Since its first cohort in 2012, Venture For America (VFA) has championed entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic growth across the nation. As of August 6, 2024, VFA has ceased its operations. While this marks the end of an era, it also provides an opportunity to reflect on the extraordinary accomplishments and lasting impact that we have achieved together.

Since our founding, VFA has empowered over 1,600 Fellows to launch their careers, make meaningful contributions, and transform communities. Through the dedication of our Fellows and Alumni, more than 375 successful startups have been launched, nearly $1 billion in capital raised, and over 950 partner companies have benefited from the talents of our Fellows. Our work has spanned over 20 cities, contributing to the revitalization and economic growth of communities across the country.

The true legacy of Venture For America lies in the vibrant, connected community we’ve built. The relationships formed here have resulted in co-founders, colleagues, investors, and lifelong friendships. This community will continue to thrive, carrying forward the VFA spirit of entrepreneurship, innovation, and collaboration. The VFA Fellow and Alumni Community welcome any outreach at vfaaab@gmail.com.

As we navigate the wind-down of VFA’s operations, a small transition team will remain in place to ensure that the organization’s closure is handled with care. The Board of Directors will also explore strategic restructuring options, with the hope that VFA’s mission may continue in a new form in the future. For any and all inquiries on VFA itself, please reach out to vfacommunity@ventureforamerica.org.  

We extend our deepest gratitude to our Fellows, Alumni, staff, partners, and supporters. Your unwavering dedication, hard work, and passion have been the cornerstone of VFA’s success.

Thank you for being part of this incredible journey.

— The Venture For America Team and Board of Directors

As long as I can remember, I wanted to be an entrepreneur. My parents are entrepreneurs, my grandparents are entrepreneurs- even my great-grandmother led a school. I almost didn’t have a choice. My parents did not believe in giving an allowance so while other kids asked their parents for money, I started businesses to make money. I started my first business at just six years old. It was a bakery that supported my entire family until the pandemic when we chose to close our doors. As an adult, I still wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I was less interested in making cupcakes.

When I went to college at Duke University, I decided to be a psych major. I thought that I would go on to get my master’s, then a doctorate, then return to my hometown and support troubled kids with my own practice in D.C. After taking psych 101, I realized I needed a new dream. Psychology was not for me. I went from the very stereotypically focused freshman with a plan to the stereotypically confused freshman trying to figure out what they want to do in life.

D.C. public school children have to wear uniforms, so I had to build a new wardrobe once I got to college. I started shopping every weekend and discovered I loved buying clothes. I even got a job just so I could afford to buy more clothes. I fell in love with fashion. I started designing, modeling, styling- anything in fashion. I tried it all and I was self-taught! The very first piece I designed and made was for a friend I was styling. I had a specific vision and could not find it in stores, so I just made it. I knew fashion was the next step for me.

Now, Duke does not have a fashion major, but they do have Program II which is the opportunity to create your own major. With Program II, you cannot just major in “Fashion” or “Fashion Design,” you have to have a deeper theoretical question so I started digging into the “dark” side of the fashion industry. This is when I learned about fast fashion and its negative impacts on people and the environment. I used Program II to create the major, “Intersectional Sustainability in the Fashion Industrial Complex: Production & Consumption.” Through this course of study, I saw how sustainable fashion is not accessible. The people most negatively affected by fast fashion have the least access to the solution, sustainable fashion. From that point, I decided I wanted to spend the rest of my life figuring out how to make sustainable fashion more accessible for everyone.

After graduating college, I started my Venture For America Fellowship working for Endeavor. Endeavor is a global nonprofit that selects and supports high-growth startups to create flywheels of entrepreneurship outside of the U.S. coasts. At Endeavor, I learned about the world of technology startups and saw the opportunities for revamping sustainable fashion. Integration of tech has helped so many other sectors, so why not fashion? This was the birth of The Clothing Library.

At its core, The Clothing Library borrows the simple ideas of the sharing economy. It’s a library, but instead of renting books, you rent clothes. From eco-friendly washing methods to local delivery, every aspect of The Clothing Library is built with sustainability in mind. Rented garments travel miles, not states, reducing transportation emissions and allowing our customers to support their local communities. Even further, we are secondhand first. We source our inventory exclusively from local resellers, thrift stores, and consignment stores which is better for the environment, cheaper for our business model, and allows our customers access to one-of-a-kind inventory.

