Ep 103 | Andrew Yang Venture for America U.S. Presidential Candidate Talks Entrepreneurship

Talking Taiwan

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

In 2013 I spoke with Andrew Yang who was the CEO of Venture for America at the time. He was at his office and multi-tasking during our interview, so when you listen to the interview, you’ll hear some background noise and typing. At the time he talked about being invited to the White House amongst several things.

Who would have predicted that a few years later that he would be running as a Democrat for the 2020 U.S. President election?

Many now know him as the Presidential candidate who proposed something called the “Freedom Dividend.” With the 2020 U.S. Presidential election results unfolding, and Joe Biden recently declared President-elect, some say that there may place for Andrew in the Biden administration. I thought it would be a good time to share this interview that I did with Andrew.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• Andrew’s involvement with the Entrepreneur Challenge and Competition and connection with the Taiwanese American Professionals
• What is Venture for America?
• What it was like for Andrew to be invited to the White House and speak to President Barack Obama about Venture for America?
• How Venture for America was modeled after Teach for America
• What cities Venture for America was in (at the time of the interview) and where they were planning to expand to
• What types of startups Venture for America works with
• How long is the bootcamp that Venture for America fellows are required to go through and what are they taught
• How many fellows there were in Venture for America (at the time of the interview)
• What are some of the things that the fellows have done/accomplished
• How Jeff Weiner the CEO of LinkedIn has agreed to join Venture for America’s investment council
• The highlights of being involved with Venture for America for Andrew
• What’s the most challenging thing about running an organization like Venture for America
• What motivates Andrew with Venture for America
• Who are some of Andrew’s role models in the nonprofit space
• What’s the difference between a struggling and successful entrepreneur
• What advice Andrew has for someone wanting to start a community-based organization
• What Andrew’s future plans are for Venture for America
• Andrew’s book Smart People Should Build Things
• Andrew’s thoughts on Taiwan and the entrepreneurship of the Taiwanese people

Related Links:

Venture for America: www.ventureforamerica.org

Teach for America: https://www.teachforamerica.org/

Charity Water: https://www.charitywater.org/

Donors Choose: https://www.donorschoose.org/

Angela Lee Duckworkth’s TED talk about Grit: https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Smart People Should Build Things by Andrew Yang: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B00DB3D7EY&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_BVrSFb10ZBV39

Andrew Yang’s campaign website for the 2020 U.S. Presidential election: https://www.yang2020.com/

Taiwanese American Professionals- New York (TAP-NY): https://tap-ny.org/