Originally posted by Andrew Yang on Linkedin. 

I am thrilled to announce Venture for America’s new Executive-in-Residence Program! The EIR Program will recruit top managers and leaders from Slack, LinkedIn, and other Silicon Valley companies to work with entrepreneurs around the country for at least one year. It will launch in Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, Philadelphia and other cities this summer.
The EIR program came about because of the passion of one person – Leslie Miley. I met Leslie when he spoke at VFA’s Training Camp in Providence this summer about his experience in the tech industry as a black man (he has worked at Apple, Twitter and now Slack). He and I had lunch together and talked about the big issues. We hit upon the idea of recruiting people like him to help local entrepreneurs succeed and grow their companies. The EIRs would move to New Orleans and other cities for at least one year to bring the resources and expertise of Silicon Valley to markets around the country. They would get a much more real sense of the issues and obstacles that impede these communities, which would influence the direction of innovation over time. Leslie has seen what is possible through his own career and wants to give others a chance to live their values.
With the election as a spur to action, Leslie made the leap. Slack generously agreed to fund Leslie’s leadership of this effort, and they were quickly joined by LinkedIn, Yelp and PayPal. We’re incredibly grateful to these companies for believing in their own people as well as the entrepreneurs in VFA’s 18 cities across the country. I’ve met many of these entrepreneurs and they are exactly the kind of builder you want to see succeed. They and the new EIRs truly embody the mission of Venture for America:
To revitalize American cities and communities through entrepreneurship. 
To enable our best and brightest to create new opportunities for themselves and others.
To restore the culture of achievement to include value-creation, risk and reward, and the common good.
We’ve worked primarily with recent college graduates over the past six years who have accomplished incredible things.  I’m sure that the EIRs will move mountains and make us proud in the months to come! I can’t wait to meet the people who throw their hat in the ring and decide to do something about what’s ailing our country.
If you know someone who you think would be a good EIR candidate, please send them to www.ventureforamerica.org/eirapply Applications for the 2017 EIR Program open on March 1, 2017. For more from Leslie, click here.

When Dan Bloom found himself on the wait list for the fellowship in VFA’s early days, he set his calendar to remind him to email the COO every week to express his passion for the program. Dan’s persistence paid off when he was invited to join the first class of 2012 and got a job at a startup in Cincinnati. In the two years+ that he spent in the city, Dan saw Cincinnati transform and thrive, solidifying his love for his second home. One day Dan received a call from a fellow Fellow, Brian Bosche, who approached him with a business idea that would bring them into the video space. Their original model, which involved renting GoPro cameras to customers and creating their videos, morphed into Slope, a collaboration, workflow, and review and approval tool for producing business content. Dan and Brian were accepted into the Microsoft Ventures accelerator and have been on quite the journey as new founders. Listen to this week’s episode to hear more about a VFA Fellow founded business and how they are going from the little league to the big leagues of software.
Click here to listen.

Every year, Forbes recognizes the entrepreneurs, innovators, and hustlers under 30 who are already changing industries, economies, and lives.
For the second year running, VFA Fellows have made the cut!
Meet Muhga Eltigani ’14 and Sam Roberts ’13, the co-founders of NaturAll Club. The daughter of entrepreneurial immigrants, Muhga’s always had an affinity for the side hustle. During college, she documented her experiments with homemade haircare on YouTube, earning a large and loyal following.
After graduating, Muhga joined VFA and began her career with one of our partner companies in Cleveland. Over the next year, she honed her marketing skills, spent time with the entrepreneurial community, and realized she had a business idea on her hands. Encouraged by the VFA team, she ran a crowdfunding campaign through the VFA Innovation Fund and produced her first batch of products. Soon, NaturAll Club was a full-time job. Meanwhile, Sam developed his R&D skills at a robotics startup in Cleveland, and worked on launching a startup of his own. When his company didn’t pan out, he and Muhga teamed up—as COO, Sam handles NaturAll Club’s complicated operations.
Last summer, Muhga and Sam spent four months in Philadelphia at the VFA Accelerator, where they lived and worked alongside other Fellow founders, gained access to industry experts, bounced ideas off of VFA’s Entrepreneur in Residence, and pitched their business to local investors. With support from the VFA community, they’re building something to be proud of.
Ready to build something? Our final deadline is February 6th.
Apply now!