For me, The Clothing Library is not just about building a business, it’s about reshaping an entire industry and rethinking our relationship with clothing. It is hard for sustainable fashion to compete in a world where fast fashion is more convenient, cheaper, and trendier. We need solutions that help even the scale. As Anne Marie Bonneau famously said, “We don’t need a handful of people doing [sustainability] perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” I don’t believe in shaming people into being sustainable. This is why with The Clothing Library, we offer unlimited item swaps, effectively granting our customers access to an expansive wardrobe. I believe we can still have nice things and enjoy our lives, but considering the environment should always be at the forefront. For this Earth Month and beyond, let’s do sustainability imperfectly. 

Our diverse Fellow Classes mean that Founders are able to incorporate their lived experience into their work in meaningful ways. Whether it’s launching a high-growth VC-backed company, taking over a small business, or building a lifestyle brand, we want to highlight all of the ways our Fellows explore entrepreneurship. Stay tuned for a series of profiles on Founders and their journeys.

We spoke with Class of 2019 Alum and Fellow Founder, Sarah Taylor, about pivoting to startups after working in the public sector, ideating her business through our Validation Challenge, and taking the leap to work on her business, Wondering Soul Yoga, full-time.

What led you to apply for Venture For America?

I’m a big planner and goal-setter. When I graduated from Davidson College in 2016, I didn’t immediately apply to Venture For America. At that time I planned to get a PhD in Mideast Politics, so I set out to use the next three years to take the GRE and go to graduate school. 

Contrary to that original plan, for those first three years post-graduation, I tried my hand at a bunch of different career paths. I interned at the Middle East Institute in D.C.; I worked at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. I did take the GRE and the LSAT. I served as Legislative Aide at the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate. I was lucky to have some amazing, inspiring bosses and leadership in those three years. 

In the back of my mind, however, I started to think seriously about the VFA Fellowship. I knew that:

• I wanted to learn how to start my own company and make a difference in my corner of the world. Contrary to my original assumptions after college, nonprofits and government were not the only way to accomplish this goal. 
• I wanted to work at a fast-paced, agile, and growing startup company, but I didn’t know how to network my way into one because my network at the time was so much more in the government, nonprofit, and education spaces.
• My time window was almost running out to apply and get into VFA.

I applied to VFA because I needed a bridge. I needed: the network, the training, and the inspiration VFA could provide to make the leap from government to a for-profit startup company. I took the leap and applied for the Fellowship in 2019 and landed at an insurtech startup in my hometown not long after. 

How has your time in the Fellowship or resources offered to Fellows and Alumni helped with your career?

I created my business, Wondering Soul Yoga, where I 1) run international yoga retreats, 2) teach corporate mindfulness and movement classes, and 3) offer marketing consulting services because of VFA. In December 2020 – deep COVID times if you’ll remember – VFA hosted ValChal, their validation challenge for current Fellows. 

On a lark, I pitched my idea, which I think at the time I called “International Yoga Adventures,” because it combined my love for and belief in the power of yoga and meditation with my extensive travel experience and language expertise in French and Arabic. The market research I did during ValChal along with fellow 2019 Fellow, Emilie Eros, confirmed my assumptions that my target demographic wanted and would pay for an international yoga retreat. Over the following six months, I conducted dozens more market research interviews and honed my vision for what would become my first yoga retreat in Morocco in October 2022.

None of this would have happened without VFA and its entrepreneurial programming that inspired me to think outside the box for what a career should look like.

My Timeline: 

December 2020 – VFA ValChal: ideation + validation

January-July 2021 – Market Research

July-December 2021 – 

• Developed itinerary and programming for a Morocco retreat. Identified a retreat co-lead from my professional network.
• Established Wondering Soul Yoga, LLC

January 2022 – Launched Morocco yoga retreat signups for October 2022

What are some of the major highlights you experienced throughout the Fellowship and your career?

