Future of VFA Updates, Gratitude, Fellow Founders, and Jobs!
The December VFA Fellow Community Newsletter
Hey y’all! There’s momentum with VFA-the-entity; details in section 1 below. Fellows continue to be bad ass organizers and founders and value-creators; see the rest for that info.
In the holiday spirit, I want to say thank you again to everyone who has done something for this community over the past few months. Thank you to everyone who has donated to our volunteer initiative and the 2024 GoFundMe, joined to support someone else’s project, attended meetings, organized an initiative that supports the greater Fellow community (such as the Skillshare and the VFAngels project — learn more about both in Section 2!), hosted and attended an event (see Section 4!), and created value and opportunities. I have truly enjoyed getting to “do the VFA thing” with so many of you over the past few months. Thank you for building, and I’m excited to see what happens next.
-amanda tien (2015, providence & new orleans)
ps: next newsletter won’t be til Jan 8. :)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Critical Updates & Key Asks
Updates re: VFA-the-entity
The VFA Slack: Waiting to hear from Board
Next Newsletter Will be Weds January 8, 2025
Want to get involved? Here’s how!
Community Initiatives
VFA Skillshare Project: Seeking Subject Experts & First Session is on Startup Fundraising this Thursday Dec 5
Fellow Founders: We’d Like to Hear From You!
Hit the Goal for the 2024 Fellow GoFundMe!!!
VFAngels & Fellow Founder Feature: Siiv
Fellow Directory In-Progress!
Jobs, Opportunities, and Resources
December Skillshare - Startup Fundraising Panel, Thurs Dec 5
Jobs from the VFA Fellow Community
Bulletin Board (including Events)
Living in Detroit? Join our community email list!
Invite: Miami Art Basel: The Timbucktoo Fine Art Fair from Mamadou Ndiaye (‘18) - Dec 3 to 21
Eddie Mick (22') Launched Nero: Interactive Fandom on Autopilot 🕺
Looking for tech talent? Consider hiring from LaunchCode!
Invite: VFA Philly Winter Fest Meet-Up on Tuesday Dec 10! from Amanda Tien (‘15)
VFA Bamasgiving 2024 was a HUGE success! from Tyler Jacobson
1. Critical Updates & Key Asks
All of the below are via Amanda Tien (2015, Providence & New Orleans)
1A. Updates re: VFA-the-entity
Thank you to everyone who attended live or watched the recording/read the notes of the Fellow-hosted Future of VFA Town Hall that I hosted on November 10. (Those notes and recording are here: https://tinyurl.com/futureofVFAnov10)
There was a lot in that meeting, and there’s been a lot of momentum in the weeks since with regards to VFA-the-entity and what could be the future of the organization as well as the Fellow community. However, we are not at liberty to publicly share those updates. So, after this newsletter is live, I will be posting a more transparent update for Fellows in the #alumni-general channel in the VFA Fellows Slack and in the 2023-24 Discord. (If you’re a Fellow not in the Slack, ask someone from your year to send you screenshots.)
1B. The VFA Slack: Waiting to hear from Board
After the Town Hall and the discussion that happened there, including with encouragement from Andrew Yang, I wrote again to the VFA Board and asked for a response by December 10 w/ control of the VFA Fellows Slack or at least an answer. A member of the VFA Board agreed to speak with me on December 10 and share an update. Given the timeline, we likely won’t be making any moves on the Slack before the-end-of-the-year, but, depending on what they say, perhaps that means that we’ll be starting the new year with plans to transition to a new space. I’ll keep y’all posted in the next newsletter…
1C. Next Newsletter Delayed to Weds January 8, 2025
Because I want to take a break too :) Submit your blurbs by Tues Jan 7, 2025 at noon eastern here (this form is also linked at the top of the newsletter).
1D. Want to get involved? Here’s how!