You might recognize Megan from the interview she did last year about her startup studio, Human Ventures. The very model Megan created for the studio worked for her own idea and today she is working with Sam Gimbel on Clark, an AI assistant for tutors. Megan and Sam were introduced by a mutual friend who realized they were both working on similar projects in the education space. Sam had a tech background but no market for his idea. Megan had the market but was working on her idea through very manual work. Together they made the perfect team. Today they are building a tool for tutors to help them do their jobs sustainably without the headache of administrative work. Whether it’s handling payment, scheduling, or communication with clients, Megan and Sam have spent the last year serving as personal assistants to educators in order to understand the market and grow their product. Check out this week’s episode to learn more about how Clark is poised to transform the private tutoring space and help educators celebrate their side hustles.
Click here to listen.

Originally published by Ashley Meeks ’15 on the Lookfar Blog. 

“If Wall Street is the best money can buy, we’re the best money can’t buy.”— Jason Wu ’15
Gather ’round and let’s talk talent.
Growing a team is simultaneously very difficult and very important. Hiring the right employees can chart a company’s course to future success or doom it to early implosion. Complicating this factor is the fact that very few entrepreneurs have an extensive background in human resources. The result: panicked absorption of industry wisdom, endless coffee-shop interviews, and probably a decent amount of cold sweat.
Fortunately, you’re in New Orleans (or 16 other cities), and you’ve got a direct line to a hiring pool of young, low-cost but highly-qualified developers, designers, PMs, managers, analysts, marketers, salespeople, and all-around hustlers.
It’s called Venture for America. 

What is Venture For America?

You have probably heard of Teach For America – a two-year program in which recent college grads take on teaching positions in challenging school districts. Venture for America takes a similar approach, helping revitalize cities by injecting their economy with young talent. The two-year program is now in 17 metro areas, with more than 300 participating companies.
VFA’s goal is ambitious and two-pronged. First, the program seeks to educate our country’s most promising grads by restoring a culture of value creation as a measurement for achievement and apprenticeship as a means of education. 
Second, by infusing growing ecosystems with outside talent, VFA aims to help budding startup cities – such as New Orleans, Birmingham, and Detroit – establish themselves as new entrepreneurial hubs. With an acceptance rate of 10%, VFA accepts only the most qualified young graduates and provides five weeks of extensive training in hard and soft skills to prepare them for the unique challenges of working at a high-growth startup.
VFA Fellows are grads from the nation’s top schools including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, U Penn, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Brown, Dartmouth, and many more. They are driven by value creation and strive to create opportunities for their communities. Many of them have a desire to become entrepreneurs themselves and so are interested in getting first-hand experience at a young startup. They are self-starters, many having founded a team, club, or company in college, while balancing school, work, internships, and side projects.
 
Most importantly, they have proven themselves to act in a manner that aligns with the VFA credo:
 

My career is a choice that indicates my values

There is no courage without risk

Value creation is how I measure achievement

I will create opportunity for myself and others

I will act with integrity in all things

Fellows possess a range of skills, and have worked as Developers, Hardware Engineers, Product Managers, Business Analysts, Business Developers, Marketers, Managers, Designers, Educators, and many other roles. They work for both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. They have aided in strategic growth, financial planning, event planning, hiring, content creation, and much, much more. If you can think of a distinct business need at a young startup, there’s a pretty good chance that at least one Fellow has filled it.

VFA Fellows in New Orleans

The Big Easy was one of three original VFA cities and remains one of the most sought after in the entire program (for reasons that are obvious to us here at LookFar). Since 2012, over 50 Fellows have been placed at companies in New Orleans. This number includes 19 currently active Fellows and 13 alums who have chosen to remain and work in the city.