This is going to sound like a weird highlight. 10/10 recommend getting laid off. In February 2023 my VFA company, which I was still working for 3.5 years later, did a Reduction in Force, which affected my role. I was lucky to receive a few months of severance pay. 

I needed a push out the door. I had talked for years about starting my own company but hadn’t done it, hadn’t done it, hadn’t done it. I kept finding excuses to stay at my full-time job a little bit longer.

Those lean months – from February 2023 to August 2023 – gave me the runway to expand into corporate yoga, fill my Morocco retreat for 2023, and launch a marketing consulting business for other solopreneurs and small business owners. In that time I scaled my monthly revenue to the point where I had almost replaced the income I was making at my full-time job.

Caveat: In a perfect world, before you go full-time on your own company, I’d recommend lining up enough monthly income to replace your pre-tax, W2 paycheck. But, when life gives you lemons … start a wellness + travel company.

How do you use the VFA Credos in your daily life?

Integrity in all things. 

I am – after years of self-exploration, meditation, and a lot of yoga (and therapy) – at ease with who I am. I am comfortable in the person I am, the work I do, and the space I take up in this world. I am honest and direct and I attract clients who share those values too. 

Women (my retreats are all women right now) come on retreat with me to dive deep. Over the course of our eight days, we explore a new country together, which provides us with the background for deep, inner work into the person they are or want to be, the lives they want to live, and the space they want to take up in this world. 

What I get to do as “work” is so incredibly meaningful and important to me. I never thought work would feel like anything except a chore, a clock-in-and-out transactional relationship. This is so much more.

What’s something others should know about entrepreneurship or business?

You need to be incredibly self-motivated, organized, and strategic to be an entrepreneur. So figure out the problem that you can’t stop thinking about and align on the conditions you need in place to be your most productive.

Each day, when I start my work day, my schedule may have a few client meetings or a yoga class to teach on it. More often than not, however, my calendar is wide open. Much of the communication I hold with my clients is on Slack or email with only a few standing meetings each week. Compare that with my 9-5 corporate structure prior to February 2023 where I was in meetings pretty much all day. At the top of each day, no one tells me what to do or focus on. This is both freeing and overwhelming. At 9 am I look down the barrel at my wide open day and it’s all on me to literally create something of value that day. If I don’t produce, no one will. I find this pressure motivates me more than it paralyzes me. 

Any big goal like “start my own company” is going to feel overwhelming. The way I approach goal setting and accomplishing my goals (big and small) is: I take a goal and work back a year, two years, and determine the very smallest step I can take towards that goal today, and go from there. These little actions add up to progress over time until I’ve really created something tangible. So, for example, when I need to create all of my yoga classes for retreat – I teach between 8-10 classes a week – I start by journaling about one day and craft a theme for that day. The rest of the themes, the movements, the journaling prompts, the dharma talk to accompany each theme will come later. One yoga theme? That I can accomplish right now.

I’m a solopreneur right now. It’s just me. If you’re a solopreneur like me or are at an early stage and don’t have any employees yet, you know the success of your business rests entirely on you. You need to take care of your mind and body so you can dream, create, organize, and execute on your vision. No one else will create a business exactly like yours just like no one can take care of you except for you. You have something valuable to add to your niche, to the conversation, just by being you!

Every day I have five non-negotiable habits I make time for to take care of myself, my mind, and my body.

• I meditate for 15 minutes.
• I sleep seven to eight hours.
• I eat breakfast.
• I move my body, be it a walk, run, yoga class, or something else.
• I get outside.

What makes Wondering Soul Yoga unique?

Look, there are a lot of yoga retreats out there, including yoga retreats in Morocco! Why would someone travel halfway across the world to do yoga with me in Morocco? 

Here’s what sets me, my yoga teaching, and my retreats apart:

I am experienced.

• I have done yoga for 16 years and taught yoga for seven years.
• I lived in Morocco for a year and have now run two successful Morocco yoga retreats.
• I speak French and Arabic. 

My retreat is about so much more than just yoga or just travel. 

My co-lead on retreat, Courtney, is an expert in Morocco, Islam, and international human rights law. Each day Courtney leads us in discussions about the political and social issues that matter the most to Morocco and Moroccans. 

I approach yoga as a life-long practice. 

