September Updates from VFA Alumni Community

Introducing this, new Slack channels by city, Reunion in St. Louis Oct 4-6, Reimbursements for 2024 Fellows, and more.

Dear VFA Fellows & Alumni -

Wow, what a roller coaster the last four weeks have been lol. A lot of anger and disappointment, but also hope and joy with new connections. (Speaking of which, we are hosting a virtual space this weekend on Sunday September 8 at 7:30pm est to process these feelings and more; keep scrolling to RSVP!)

The Alumni Community Board (a thing we just made up) is reaching out to you with some big updates, invites, and opportunities, via this newsletter. We’re going to dive right into the content, but if you want to read more on WHY A NEWSLETTER / WHAT IS THIS / etc, click here. Our inaugural newsletter below includes all the major announcements from the Alumni Community Board as well as some recent posts from the VFA Fellows Slack.

Please feel free to forward this with discretion to another Fellow/alum, former team member, etc; if you’re receiving this as a forward, please feel free to subscribe. We just ask that you read and share with trust and good intent; it’s been a rough time for this network, and everyone who is working on something is doing so as a volunteer effort to create opportunities (and value!) for ourselves and others.

Be well, and sending good vibes always,

Amanda Tien (VFA’15, Providence & New Orleans) (she/they)

Community Initiatives & Updates

Virtual Grief Circle & Celebration of Life Event - Sept 8, 7:30pm usa est

A chance to connect on All The Big Feelings about VFA’s closure. We'll begin with a short intro and reflection, then breakout groups that mix-and-match current Fellows with alumni (we’ll have some suggested questions to explore together), and then a closing all-group session. Norms and event guidance will be sent out to RSVPs a few days before the event. This is co-hosted by Amanda Tien (‘15, Providence & New Orleans) and Anand K. Macherla (‘18, Baltimore). We intend for it to be about an hour-and-a-half long. We are looking forward to being in community with you! If you have any questions about this event, please don't hesitate to Slack us. Please RSVP at tinyurl.com/vfacommunitycelebration2024

St. Louis Reunion is Happening Oct 4 - 6!

Connie Bowen (‘16, St. Louis) has taken over planning VFA Reunion and it will be happening October 4 - 6 in St. Louis. There will be space to discuss and brainstorm the future of VFA, enjoy bbq + lawn games, party with a sick as hell gala at City Museum (think grown-up playground), and do other entrepreneur-y things. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, with suggestion at $30+. For planning reasons, the Reunion team needs/hopes to have 50 rsvps by Friday Sept 5 (if we hit this # by then, a sponsor is going to give us free food and event space!). If Reunion doesn’t hit that number by mid September, we may cancel/reschedule (refunds will be given). We will share more programming updates on Friday to hopefully ~ entice you ~ to attend! This is open to Fellows of ALL YEARS (23 and 24 included) as well as any former VFA team members. Connie will send a longer invite with an event update this Friday; learn more and RSVP here.

Crowdfunding Campaign to Reimburse 2024 Fellows for Cancelled In-Person Training Camp

VFA abruptly switched from an in-person Training Camp to a 2-week Virtual Training Camp for the 2024 Fellows. However, Fellows had already bought flights, and were promised reimbursement from VFA. This, however, as far as we understand it, will not be happening. A former VFA team member, Katie Bloom (VFA HQ, 2014-2018) is leading a crowdfunding campaign for them (2024 Fellows submitted travel receipts and reimbursement requests to Katie). We’re trying to raise $8,760 by the end of September. Click here to learn more and donate.

PS: Totally unaffiliated with Katie, the Alumni Community Board and VFA Reunion Committee is going to host a raffle of 5 (!!! limited edition!!! ) Venture for America (original logo! vintage!) sweatshirts (only have size small and medium). Every person who donates will be entered to the raffle, and if you donate $100 or more, we'll give you an extra raffle spot. Donate $500, and you get 5 raffle spots! (We normally wouldn't want to make this about money, but hey, we want to get these Fellows paid back!) Please make sure to make your donation public so we can add your name to the raffle list! If you win, we'll follow up with you about your name, address, and preferred size.

Tons of Resources on the VFA Notion

We have a new Wiki for all things VFA with job boards, city details, Training Camp lectures, personal and professional development resources, old program details, and more. (VFAfellows[.]org will be shut down soon.) Check out: tinyurl.com/vfanotion

New City Slack Channels & Community Organizing Guide

The second top pick from the poll was to update VFA city Slack channels. We have new standardized, open VFA slack channels for ALL CITIES (VFA & major) that have a constituent of VFA Fellows. Please click here to see/join them.

Fellow : Alumni Mentorship

Thank you to everyone who’s volunteered to be a mentor so far! We were able to match all of the first round requests (yay!), and a second wave of requests just came in so we welcome any and all volunteers. This initiative is meant to help 2023 and 2024 Fellows who still don’t have jobs (VFA Match/Connect was never full), as well as provide them with a sense of community and support.

• If you’re a 2023 Fellow, click here to request a mentor.

• If you’re a 2024 Fellow, click here to request a mentor.

• If you’re an alum, click here to volunteer to be a mentor.

The mentorship really does make a difference. Here’s an example of a message from a 2023 Fellow: “HUGE thank you to all the VFA alumni for putting this mentorship together and everything else you’re doing. It is so appreciated after everything that has happened. It's been a tough year.”