Finding Fellows interested in New Orleans has never been a serious challenge. But we want to keep momentum high, both for VFA, and for the New Orleans startup community as a whole.
Truly unique among Southern cities, New Orleans has long proven to be a magnet for young, ambitious transplants. Culture is a huge draw for adventurous VFAs, in addition to the opportunities for social entrepreneurship. These young women and men are looking for compelling positions where they can create real value.
If you’re working with a local startup and are interested in bringing on a Fellow, I’d heavily encourage you to take a look at the bottom of this article to see what you need to do to get the process started.
Fellows have already been doing some incredible things around the city. But don’t take my (admittedly biased) word for it – local companies love their VFAs.

NOLATech Talks

“I am over-the-moon working with our VFA Fellow, Amanda Tien. Three years into our work, I knew we needed to take the next step in how we communicated our story. Amanda stepped in last summer and already spearheaded the re-building of our brand, as well as the overhaul of our website. It is awesome when supporters email to tell you how on-point your newsletter is or that they love your new website. ” – Aaron Walker, Camelback Ventures

“zlien has brought on six VFA Fellows over the past three years, and the company has grown significantly with each new addition. The program sources ambitious and highly capable young professionals who can make an immediate positive impact for any growing company. We’ve had Fellows join each of our sales, marketing, and customer success teams, and each of these teams is in a much better place today as a result of those Fellows. I would highly recommend the VFA program to any growing company.” – Martin Roth, zlien 

“VFA has been an excellent tool for recruiting top talent to rasa.io. We wouldn’t have been able to find qualified people to fill our main compay roles without it. Our Fellows have lead product development, product direction, and project execution as well as worked in software development.” – Christian Britto, rasa.io

Outside the Office

Even beyond their duties at their companies, Fellows are helping guide New Orleans’ progress toward becoming a national startup hub.
City as a Startup (CaaS) is VFA’s Fellow-led conference. Now in its third year, the conference is coming to New Orleans. The conference will take place on March 20th in collaboration with New Orleans Entrepreneurship Week.
This year’s theme is “How do we innovate and drive inclusive growth while honoring the people of New Orleans, past and present?” This has been a hot topic as of late, with Propeller Executive Director Andrea Chen the latest to speak out about racial and income disparities that still permeate the NOLA business community. Speakers and panels of Fellows, entrepreneurs, and city leaders will explore this topic with a keynote anchored by Leslie Miley, former director of engineering at Slack and Twitter.

How to Get Involved

Submit your company between now and April, when pitching and interviews begin. The process includes providing a written description of your company and role(s) available, pitching to and receiving pitches from candidates while evaluating their resumes and bios, phone and Skype interviews, and in-person interviews.
Fellows will begin their five weeks of extensive training in June and July, and most Fellows move and begin their jobs in August.
I, myself am a VFA Fellow, now in my second year with LookFar. After growing up on the Northshore I decided to return to New Orleans to be a part of the economic renaissance that has been blossoming in the past five years. I’m happy to speak with you further to help you determine if a VFA Fellow might be a good fit for your company. Email me at ameeks@lookfar.com.

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

Looking Back on 2016

The year of 2016 was transformative for me, with many impactful events throughout. It started off on January 1st with a breakup, the first girl I’d loved. A few months later my Grandpa died, the first time I lost a family member. In May I graduated from Brown and left a few days later to travel Europe, my first time truly outside of the United States. From there I went to Venture For America’s training camp where I was surrounded by 170+ incredible Fellows, the first time I felt a greater sense of purpose in life. And after Training Camp I began atLeverege, my first real job and the launch of my career.
The year of 2016 was marked by many significant firsts for me. Some were incredible, some were terrible, but each of these firsts shared a common trait. After each of these events, I found many of my preconceptions shattered. Time and time again, I looked back and wondered how I had been so ignorant and naïve, how I hadn’t seen things as I did after each event.
Reflecting on this past year, I’m struck by how much I’ve learned and grown as a person. But it’s this very learning and growth that make me realize how little I truly know. If I look back on a single year and wonder how I could have once thought so differently, what will it be like in another year? In 5 years? 10?