I meet my students where they are. Yoga is not about achieving a specific set of extremely challenging poses. The mental and emotional benefits of yoga are so much more interesting, so much more important to me.

I am staunchly anti-diet. Yoga is not in any way shape or form for me about losing weight. I approach yoga from a healthy, holistic mindset. I’m not here to sell my students on detoxes, diets, or cleanses which cause our bodies more harm than good. I am here to make my students feel loved and accepted in the bodies and abilities they have.

At the end of the day, my retreat participants come with me to Morocco because they resonate with the carefully curated retreat I’ve developed and they like me as a person and as a yoga instructor!

What are some of the main challenges you faced when building your business?

Before I sold my first ever spot on my first Morocco retreat in 2022 I wasn’t sure that people would actually pay me thousands of dollars to take them to Morocco to do yoga together. 

I mean, based on my market research, theoretically, there was market demand for a yoga retreat in Morocco, but going from zero sales to one sale was daunting.

For whatever reason, in my career up until that point I had always told myself that I wasn’t a salesperson. That seemed like a thing that other people (mostly men) did, not me. The perfectionist in me hates being bad at things, and I was pretty sure that I was going to fail at selling my retreats. 

How did I know that I was going to be bad at something if I didn’t even try?

The way I made it work for me was I framed sales as a conversation, an opportunity to get to know someone better, to learn from them about their pain points, and have them explain in their own words how a yoga retreat in Morocco would benefit them. Each ‘sales call’ suddenly became more interesting and became an opportunity to learn more than a high-stakes phone call where the only positive outcome was closing the deal.

What’s something that’s on the horizon for you that you’re really excited about? 

Sign-ups for my third annual yoga retreat in Morocco this fall (Sept. 29 through Oct. 6) opened in January!

I’m also starting to plan for a new retreat country for either spring 2025 or spring 2026. 

I can’t wait to share more with my audience when I have wrapped up my market research and have some decisions made on that front!

What advice do you have for future Fellows and startup leaders?

Play to your strengths. You’re already good at and enjoy things. Lean into your strengths in order to stand out not only by your skill set but your infectious joy and optimism around the work you do. Your customers/clients will want to work with you because of it!

Focus on your why. Do you want to start a business but you’re not sure what kind of business you’d start? What’s that question or problem you think about constantly, obsess over even?

For me, I was already constantly thinking about the mental, physical, and emotional benefits of yoga. About my ‘why’. About my purpose. About how to live a meaningful life. About how to travel intentionally and meaningfully. In addition to making me stronger and more flexible, yoga makes me a better, kinder, and more thoughtful person. I literally would not be the same person without yoga in my life. I think about living a good, meaningful life through yoga and travel literally every single day.

There will be days you can’t stand your own business and you’re second-guessing your abilities and you don’t know what to do next. So you better have the foundation laid of obsessing about, and loving solving your exact problem.

I recently had the pleasure of attending VFA Training Camp, and I can honestly say that it was one of the most inspiring and unforgettable experiences of my life. Training Camp provided a unique opportunity to hone my skills, learn new strategies, and bond with my fellow Fellows.

From the moment I arrived at the camp, I was struck by the sense of camaraderie and community that permeated the atmosphere. Everyone was there for the same reason, and we all shared a common goal: to make a better tomorrow.

Another aspect of Training Camp that I found inspiring was the guest speakers. We were fortunate enough to hear from some of the most successful experts in their respective fields. The speakers applied learned concepts into new frameworks, which allowed me to view networking, priority management, and self-care in a whole different light!

The discussion that most stood out to me was Lorenzo Gomez’s talk on creating your “Personal Board of Directors.” His presentation taught us the value of creating a strong network of people around you for success.

Everyone has different strengths and unique journeys to get to VFA, but we were all sitting at the same table. We recognized that we needed to rely on each other’s approach to meet our team’s needs. This not only helped us improve our skills, but it also gave us a sense of ownership and pride in our collective effort.

But perhaps the most inspiring aspect of Training Camp was the sense of accomplishment that we all felt at the end of each day. We worked hard, pushed ourselves, and saw the results of our efforts. We were a team, and we were all in it together. And when we finally left the camp, we knew that we had not only improved our skills as young professionals, but we had also formed lifelong friendships and memories that we would cherish forever.