As always (for the last four months anyway lol), please feel free to 1. email us at vfaaab@gmail.com with what you’re interested in working on/what you can offer, and we’ll get you plugged into the community (big shout-out to Anand Macherla, 2018, for managing this email inbox!), and/or 2. join our next working group meeting on Tues December 18 at 8:30pm usa est, rsvp here! (The agenda, linked within the calendar event, is always turned into a note document by the end of that evening.)
I’ve hosted about a dozen of these since VFA announced cease of operations; we are now one a once-a-month basis with weekly asynchronous check-ins in our working Slack channel. This may be the last one that I host, depending if we are able to pay someone else to lead this work.
If you attend one of the meetings or engage via email, we’re happy to add you to our working group channel in the Slack. That group is private to make sure all users feel they can be in a safe, trusted space to share their ideas and thoughts, especially when some topics are of a sensitive nature, and to keep the work focused between active collaborators.
2. Community Initiatives
2A. VFA Skillshare Project: Seeking Subject Experts & First Session is on Startup Fundraising this Thursday Dec 5
The VFA Skillshare is Live! First session is this week + seeking teachers!
A group of VFACC* Fellows—shout-out to Stephen Kita ‘16, Brenden Watson ‘23, and Julie Bautista ‘23!—are organizing a Skillshare Series to share more value and lessons learned amongst the Fellow Community! This is in direct response to asks from current Fellows to learn more from our community, but sessions are open to all.
Sign-up to teach a session here — we are especially interested in anything about Operations, Sales, Marketing, Self-Management
Sessions will always be on the VFA Fellow Community GCal — subscribe here!
The first session is this Thursday Dec 5 on Startup Fundraising! RSVP here. (see 3a for more details)
2B. Fellow Founders: We’d Like to Hear From You!
Are you a VFA Fellow founder? Members of the VFACC are trying to create a new and up-to-date directory of VFA Fellow-founded companies! Whether you're a new or old founder, if your company is live or no longer with us (or it's complicated), we'd love to hear from you. We want the directory to live on the VFA Notion and to promote your organization within the network; furthermore, other VFACC volunteers are looking to build out more entrepreneur/founder support systems so it’d be great to know who you are! Having up-to-date info would be helpful. Please take a few moments to fill out this short form. Thanks! - Briggs Uhler (2023, Kansas City), with logistics support from Amanda Tien (2015, Pvd/Nola) and founder-facing support Anand Macherla (2018, Baltimore)
2C. Hit the Goal for the 2024 Fellow GoFundMe!!!
Big shout-out to Katie Bloom (VFA HQ, 2014-2018) for organizing this! Thank you to everyone who donated — 89 people, with donations ranging from $5 to over $1,500. Every single donation made that possible, raising a total of $9,469. All 2024 Fellows who were awaiting travel reimbursement from the cancelled in-person training camp were paid back in full. Thank you Katie, and thank you to everyone who donated. -amanda
2D. VFAngels & Fellow Founder Feature: Siiv
Anand Macherla (2018, Baltimore) is working to revive/fresh start a VFAngels network for investing in Fellow-founded companies. Here’s this month’s feature from Anand Macherla:
Hello beloved alum! As we continue to set up structures that continue to support our alum community, here is another fellow founder who is looking to raise capital.
Fellow Founder: Vishal Cherian, 2020 Baltimore Fellow.
Company: Siiv (stealth mode). Siiv is “an AI-driven CFO suite for construction companies that centralizes data from contracts and financial documents to provide project health metrics, data management tools, and accounting automation for general contractors. By charging monthly fees per-project for invoice, budget, and reporting automation, Siiv can generate over $400M in ARR on our base offering and scale to an all-encompassing data platform commanding six-figure ACV and data-licensing fees.”
Company founders:
David Palmer, CEO https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwp78/
Vishal Cherian (Bmore’20), CTO https://www.linkedin.com/in/vishalmathewcherian/
Ryan Heilemann, COO https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-heilemann/
here’s how this will work for this iteration:
Review the Siiv deck here [https://docsend.com/view/8gj29dbygek7ecg8 - you’ll need to input your email]
If you’re interested, reach out to Vishal at vishal@siiv.io. Include “VFAngels” in the subject line.
