Five Questions With: Leandra Elberger

Leandra Elberger is senior communications and development manager for New York City-based Venture for America.
Leandra Elberger is senior communications and development manager for New York City-based Venture for America.

Leandra Elberger, senior communications and development manager for New York City-based Venture for America, discussed with Providence Business News how the organization hosts a five-week training program at Brown University every year with the new cohort of Venture for America fellows. The program prepares them so that they will be ready to make an immediate impact on their companies and communities when they begin their placements at the end of the summer. Starting today, members of five classes of Venture for America fellows will return to Brown for three days to participate in activities centered around building the Venture for America community and fostering entrepreneurship in cities like Providence.

PBN: How many years has Venture for America held this event at Brown University? How did it begin?
ELBERGER:
This is our fifth Training Camp at Brown University. Venture for America was founded in 2011 by Andrew Yang, a Brown alum, who graduated from college in the mid 90s and went straight to law school. In less than a year Andrew realized that law was not the right fit for him, and he quit his job to found an ill-fated startup. After his company failed, Andrew went on to work at a few startups to develop his skills and learn from successful entrepreneurs. Eventually he became the CEO of Manhattan Prep and was personally teaching GMAT classes to bright young people who were going on to business school because it was a prestigious path and they believed it was the right next step in their careers. Andrew thought, what if we could channel these young people to early-stage companies in Detroit, New Orleans, Providence and other U.S. cities to train as entrepreneurs? This would help the companies succeed and create jobs in these communities. It would also prepare our young people to go on to become the builders and entrepreneurs our country needs. From this idea, Venture for America was born!
PBN: Can you explain the program? Where are the venture fellows from?
ELBERGER:
Venture for America is a nonprofit fellowship program empowering recent college graduates to launch their careers as entrepreneurs and revitalize American cities. After five weeks of training, VFA fellows spend two years working for a startup in a U.S. city with an emerging startup ecosystem. Throughout the fellowship, they learn how to contribute to a high-growth business and gain access to mentorship, ongoing training and the nationwide VFA community. When fellows and alumni are ready to build companies of their own, VFA provides the resources they need to become entrepreneurs.

Our goal is to fuel job growth in cities throughout the U.S. while empowering our best and brightest to create value in their communities. We aim to produce effective and high-character builders who will found and lead quality organizations throughout their careers.

The fellows come from universities across the country – not just Brown!
PBN: Tell me about the Side-Project-a-Thon and how that could benefit the city.
ELBERGER:
The goal of Side-Project-a-Thon is to provide current fellows and alums the space and time to ideate on the problems they most want to solve in the world and work collaboratively to improve their communities or establish the beginnings of a company. A few of the fellows participating are living and working in Providence and may continue working on their projects in Providence.
PBN: Do you have any figures about how many fellows have gone on to start companies of their own?
ELBERGER:
Twenty-five percent of our alumni have started businesses of their own. Here is a list of Fellow-founded companies. A Providence company is Escape Rhode Island, which runs four real-life, interactive Escape-the-Room style games in Providence. Escape Rhode Island co-founder Ethan Carlson is a Yale University graduate who moved to Providence in 2013 for a Venture for America fellowship.
PBN: How many fellows are currently working for startups in Providence? Can you release any of the names of the startups?
ELBERGER:
Yes! Here are the fellows living and working in Providence. They and their companies are listed HERE. (Companies they are working at include Focal Upright, Escape Rhode Island, IndieWhip, Figmints, NAATE and Motel.

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