In conclusion, my Training Camp experience was truly inspiring and great. It allowed me to grow as an entrepreneur, learn from others, and push myself to new heights. I am grateful for the experience, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to improve their skills, bond with their teammates, and be inspired by the power of hard work and determination.

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.

 

Venture For America’s vision is to create an accessible and inclusive future of entrepreneurship in America. Becoming a full-time founder poses a financial burden and risk that many early-stage founders are unable to take. Our Accelerator is an opportunity for Fellow Founders to more comfortably take big leaps towards launching and growing their businesses. Ultimately, this program provides the capital, connections, and coaching to equip Founders to solve their most pressing venture problems.

Fellow Founders can join the Accelerator after they’ve completed our two-year Fellowship and participated in programming: ideation sessions to identify problems and brainstorm solutions; validation challenges to validate their product or idea; and pitch opportunities to further validate their business in the market.

What is the Accelerator?

For three months, Venture For America offers a zero-equity program that provides a $2,500 monthly business stipend, access to a network of peers, mentors, subject matter experts, and investors, and a chance to win up to $10,000 in prize money at an in-person Demo Day in Baltimore.

The Accelerator focuses on providing participants with the networks and resources to remove a key barrier in one to two of these primary areas: product, growth, operations, legal, and finance. With the assistance of an entrepreneur-in-residence and advisor, Fellow Founders will be able to identify areas of growth, develop an actionable plan to address issues, and leverage the VFA network when needed. Each of the 12 weeks allows for flexibility, but holds a rough structure that requires between two to four hours of programmed time and weekly 1:1s with an EIR, and time with an advisor as needed.

At its core, the Accelerator is how the Venture Growth department at VFA looks at supporting all Fellow Founders. Venture Growth’s aim is to respond to the following question, “what does it look like for VFA to serve as the friends and family round for those that do not have one?” This is done by ensuring an equitable and inclusive allocation of financial, social, and intellectual capital. This is done through our pillars: Capital, Connections, and Coaching. By investing directly, providing venture support, and direct coaching we work to make sure every Founder is equipped to build their next venture.

This Year’s Cohort

After receiving an unprecedented number of applications, and an intensive selection process, we’re excited to announce our 2023 cohort of six companies:

Carbon Compost | Louis Mennel ‘19, Pittsburgh – Carbon Compost makes it easy for environmentally conscious people to recycle food waste without the hassle of managing their own backyard pile.

PoGo | Arabia Simeon ‘21, Detroit – PoGo’s mission is to empower the next generation of voters to make informed voting decisions.

Cozy Cabbage | Claire Kim ‘21, St. Louis – Kimchi for everyone. Healthy made Tasty.

RE: LINK | Mamadou Ndiaye Jr. ‘18, Philadelphia – RE: LINK helps creatives build communities of collectors and profit from the resale of their works through Timbuktoo, a collectibles marketplace..

Pangu | Sara Chen ‘20, Detroit – Apparel that celebrates women of color in outdoor spaces by bridging the gap between aesthetics and function.

The Clothing Library | Milagros de Souza ‘21, Birmingham – The Clothing Library provides high-quality, sustainable clothing rental on a localized model helping people save money, the environment, and space in their closets.

Stay Connected

Stay tuned to Venture For America’s social channels for more information and updates on this year’s Accelerator cohort, and for more info about Demo Day on Friday, Oct. 6 from Baltimore.

In June 2023, Venture For America held the first of three immersion trips to Tulsa for our Fellow Founders. These trips are designed to give these Fellow Founders the chance to build relationships with local stakeholders and other ecosystem support organizations, pitch to win $5,000 in grant financing, and increase their brand visibility.

We spoke with one of those Fellow Founders, Max Polec, about his experience.

Tell us about your trip! Was there a memorable moment from the week?

The top moment for me was the VFA Founders Pitch Competition. We had eight Fellow Founders in total and it was so exciting to be able to talk about my startup alongside my peers. Even though the event was branded as a competition, it felt much more like a celebration of one another.

    

How are you feeling about everything now and what are you looking forward to next?

