Amy Nelson, MBA '13
CEO, Venture for America
We caught up with Amy Nelson, MBA '13, on her road to the C-Suite at Venture for America, a nonprofit organization on a mission to cultivate entrepreneurship and revitalize cities through new opportunities. Amy shared with us some of her favorite NYU Stern memories, and how her experiences have shaped her career.
You focused on Economics and Social Innovation and Impact at Stern. What was your background before coming to Stern, and what drew you to these areas of study?
Before Stern, I was working in the international development sector, most recently running the US office of Cambodian Children's Fund. I was frustrated with the cyclical nature of nonprofit fundraising and wanted to find an avenue to use business skills to solve social problems. So that course of study made a great deal of sense and led me to my internship at B Lab during school.
Tell us about your Stern experience. Favorite classes, memories, or experiences? Advice you’ve held on to?
Taking Adam Brandenberger's "The Project" was truly life-changing for me. We had this incredible group of about 15 people with widely divergent backgrounds and interests who came together to engage with really fundamental questions about how to use business as a platform to accomplish a variety of social outcomes. My project was on corporate personhood and it's ethical implications. Some of those people are still my closest friends.
Also I met my husband in my study group so that counts as a highlight.
What path led you to Venture for America? Can you tell us a bit about the company’s mission and vision?
I found out about VFA in the New York Times. I was looking for the right opportunity after school and they needed someone to lead fundraising. Even though I had promised myself I didn't want to return to development after B-school, I knew VFA was about to take off in a big way, and I wanted to be a part of that story. Having grown up in St. Louis, I understood the need to help bring talented people to cities that aren't attracting that talent. It's about creating the next generation of entrepreneurs so that we are creating jobs in cities to create opportunities the most.
What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your role at Venture for America?
Fundraising is always a struggle, and something that takes a tremendous amount of time. After that, hiring the right people is everything. We have a fairly intensive hiring process, but in the end, we end up getting some of the best talent out there.
What do you find most rewarding?
Working with our Fellows and seeing them grow and develop as people and professionals means everything. Watching a recent college graduate become an entrepreneur leading a promising business is hugely inspiring. The rate of new business formation has precipitously declined in the last decades, especially among young people, and our work helps reverse that trend.
You’ve written about working moms and entrepreneurship. Can you share how your roles as mother and business leader have impacted one another?
I was a single mom in B school, which made everything that much more difficult. But in many ways, it helped to keep me focused. There are a lot of competing interests at Stern, and having kids forces you to make tradeoffs. As a leader, it's the same. You can't be on a plane every week or attend every evening event; so you learn to evaluate what's actually important for the business pretty quickly.
Part of Venture for America’s mission is to revitalize cities through entrepreneurship. Are there any specific entrepreneurial characteristics of New York City that you’d like to see in other cities?
New York City has a no-nonsense culture that I think works for startups. It's a city of strivers and that competition is a great thing when you want to get things done. But successful people in NYC are still incredibly willing to pay it forward to the next generation which is also true of the cities where VFA works. These cities have some huge advantages in terms of cost competitiveness that lend themselves to starting a company.
What do you like to do in your free time? Hobbies? Volunteering?
I sit on the Board of an organization called Safe Haven Medical Outreach, an organization that helps children with disabilities in Cambodia. In terms of hobbies, I'm a huge Cirque du Soleil enthusiast and have been scheduling my trips around going to see shows all over the world.
What is the most unexpected thing that’s happened to you in New York City, and/or, when do you feel most like a New Yorker?
New York is always full of surprises. When I first moved here, I loved the anonymity of the subway. These days, I feel like I run into familiar faces there all the time, but there's an unspoken agreement that you can acknowledge each other and move on. That always feels very New York.
What’s your advice to Stern students as they set out to start their careers?
Spend less time trying to platform yourself and more time thinking about how you can use you career as a platform to create opportunities for others.
You focused on Economics and Social Innovation and Impact at Stern. What was your background before coming to Stern, and what drew you to these areas of study?
Before Stern, I was working in the international development sector, most recently running the US office of Cambodian Children's Fund. I was frustrated with the cyclical nature of nonprofit fundraising and wanted to find an avenue to use business skills to solve social problems. So that course of study made a great deal of sense and led me to my internship at B Lab during school.
Tell us about your Stern experience. Favorite classes, memories, or experiences? Advice you’ve held on to?
Taking Adam Brandenberger's "The Project" was truly life-changing for me. We had this incredible group of about 15 people with widely divergent backgrounds and interests who came together to engage with really fundamental questions about how to use business as a platform to accomplish a variety of social outcomes. My project was on corporate personhood and it's ethical implications. Some of those people are still my closest friends.
Also I met my husband in my study group so that counts as a highlight.
What path led you to Venture for America? Can you tell us a bit about the company’s mission and vision?
I found out about VFA in the New York Times. I was looking for the right opportunity after school and they needed someone to lead fundraising. Even though I had promised myself I didn't want to return to development after B-school, I knew VFA was about to take off in a big way, and I wanted to be a part of that story. Having grown up in St. Louis, I understood the need to help bring talented people to cities that aren't attracting that talent. It's about creating the next generation of entrepreneurs so that we are creating jobs in cities to create opportunities the most.
What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your role at Venture for America?
Fundraising is always a struggle, and something that takes a tremendous amount of time. After that, hiring the right people is everything. We have a fairly intensive hiring process, but in the end, we end up getting some of the best talent out there.
What do you find most rewarding?
Working with our Fellows and seeing them grow and develop as people and professionals means everything. Watching a recent college graduate become an entrepreneur leading a promising business is hugely inspiring. The rate of new business formation has precipitously declined in the last decades, especially among young people, and our work helps reverse that trend.
You’ve written about working moms and entrepreneurship. Can you share how your roles as mother and business leader have impacted one another?
I was a single mom in B school, which made everything that much more difficult. But in many ways, it helped to keep me focused. There are a lot of competing interests at Stern, and having kids forces you to make tradeoffs. As a leader, it's the same. You can't be on a plane every week or attend every evening event; so you learn to evaluate what's actually important for the business pretty quickly.
Part of Venture for America’s mission is to revitalize cities through entrepreneurship. Are there any specific entrepreneurial characteristics of New York City that you’d like to see in other cities?
New York City has a no-nonsense culture that I think works for startups. It's a city of strivers and that competition is a great thing when you want to get things done. But successful people in NYC are still incredibly willing to pay it forward to the next generation which is also true of the cities where VFA works. These cities have some huge advantages in terms of cost competitiveness that lend themselves to starting a company.
What do you like to do in your free time? Hobbies? Volunteering?
I sit on the Board of an organization called Safe Haven Medical Outreach, an organization that helps children with disabilities in Cambodia. In terms of hobbies, I'm a huge Cirque du Soleil enthusiast and have been scheduling my trips around going to see shows all over the world.
What is the most unexpected thing that’s happened to you in New York City, and/or, when do you feel most like a New Yorker?
New York is always full of surprises. When I first moved here, I loved the anonymity of the subway. These days, I feel like I run into familiar faces there all the time, but there's an unspoken agreement that you can acknowledge each other and move on. That always feels very New York.
What’s your advice to Stern students as they set out to start their careers?
Spend less time trying to platform yourself and more time thinking about how you can use you career as a platform to create opportunities for others.