VFAbundance Magazine

VFAbundance is working on a magazine to reflect on, collect, and share folks’ experiences with VFA. The magazine will be a collection of creative works like stories, essays, drawings, poems, etc, curated around the themes of experience & community. If you are interested in showcasing your creative abilities and contributing to a collective understanding of what it means to be in VFA, please share your pitches with us by 9/27/2024! - Heb Braggs, (‘22)

We’re Hiring

• The Community Job Board is specifically targeted towards 2024 Fellows. Please help us by adding to it if you’ve got a position / and a referral!

• Finance Ops Specialist - Resquared. Emily Armando: “Hey everyone! I’m looking for a Finance Ops Specialist to join my Operations team at Resquared. We’re a YC company that recently secured seed funding of $5M and we’re growing fast!  If you or someone you know might be a good fit, please reach out. Job description linked here.”

• Endeavor Atlanta is hiring an Associate, Entrepreneur Experience.  The hiring manager is Eileen Lee, former COO of venture for America! https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4011561210/

• Director of Consumer Banking, Bilt Rewards. Alexandra Bacchus: “My team is hiring! The key objective in this role is to increase adoption of Bilt's consumer banking products and drive sustainable engagement.This could include developing features or marketing treatments that increase the engagement level of Bilt Reward Members with our different consumer banking products: The Bilt Mastercard, Rent Reporting, and Homeownership services. https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/biltrewards/jobs/5259888004 “

• Senior Product Manager at Medallion. Akash Shah: “We're a series-C (Sequoia and Spark Capital backed) start-up unifying provider operations, credentialing, enrollment, monitoring, and licensing through a single provider network management platform.Main Requirements: Product experience: 4+ years in a Product Management role working on a technical product; Platform experience: 1+ years experience in a platform Product role. Plusses: Healthcare Enterprise: Experience in building enterprise products in Healthcare. AI: Experience building AI into products. Not taking any informational calls at this time, but please feel free to send questions over Slack and flag to me if you end up applying!”

• Misc positions at BRITE Energy Innovators. Lucas King: “My company will be opening up some new positions soon. BRITE is a non-profit business incubator located in Ohio that is focused on advancing the clean energy economy. If anyone would be interested in learning more about BRITE and job opportunities within the organization please feel free to reach out and let me know!”

• Jobs in San Antonio. Nina Karlin: “Who is still looking for a job and open to working in San Antonio? I’m a 2024 fellow and just moved here and loving it. My boss is a big VFA guy and wants to help out in any way given VFA’s recent news. He is willing to help you find a job in SA with his endless amount of connections and network. Reach out to me and let’s get you down here.”

• Ash & Erie is hiring for a Email and Ecommerce Marketing Manager! We're looking to make a hire very soon (in the next few weeks), learn more here: https://ashanderie.com/pages/email-and-ecommerce-marketing-manager

Opportunities & Resources

• Datacamp has made all their courses free from NOW until the 1ST! Their SQL course is where I'd send the research assistants I trained because the instructional design is chefs kiss. Head to datacamp.com - Bee Golding (‘24)

• Job Search Resources - From Lilly Checkoff: Hi everyone! Sharing a few job search resources that I received from Mariam Matin, a former Training Camp speaker. Second Day has a free library of social impact career guides, a job feed email, and a program that matches to paid internships. Forward has a set of free toolkits on best job application practices, a 30 day “drip program” of job search tasks, and more!

• We made this guide to building local VFA community that comes from years of VFA Fellows experiences and insights.

Asks

• Andrew Foley: “I wanted to share a message from a colleague of mine (Management faculty at Yale SOM). I think the people in this chat would be uniquely well-suited to assist him in his request! If you do, please just let him know that you are from VFA and copy me in the email (ajf283@cornell.edu) .  Dear All, We are two researchers from Yale School of Management studying how political disagreements between startup founders (Democrat vs Republican) may influence: 1. The likelihood of company formation 2. Day-to-day operations 3. Overall startup success. We're seeking brief (10-20 minute) interviews with founders who have relevant experiences. Anonymity is available upon request. If you have any stories to share, please email me at balazs.kovacs@yale.edu Best, Balazs

• There is a lot of 2024 Fellow interest in UPSKILLING and skill-focused alumni-led workshops. If you are interested in mentoring 1:1, even for one-off sessions, and/or teaching a workshop, please email Akhil at vfaaab@gmail.com and/or Bee Golding via VFA Fellows Slack. Thank you!

Updates

• The VFA website (ventureforamerica.org) is likely to begin archiving content soon. If there’s content you want to save, do so!

• The Alumni Board now = Community Board

  If you’ve got a project you want to work on or just want to help but not sure how, we would welcome your engagement. Right now, there’s no application or chaired positions, just people volunteering and ~ creating value for ourselves and others ~ ! Reach out to vfaaab@gmail.com to get started or to any of the people below on LinkedIn or the VFA Fellows Slack:

  • Akhil Aniff (‘18, Columbus) - coordination efforts, upskilling

  • Amanda Tien (‘15, Providence & New Orleans) - community organizing and communications (including this newsletter; shout-out to Erin Lee (‘22) who has already volunteered to help with this! )

  • Anand Macherla (‘18, Baltimore) - community organizing and communications

  • Ben Weinberg (‘18, Birmingham) - mentorship match program

  • Connie Bowen (‘16, St. Louis) - St. Louis Reunion

  To get in touch with current classes, reach out to the following community organizers:

  • 2023 Fellows: Gabi Rudnik, Ben Rothschild, Jess Agyepong

  • 2024 Fellows: Bee Golding & Aurorah Arndt

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We welcome short blurbs for the next newsletter (October 2024). This form is reviewed at the end of every month. Please use this form to submit blurbs.

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