I had three goals for this trip:

• Get a feel for Tulsa as a city.
• Meet and network with key leaders in the Tulsa entrepreneurial ecosystem.
• Meet and network with Fellow Founders.

I am happy to share that I was able to do all three during the program. I was meeting most of the other Fellow Founders for the first time in Tulsa. We came to Tulsa as strangers and by the end of the week, we were friends.

I also got to meet with several leaders running various programs to support entrepreneurs in Tulsa and have exciting conversations in progress about getting plugged in to help out!

Who would you recommend the Tulsa Immersion Trip for?

I’d recommend this trip to anyone who is interested in any or all of the following:

• You are considering a move to Tulsa.
• You are looking to network with others who may become future mentors, investors, and customers.
• You are looking to build community with other Fellow Founders.
• You are looking to get feedback on your pitch and have a chance to win some capital to help you along the way.

About Max

Max Polec is a 2017 Venture For America Alumni who did his Fellowship in Birmingham, Alabama. Max is the Founder of The CEO Strategy. The CEO Strategy helps first-time founders illuminate blind spots and identify business growth opportunities by providing founder-first coaching, tested with 200+ entrepreneurs so that you can be a better entrepreneur in 30 minutes.

In 1953 Joseph Stalin died, the first colorized television set went on sale in the US for a whopping $1,175, and, in Cleveland Ohio, my mother and her twin sister were born to a woman who had recently immigrated to the states from Puerto Rico.

The woman, Ada, was barely making ends meet working as a housekeeper. Her husband had left her and moved back to his home in Spain, and the closest family she had were in California- an unreachable distance for her at the time. Faced with the impossible barriers of language, racism, sexism, and poverty she knew she had little chance to give her girls the “American Dream” she had hoped for.

Meanwhile, not far away, a pair of sisters who were first-generation Irish Americans comforted one another. They had both been married for some time and both were devastated to find growing a family was not as easy as they had believed. Neither couple had much money, but the sisters still felt lucky. They lived in shoebox-sized houses a block away from one another. Their husbands had both made it back from the most recent war and gotten factory jobs in the city. All that was missing was a child of their own.

A friend of the sisters lived in the apartment complex where Ada worked. Ada confided that she loved her girls but knew they deserved more than she could give. The friend knew how badly the sisters wanted children and helped to set up a meeting between Ada and the two couples. Sarah, the woman who became my Grandma, and Richard, my Grandpa, took one look at my mother and fell in love. The same was true for Ann and Thomas with my aunt.

“I want the fat one,” my grandpa declared and that was that.

My mother and my aunt found new homes and Ada was given enough money to support herself as she traveled closer to her family in California. To this day, I am not sure how legal this adoption was, but it was never challenged and my mother, Nancy, and her twin, Marilyn, grew up in Euclid, one block away from one another. They knew they were twins and were adopted but didn’t know much about their birth family.

They went on to have families of their own and in the early ‘90s decided they wanted to learn more about their heritage. They went on a fact-finding journey that led them to dozens of new siblings, cousins, extended family, and to Ada. They learned that their dark, curly hair came from their grandmother on their mother’s side. They learned that none of the women in their family were taller than 5’5”. They learned that tortillas really do need to be warmed up before you eat them and that sometimes being scolded is another way to say, “I love you”. Still, they both had their own lives, and little effort to stay in touch was made after this initial visit.

When people look at me, they almost never realize that half of who I am came to me from Spain and Puerto Rico. I inherited my dad’s fair skin and my Grandma always said she saw the map of Ireland stamped across my face in freckles. She swore I somehow got them from her. I am acutely aware of the privilege I have been afforded because I pass so easily as white. I am also aware of the incredible culture that I missed out on being a part of. When I think about my identity I recognize that, like many of us, some of the most important parts of me are invisible.

Recently, my mother did an Ancestry DNA test. She has reconnected with the family she met decades ago and found new family she had never known existed. A few months ago she sent me a text with an old photo of a great-aunt. The woman was short, curvy, with beautiful dark hair and a giant smile- with dimples exactly like mine.

My wife looked at the photo, looked at me, and said something like, “Oh! So this is where you come from!

”Now, when I face a form that asks my ethnicity, and I feel insecure as I check the “Hispanic/Latino” box, I remember that moment and that family member I never got to meet.