Vishal will organize all the alumni interest into a information session about Siiv. He/David will share more about the company, how they are raising funds, and specifics around investor personas they’re looking for.
Siiv will organize and move forward based on their assessment and VFAngel interest.
Anand will follow up with Vishal to get info about interest/amounts/etc. for sake of incorporating into v2 of the form. Anand will then use this as final fodder for the v2 VFAngels/MutualAid/Nonprofits form.
2E. Fellow Directory In-Progress!
Quick note from Amanda Tien here — thank you to Evan Fried (2016, Detroit) who very graciously is working to create a more detailed, accessible (but password-protected!) Fellow directory. Hopefully we’ll be able to share that in January. He’s a data and automations wizard. Thank you Evan <3
3. Jobs, Opportunities, and Resources
3A. December Skillshare - Startup Fundraising Panel, Thurs Dec 5, 11am est
Via Julie Noreene Bautista (2023, Pittsburgh)
Join us for a virtual event on Thu Dec 05 2024 at 11:00 AM EST where we will discuss everything you need to know about attracting investors and securing funding for your start-up. Whether you're a first-time founder or a seasoned entrepreneur, this event will provide valuable insights and tips to help you succeed in the competitive world of start-up fundraising. Our panel of experts will cover topics such as startup stages and investment vehicles, navigating the fundraising process, and lessons learned for Founders. You'll also have the opportunity to ask questions and network with other like-minded individuals in the start-up community. Learn more and RSVP here or dial-in directly to the Zoom here on Thursday.
3B. Jobs from the VFA Fellow Community
I (Amanda) have just pulled these from the VFA Slack job channel — please forgive that these are quick copy-and-pastes
Founding full-stack engineer for Nero via Eddie Mick (‘22) — see 4c in this newsletter for more info!
Founding full-stack engineer for a health tech company — details in Slack here via Sean McCroskey (role not publicly available)
GovWell is hiring for SWE positions - https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/GovWell - reach out to Yoni Schoenberg on the Slack for more details
“looking for a product director in EMEA” dm Nazli Danis on Slack for more info
“my company is hiring two AE roles. Strong sales leadership and a team that has hit quota 8/10 months this year. We have been building a lot of momentum. lmk if you're interested and I can talk through it.” Role 1, Role 2 / dm Maxen Haveles on Slack for more info!
“LifeX, a former company partner in Pittsburgh, is hiring a Commercialization Program Manager to lead their startup studio services, working hands-on with entrepreneurs and utilizing resources from their network to drive growth. Details here.” via Emily Sjoberg
Philly part-time developer gig: Nathan Cheng: “Hey everyone, I work for a small software company in Philadelphia helping them to overhaul their online store and license-management front-ends, and we’re finding that we could really use some extra web developer help to get the project over the finish line….” read the full post here in Slack.
Customer Success Manager role in Birmingham - “Smart Wiz is looking to hire a fellow ASAP. Feel free to DM me if interested or for more info!” - Derrick Austin on Slack! Role here.
4. Bulletin Board (including Events)
Community-submitted blurbs! Share your wins! Share something you wrote! Have an ask? Want to hype up your friend who's doing something really cool?! Put it here!
4a. Living in Detroit? Join our community email list!
Via Naabia Romain (2021er Philadelphia, now based in Detroit)
I acknowledge that not everyone is a GroupMe girly (gender-neutral). If you live in the Detroit metro area and want email updates about VFA Alumni Community meetups (Coffee Chats, Happy Hours, etc), please join the email list here: https://tinyurl.com/join-detroit-email-list . We’d love to have you and plan on doing Coffee Chats again in the new year.
If you’ve given me or Brenden Watson ('23) your email recently or received an email from me, you should be on the list. However, some old addresses always bounce (.edu), so I wanted to give everyone the opportunity to share their updated contact info.