My New Year’s Resolution

As such, my resolution for 2017 is to bring a beginner’s mind to everything I do. I resolve to remind myself that there’s so much that I don’t know, that even my strongest beliefs can change and should be questioned. I’ve come to believe that this beginner’s mindset is one of the most important things to cultivate. When we think we know everything, when we choose not to try new things, when we don’t bring curiosity and openness to our everyday life, that’s when we stagnate. That’s when we stop learning and growing and moving forward as human beings.
However, a resolution is nothing without concrete actions and steps. So to achieve this resolution, here’s what I’ll be doing this year:

Resolution Action Plan

Meditating 30 minutes per day.

Meditation is a habit that I’ve been developing over the past few months and will be critical in cultivating a beginner’s mind. Meditation provides the foundation, it trains my mind to notice when it’s drifted into certain patterns of thinking, to notice when I’m feeling too certain about something or resistant to something new.

Try new things/be uncomfortable. 

I think that a significant barrier to cultivating a beginner’s mind is the fear of being out of my comfort zone. It’s so easy to do what I know and not push myself. By intentionally putting myself into new situations or experiences, I’ll learn to push past discomfort. I’ll also learn what being a beginner is like, so I can recognize that state of mind and bring it to other experiences too.
My first step was starting CrossFit on January 2nd. Already I’ve been humbled and I’ve seen how much I have to learn. I love it.

Read 5 hours a week.

Many of the things that I’ve come to learn about myself and the world over this past year have been things I’ve heard for years. For whatever reason, I simply didn’t believe the wisdom until I’d experienced it myself. This has given me a profoundly deeper appreciation for the teachings and insights of others.
Books are an amazing way to draw on the knowledge and experience of brilliant people. Books force me to think, to remember how much I don’t know, and to challenge my opinions. Reading is the metaskill.
I choose 5 hours per week because it’s not an unrealistic amount, a mere hour per weekday, but over the course of a year that’s over 10 full days of reading and many books read.

Quarterly Day of Reflection

Once every 13 weeks I’ll take an entire day, free of any obligations, to sit down and reflect on everything that’s happened since the last reflection. I did this for the first time recently and it was an incredible experience. These days of reflection allow me to evaluate where I am and where I want to be. I’ll be able to examine how successful I’ve been in cultivating a beginner’s mind and make changes as need be.
I’ve learned that year-long goals are difficult to sustain. We start off working hard at that goal but lose initiative in the middle of the year, only reinvigorated when the end of the year approaches and we realize we haven’t met our goals. By breaking up my year into quarters, my timeline remains long enough to achieve significant returns but short enough to keep me focused. And if something isn’t working I can fix it without waiting a full year to make the necessary changes.

2017 and Beyond

Overall, I’m so appreciative of the 23 years I’ve lived so far. I’m grateful for my wonderful family, for the inspiring Fellows of Venture For America, for the awesome team at Leverege, and for too much more to list here. 2016 was a transformative year and I’m so excited to find out what 2017 will bring. Happy New Year!

A few months ago we heard from Charlie Kroll about his career and his new venture. This week he joins us again with his co-founder, Sallie Krawcheck, to talk about Ellevest, a company that is redefining investing for women. When Sallie first conceived of the idea for Ellevest she had no desire to bring on a co-founder. When a few people in her network encouraged Sallie to meet with Charlie, she was doubtful that the connection would be fruitful. What she found in Charlie was someone who understood the fintech and startup space and, in her own words, is a stress absorber. Operating with the understanding that the lack of appropriate product offerings are the reason women invest less than men, Sallie and Charlie have set out to have an impact on women and their families by trying to level the financial playing field. Download this week’s episode to learn more about this dynamic duo and why the gender investing gap costs everyone, not just women.
Click here to listen