Yes. That’s where I come from. I just took the long way to get there.

 

Ani Solomon is the Manager of Recruitment with Venture For America. Prior to joining Venture For America, Ani spent most of her career in Student Affairs, creating programs and training opportunities focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Ani is passionate about relationship building and organizational development.

As a first-generation Mexican-American, my identity has never felt defined. This is not uncommon for those of us who struggle to never be enough of either identity and find ourselves straddling the middle nuances trying to find our place. My parents immigrated separately to the United States in the late 1970’s and immersed themselves in American culture and fell in love with this country and all it had to offer. We grew up speaking both English and Spanish, belting out the greatest hits by Vicente Fernandez while also knowing all the lyrics to the Spice Girls’ Wannabe. We celebrated Christmas with ham and pie but also menudo or pozole and pan dulce. Being Mexican-American is an honor and a privilege but that doesn’t exempt it from having its pros and cons, which are sometimes one and the same. 

In school, kids always saw me as being “too Mexican”. I was a girl who was one of maybe six non-white students in my school. I was the girl who spoke Spanish, listened to Mexican music, and went to Mexico to visit family. To those kids, I was not “American” enough despite the fact that I love hip hop and rock music as well or that I also celebrate the 4th of July. 

When I do visit Mexico, to my family, I am too American! They think that because I was born and raised in the United States, speak English, and celebrate the 4th of July, I am not Mexican enough. My Spanish was never perfect enough, my style was too American. As my siblings and I climbed the education ladder, we felt much more separated by our Mexican family and friends, Qué se creen mucho – words we always hated hearing. 

Long have I never felt enough of one or the other. Selena Quintanilla’s dad said it best in the 1997 film, Selena, “we have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time! It’s exhausting!” Truer words have never been spoken! It took most of my adolescent years into my adult years to embrace the true gift that it is to be Mexican-American. It takes a certain mastery and skill set to maintain endless pop culture references from Walter Mercado to all the 90’s animated heartthrobs. To be Mexican-American is celebrating holidays in two food variety categories. Nothing says Fourth of July like hamburgers and hot dogs with carne asada and always con arroz y frijoles. Your stomach doesn’t know whether to love or hate you.

Navigating the intricacies of two cultures is no easy feat and it isn’t perfect. We know there is a constant internal struggle between both cultures and ultimately we have the power to decide what our identity means to us.  I am that Mexican girl with that dark thick hair, brown beautiful skin, and a wider-set nose that is of my ancestors. My Spanish is not perfect and I still have to remember a cajón is a dresser in English, and like many others, my age have watched every episode of Friends. Ultimately, through it all, your identity is your own and what you make of it. So enjoy your pan dulce and eat it too!

Victoria Reyes is the Senior Human Resources Manager. With a philosophy that our community is only as good as the people that serve it, Victoria has dedicated herself to serving her community through volunteer work, services, and projects.

Lessons From Two Summer Weeks in Detroit
By Alex Schluter

It was a Wednesday as I drove across the green belly of Michigan from my parents’ home in Evanston, Illinois towards Detroit. I was showing up three days late to Venture For America’s 2022 Training Camp after a positive COVID test the week prior. Watching the passing trees, listening to Kendrick Lamar’s new album, it felt as though I was taking a large step into something new and exciting, and I was. I felt nervous. Nervous about being surrounded by 130 recent college grads, as this would be the most socially demanding setting I had been in since arriving at college 6 years earlier.

At lunch, my anxieties were quickly assuaged when I was invited by a few friendly VFA Fellows to sit at their cafeteria table in Wayne State’s dining hall. I easily joined the conversation, getting their brief backstories and giving my own. One of these Fellows, Tim, commented on my heaping salad and we discovered that both of us happened to be vegan, which I took as a good omen. Tim was an especially positive energy throughout that week, constantly giving out high fives, words of encouragement, or dancing for no reason except to make a long day a little more exciting.

