Welcome back to the Charlotte Angel Connection – the Charlotte Area Podcast linking entrepreneurs, investors, and the broader Charlotte community.  Our goal is to interview the individuals who are building, shaping, and influencing entrepreneurship in the Charlotte region so you can be invested in Charlotte’s growth.

We pick up where we left off last week with Niki Chimburg and Natalie Vick – two Venture for America Fellows (www.ventureforamerica.org).

Remember in our last episode we learned Niki keep an idea book with more than 175 business ideas stored away and is in the process of starting her first company right here in Charlotte after spending two years with Versame (www.versame.com).  We also learned Natalie landed a great opportunity with a group of VFA fellows by joining Rob Cummings and DealCloud (www.dealcloud.com).  Like Niki, the pursuit of the typical Ivy League investment banking career sounded dreadful and her path lead her to Venture for America – where she will likely one day follow in Niki’s footsteps by starting her own company.

In this episode, we continue our interview by learning what Venture for America does to support and develop its fellows, what benefit the companies receive from having fellows for the two-year period, where Natalie and Niki thing they will end up in the entrepreneurship scene and more.

Millennials get a bad rap sometimes but I think you’d be hard pressed to not see a bright future for both Niki and Natalie – and after meeting the rest of the fellows here in Charlotte I can assure you that quality runs through the program.

When I set out to do this interview, I wasn’t intending on having it be a two part series but it carried on for about 50 minutes.  As such, there isn’t a true set up as I really just picked what I thought was a good stopping and starting point.  So we are going to go straight back into our discussion with Niki and Natalie.