Venture for America (VFA) is fellowship program that connects recent graduates with jobs at startups across the country. Last year, fellows in Philadelphia launched a speaker series called Intersect Philly that brings civically minded people in the community together.
New Orleans happens to be one of its most popular locations, with dozens of past and current fellows in the city. A group of New Orleans fellows have also launched a speaker series spurred by the one in Philadelphia.
To date, the group has hosted speakers such as Jeremy Hunnewell, managing director of EMH Strategy, Phyllis Cassidy, founder and Executive Director of Good Work Network, and Martin Roth, director of revenue at zlien.
Speakers are chosen by a crowdsourced approach and the series is held on the first Monday of each month at the coworking space Launch Pad. Aaron Walker, CEO of Camelback Ventures, is the upcoming speaker.
“Through this series, VFA Fellows would like to feature entrepreneurs from across industries to learn from their journeys and have conversations with the entrepreneurial community,” explains organizers.
New Orleans fellow Michael Kungl, who also works at local tech startup zlien, says the started the series after talks held at their annual “Venture Weekend,” which brings together the VFA New Orleans community to discuss plans for the upcoming year.
“Seeing as a large portion of the group was new to the city and was interested in meeting the ‘change-makers’ in the tech and business world, we all expressed interest in hosting a monthly speaker series event,” explains Kungl.
Events in the series are announced on Facebook.