After the scheduled programming of the day, Fellows were given the opportunity to take the stage and provide a story that connected with one of VFA’s five credos (basically VFA’s organizational values). At the end of my first day, I watched two Fellows, Chandler and Kristen, get up on stage and speak personal stories into the room with strength, charisma, and poise. Stories that were motivational and centered on helping others. It felt like I was at a TED conference for really freaking cool twenty-somethings, and when those two speakers poured a bit of themselves into that room, I was filled with joy and inspiration.

By the end of that day and every day at Training Camp, my soul was brimming with hope and optimism, usually as a direct result of another Fellow’s inspiring story, or simply from a delightful conversation with the Fellow I was sitting next to as we listened to speakers and took part in activities aimed at arming us with the skills necessary to thrive at our new startups. We learned a lot about entrepreneurship, but more broadly, how to adult and how to get the most out of the rest of our unstructured lives. The two ideas I heard at camp that imprinted themselves most permanently on the inside of my head were more applicable to life advice than entrepreneurship-specific advice. These ideas were the accountabilibuddy and the personal board of directors.
Besides being incredibly amusing to say (accountabilibuddy, accountabilibuddy, accountabilibuddy) an accountabilibuddy is a buddy who will hold you accountable to the goals that you set for yourself, and who you will do the same for in return.

This idea was presented by two VFA Alumni, who had become accountabilibuddies shortly after their own Training Camp. The accountabilibuddy framework has two essential elements – the first, goal setting, and the second, regular meetings at predetermined intervals (your choice of every month, two months, quarter etc.) to check-in on progress. If you are anything like me, you work better on a deadline. The accountabilibuddy system provides an easy and fun way to set deadlines and a time restriction on accomplishing goals in the most pressing areas of your personal, professional, or social life that you are looking to grow in or explore.
I now have my own accountabilibuddy and next week we are meeting to discuss goals across the categories of health and wellness, career, and social/relationships. Two goals I have are to start a 10 minute daily meditation practice, and to find a weekly place to practice Spanish with a group or another individual. Without a deadline, these goals would likely drift off into the ether, aspirational but likely unachieved. Now, with the help of my accountabilibuddy, I hope to achieve these goals, but get back to me in a month and I’ll let you know how that is going.

The personal board of directors was an idea brought up by Lorenzo Gomez III, an entrepreneur from San Antonio. He told his own personal career journey, from building homes for his father, to working at a grocery store, to a job at the tech company Rackspace, that took him to London and back to San Antonio. The common thread through his most pivotal decisions – to move from the produce aisle at a grocery store to behind a desk at a computer store, to join a startup called Rackspace, to travel to London and gain a new perspective on the world – was that his initial instinct told him to turn down the opportunity. In all of these situations a head wiser than his own, whether it was a brother or a colleague, provided sage advice and urged him to take the opportunity.
His own experience demonstrates that the wisest among us do not arrive at their best decisions and ideas in a vacuum; instead, they rely on a trusted group of family, friends, and colleagues to advise them through life’s toughest decisions. Lorenzo even went so far as to officially appoint his own board of directors by having a conversation with them individually, and telling them that they have been appointed to a position with few perks, but hopefully, a bit of honor.

It was not until I met all of the wonderful 2022 Fellows in my cohort that I truly understood what Venture for America was, and if there is any single encompassing lesson from that week, it is to surround yourself with people you admire, who you want to be changed by. Whether these are your friends, your coworkers or other people in your community, seek out the people who you want to emulate and take intentional steps to access their wisdom and push one another into becoming the people you would like to become.
Making new connections isn’t easy. Socializing is inevitably harder for some of us than for others, but making a single plan with someone you enjoy spending time with and admire is a great place to start. And if you haven’t found that person yet, find a local community, a workout group, a volunteer organization, or a book club where you can meet those people— maybe you will find the accountabilibuddy you never knew you needed, or a fresh new perspective for your personal board of directors. I was lucky enough to meet 130 people who inspired me over the course of two weeks this summer in Detroit.

As the magic of these two weeks fades, and the work of building a new life for myself begins, I am left to find ways to inject magical moments into my daily life in San Antonio. I found magic this weekend, when I stumbled upon a turtle that had strayed from its home by the River Walk, in an aerial yoga class that pushed me outside my comfort zone, and in a coffee table my new roommate Michelle and I struggled to transport from a local thrift shop. There is plenty of magic out there and I am hopeful.