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Andrew Yang: Venture for America is a nonprofit that
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recruits and trains top college graduates from
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around the U.S.
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who want to learn how to build a business.
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So they work in an early-stage company with an
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existing entrepreneur in Detroit, New Orleans,
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Baltimore, Cleveland, other U.S.
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cities that could use a boost.
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They work there for two years to help that business
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expand and grow and also train themselves as
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entrepreneurs.
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The goal is that they'll become a manager or leader
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at that company or they'll start their own company
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after the two-year fellowship.
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What we see is that when they work in these
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early-stage companies and startups, they really become
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a different sort of person -- the kind of person that
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understand how to build a business and then
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understands those challenges and what it takes to take on
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the same challenge if they start a company.
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2012 fellow, Brian Rudolph , moved to Detroit, works at
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an e-commerce company there funded by Dan Gilbert , and
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then while he's there, you know, there aren't great
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food supplies there and he's gluten-free, so he makes
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himself a pasta out of chickpeas in his kitchen in
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Detroit and it's pretty terrible, but he keeps going
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and does it over and over again and fast forward to
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today -- his business, Banza, which is a chickpea
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gluten-free pasta company, has raised a million dollars
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and employees 15 people.
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And the pasta's delicious.
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It's being distributed in hundreds of stores around
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the country.
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And that's someone who graduated from college less
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than three years ago now?
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So that's what our young people are capable of if you
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put them in a position to have mentors and support and
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role models.
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Well, certainly, it's part of the history of this
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country where the people that came to the U.S.
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were doing something very entrepreneurial.
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Often, they had to build new lives for themselves -- new
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homes, new businesses.
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They would migrate West to unspoiled territory and then
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explore it and settle.
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I think that that's what really people want to
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preserve and sustain, which is that spirit of enterprise
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that's made this country great for its entire history.