4b. Invite: Miami Art Basel: The Timbucktoo Fine Art Fair from Mamadou Ndiaye (‘18), Dec 3 to 21
Via Mamadou Ndiay (2018, Philly)
Hey guys, looking for a reason to come to Miami next month? We at Timbucktoo are hosting our inaugural art exhibition for Miami Art Basel (Dec 3-21st). “The Art of Music” will feature 5 amazing contemporary artists. Would love for you all to join us at the grand opening. Please feel free to share with your friends: https://partiful.com/e/b1FL3N9fYfjJtqyUOXpg
4c. Eddie Mick (22') Launched Nero: Interactive Fandom on Autopilot 🕺
Hey all! Super stoked to announce we just closed our first round of funding for Nero through the Antler NYC Fall program. Nero puts interactive fandom on autopilot; starting with livestream music reviews. (website: https://www.joinnero.com/)
Compatible with Instagram, Twitch, Tik-Tok, Youtube, Twitter, Discord & more, Nero enables fans to send in music they want reviewed during livestreams—with a premium option to pay to skip the line.
Nero has been used by Grammy-nominated producers, industry-leading A&R’s, and independent creators around the world looking to gather, grow, and monetize their communities.
I'm hiring for a founding engineer! If you know anyone full-stack devs obsessed with music, send 'em my way! eddie@nero.fan
You can check out an example livestream here: Ariana Grande's Producer Reviews Fan Music…
4d. Looking for tech talent? Consider hiring from LaunchCode!
Via Dayhun Claire Kim (2021 Fellow, St. Louis)
Looking for tech talent? Consider hiring from LaunchCode! We help startups assemble their tech team under a flexible pricing model. Why LaunchCode you ask?
Start up Minded Talent: Our talent pool is made up of career changers equipped with transferable skills, resilience, and full stack knowledge!
Try Before you Buy: Trial run our candidates apprentices before transitioning them into full-time roles!
Track Record of Success: Balto hired 12 LaunchCode candidates who become the backbone of their product, helping them raise over $53 million!
If building your tech team is a challenge you’re facing, email me at ckim@launchcode.org to explore how LaunchCode can help push the needle forward for your business.
4e. Invite: VFA Philly Winter Fest Meet-Up on Tuesday Dec 10! from Amanda Tien
Meet up at Winterfest for drinks, food, hellos, ice skating, and more! Everything is pay-as-you-go. Tentative timing: 6pm - 8pm; I’ll post in the Philly GroupMe with locations/details that day :) Organized by Amanda Tien (2015 Fellow, new to Philadelphia!) and open to all! RSVP here :)
4f. VFA Bamasgiving 2024 was a HUGE success! from Tyler Jacobson
VFA Bamasgiving 2024 was a HUGE success! We laced up our cleats for the best flag football game Birmingham has ever seen, dined with over 40 people on a long Thanksgiving table, danced our hearts out under a Neon Moon, roasted s’mores around a blazing bonfire, and made memories that will last a lifetime! Thank you to everyone who helped make the weekend possible: from the BHM fellows who graciously hosted people from out of town, to everyone who brought food and drinks to the feast, to everyone who traveled from out of town to join in on the festivities, this weekend would not have been possible without you. Events like these enable the VFA community to be as strong as ever. We cannot wait to have you in the Magic City again soon! And if haven’t yet made the trip to Birmingham, we invite you to come experience what makes this place truly special to all of the fellows living here — there’s nothing that beats connecting in person.
-VFA Birmingham
Thank you to everyone who has hosted and attended an event!
Whether it was RIP VFA in NYC (so fun! thank you Brooks, Caitlin, and Alyssa) or SF Friendsgiving (thank you Curtis!) or another event in November, thank you for showing up for and engaging with our community.
Submit a Blurb for Next Time
The newsletters have been sent on the first of each month; due to the holidays, the next newsletter will be delayed by one week to Weds Jan 8, 2025. Submit your blurb here (it’s also linked on the homepage of the newsletter) by noon eastern on Jan 7.
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