along with delicious catering by Sonnier & Castle. Many stopped by the gif-generating photo booth on their way to the silent auction table, displaying auction items including a 7 week stay in a villa in Costa Rica, a private Johnnie Walker tasting with a Master of Whiskey, lunch with NBA legend Shane Battier, tickets to a movie premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, and much more!
 
For the second year in a row, attendees had the chance to stroll through the Fellow Founder Lounge to meet some of our Fellows building companies around the country.
The speaking program started off with an exclusive sneak peak of the independent documentary, Generation Startup, which followed 6 of our Fellows building companies in Detroit (check out the trailer here).

VFA CEO & Founder, Andrew Yang, introduced the keynote speakers, Katia Beauchamp, CEO & Co-Founder of Birchbox, and Tom Kartsotis, Founder of Shinola and Fossil, and the moderator, journalist Lee Woodruff. What followed was a lively (and funny) conversation about their journeys building successful companies and what is means to create jobs in America.
Next Max Nussenbaum, 2012 Fellow and CEO and Co-Founder of Castle, talked about his introduction to VFA as a college senior, what it was like to be in the first class of VFA Fellows, and how the support and mentorship of the VFA community has helped him build his company.
The program closed with VFA Board Chair, Sy Jacobs, who announced a donation match challenge from the VFA Board of Directors. The event ended on a high note with a twist from Tom Kartsotis, who pledged a Shinola watch to anyone who donated $500 or more to VFA!
We are so grateful to our partners, new and old, who contributed over $500,000 to support our work. We would’t be where we are today without them!
Keep scrolling for more photos from the event and information on our amazing event sponsors.

Oh… and SAVE THE DATE for Summer Celebration 2017 on June 1st at The Bowery Hotel!