Today we are very fortunate to have Yamile Nesrala, Director of Miami and Charlotte for Venture for America.  Much like the Venture for America Fellows we will talk about shortly, Yami has an extraordinarily impressive background.  She graduated with an economics degree from Harvard, received her Masters in Philosophy from University of Cambridge, and completed her law degree back at Harvard in 2013.

She has spent time in the consulting world, with legal firms, and more recently with a startup called CommonBond which helps lower the cost of student loans to borrowers.

In October 2016, though, Yami joined Venture for America serving as the point person for both the Miami and Charlotte.  After our interview today, you will be more impressed and happy to know that we have Yami working for us here in Charlotte.

We covered the following aspects of the Venture for America Fellowship this week:

  • What is the drive behind Venture for America (for more read Andrew Yang’s book, Smart People Should Build Things)?
  • Who is a typical fellow and how are they recruited?
  • What is selection day? (hint: it helps select the next group of VFA fellows)
  • What’s the goal of the fellows? Are the natural entrepreneurs or are there other motivations?
  • How does Venture for America vet and match the companies with the fellows?
  • Is there a compensation structure in place for fellows?
  • What do fellows get out of the fellowship?
  • How many fellows are in the 2017 class?
  • What is life like for a VFA fellow?
  • In the surveys VFA conducts with its fellows, what are they learning about the experience they are creating?
  • Along with much more in a jam packed 30 minute podcast.

Next week, we are going to talk more about the impact to the Charlotte and how Charlotte can benefit from having a thriving Venture for America program here.  This leads us to the obvious question of what can Charlotte do to support and grow the VFA program here.

Hope you enjoy today’s podcast and be sure to listen in next week to Part II with Yamile!

 

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