Coming out of college at Duke, I studied Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering with the intention of designing medical devices as a career path. It seemed only natural to me at the time given my working experience with Stryker and the exciting process of building tools that can meaningfully impact people’s lives. 

However, that summer I ended up interning for a startup called VersaMe, which had created a wearable word-counting device for babies that promoted early language and neural development. It was my first time working at a startup and I fell in love with the creative and fast-paced nature of the day-to-day as well as the close team dynamic, not to mention the growth that came with building a company let alone a single product. It was during my time at VersaMe that I learned about VFA (given one of the employees at the time was a Fellow) and realized that this Fellowship would be the perfect way to pivot into entrepreneurship. 

After applying and getting into VFA, I immediately felt a sense of belonging with the incredible community of ambitious, like-minded, empathetic, and socially conscious individuals who all were in some way shape, or form aiming to utilize entrepreneurship as a lever to drive societal change. I still have fond memories of Training Camp in 2017 where we spent six weeks together in Rhode Island bonding across shared interests and values while learning important entrepreneurial skills. I’m very thankful to be a part of the VFAm – which continues to be an integral part of my personal and professional networks – and this community in many ways was my inspiration to one day start my own company. 

Post-Training Camp, I spent the majority of my Fellowship years in Philadelphia as the first growth hire at a company called Roundtrip Health, which had built a healthcare transportation platform to ensure patients get to and from their appointments and not miss out on their medical care. It was truly an exhilarating journey being able to drive better patient outcomes with each ride we coordinated, and I saw the company grow from a small team in a WeWork office to one of the fastest-growing companies in Philadelphia with five times the number of employees in a few years that generated millions in revenue.

Then during COVID, as is typical of many VFA Fellows, I started searching for interesting side projects outside of work and reconnected with one of my good friends, Jaya Pokuri, whom I had met in college. He and I were in similar places in our careers having worked for startups, and realized we shared a vision and passion for two spaces in particular: healthcare and data. After weeks of brainstorming and working through our potential ideas, we settled on creating a sophisticated sales intelligence platform that uses AI to help healthtech companies sell more effectively to healthcare providers. We even used the VFA SpaT challenge as a way to de-risk our business idea and systematically work through customer discovery.

Finally, in late 2022, Jaya and I decided to take the plunge and go full-time with the business which we decided to name Bonfire Analytics. Since then, it has been a whirlwind of a journey as we launched our product, graduated from the leading enterprise accelerator in Alchemist as one of the top companies, landed several paying customers, and raised substantial funding from high-value angel investors, acclaimed venture capital funds, as well as VFA. We’re grateful to be here but more excited for what’s to come so we can continue to make the VFAm proud! 

As a graduating senior from Arizona State University, I thought my professional journey would follow the same path as my peers. Get a job at a notable corporation and then work up the corporate ladder. While this was the “safe” option, I wanted to dedicate my time to something bigger than myself. Building off of my passion for entrepreneurship I joined VFA and set my sights on Training Camp in Detroit. 

Entering Training Camp there was one prevailing feeling – anxiousness. I knew no one, had no idea what to expect, and had never spent extended time in Detroit. My fears almost immediately evaporated as I felt camaraderie with my VFA Class despite our vastly different backgrounds. What struck me was I didn’t have to explain “why” I had decided to do this. I had spent the previous semester explaining to all of my friends, family, and professors what the program was and why I had decided to take the uncertain route. Instead, every conversation at Training Camp began with a shared understanding which allowed me to foster deeper connections. 

While at Training Camp it was tremendous to hear from so many amazing speakers who were deep subject matter experts and shared knowledge from their experiences. One of the most profound speakers was Lorenzo Gomez who shared learnings from his career. The best way I can summarize his wisdom is in two points.

• First, find your support system, or as he coined “personal board of directors” to help you in your journey.
• Second, life is unexpected so take opportunities when they come.

It was what I needed to hear to reframe how I approached this next phase of life. 

Looking ahead, I’m excited to start my Fellowship in Birmingham this fall. While living in a new city and taking on the challenges of building a startup seemed daunting at first, Training Camp showed me I have a village of supporters behind me. I can’t wait to look back in two years and see how far we’ve come.

 

Are you interested in learning more about Venture For America? Read all about the Fellow Experience, schedule time to speak with a recruiter, or start your application for the Class of 2024 today!

Hello again VFA Community!

It’s so full circle (or I should say half circle) of me to be writing an update on my Venture For America Fellow experience. I recently completed Redux (a program for Fellows are their one year mark), participated in SPaT, and attended the Rise Retreat at Wayne State University!

Last year I wrote about being nervous to attend Training Camp, my extremely positive experience post-Training Camp, and my goal to visit all 13 VFA cities before the end of my Fellowship. Before attending Redux weekend this year, I was anything but nervous; I was thrilled to get to see all my fellow Fellows again and reunite with those I had not seen in about a year. Of course, I did get about halfway to my goal by visiting six cities in my first year. 

• I live in Kansas City. 1.
• I went to Birmingham for a Fellow-led event called Bamasgiving. 2. 
• I traveled to St. Louis for a work trip. 3. 
• I flew to Baltimore and then drove Philadelphia with some other Fellows to attend Philly Phormal, another Fellow-led event. 4. 5. 
• And I went to Detroit for Training Camp and Redux! 6. 

I still have a long way to go, but I’m hopeful that I will be able to visit the rest of the cities before the end of June 2024. I hope to be able to give you an update at the end of my two years to report on if I accomplished this goal. But for now, let’s chat about all things Redux weekend! 

Redux was a great opportunity to get a refresher course on the basics of entrepreneurship and I believe the programming really helped energize some Fellows to start their own businesses. We had sessions on startup financing, managing individuals within your organization, legal tips for startups, and general business hacks. I know people were taking some diligent notes and trying to absorb all the information to get a general idea of how to start their own ventures. That is a part of my long term goal, so it was great to be able to understand some of those basics. 

This programming was especially helpful when it came to SPaT (Side-Project-a-Thon) during the next few days. I participated in SPaT with two other 2022 Fellows, Solomon Asad and Mark Bradley. We had the idea of revamping startup pitch decks with the use of AI to help entrepreneurs pitch investors more effectively. This idea was brewing in my brain for some time now, so SPaT was the perfect opportunity to get some concrete feedback on the business premise. Although we did not end up making it to the final round of the competition, it was extremely helpful to have dedicated time to write down the core function of our business, especially with the high-speed working culture we all have in our day-to-day. 

My reunion experience concluded with the Rise retreat where I was able to get together with fellow co-leads for both Antha Prerna and the VFAsians Rise groups. We had dedicated time to discuss DEI within VFA and how we play a pivotal role in creating a community where members of our groups are celebrated. We also were able to outline some goals we have for the upcoming year to further engagement within and between both groups.

All three programming events – Redux, SPaT, and Rise Retreat – have really got me hyped for the rest of my Fellowship experience. I can’t wait to see what year number two holds.