The Long Distance participating that desma does from her deployment in afghanistan and later in iraq is heartbreaking, and shes trying to hard to be there for her kids and be a good mother. Anyway, im afraid we have to end there. I want to thank helen thorpe so much for today. Thank you. Prison [applause] thank you. Please dont forget shell be sign ising upstairs. Thanks. The san antonio book festival continues with andrew yang. His book is smart people should build things. [inaudible conversations] im one of the cofounders here in san antonio, and im very pleased to introduce andrew yang who has an amazing story to tell. And, you know, were probably going to do some kind of questions about the book and where youre going, but i wanted to mix things up on you. Normally moderators wait until the end for questions so im going to start at the beginning which is is there anything you guys want to know from andrew . Yell it. Go. I got the impression from looking at the book it focused more on the society as a whole in terms of creating more entrepreneurs. But i was wondering if the book actually gives advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur to individuals. Its a great question. It honestly does focus more on the flow of talent throughout country. Its not a howto book in terms of starting a company. There may be like two chapters that touch on it. I thought there were other books that focus more on Business Building itself. So the book really doesnt do so truthfully. But, i mean part of that is you started a program because you wanted more people taking a shot at it, right . You wanted more people to read those books to start stuff. Part of it is i read a lot of howto books and found it frustrating. Lets say so i run a nonprofit now, and lets say i write a book that says heres how you raise 10 million, this is not the way these things function. So i think to durcs point dirks point i hope, serves as a template as to how you start something. But i was trying to do more showing, not telling i suppose. Just leaf through the book and see if you think [laughter] you know, no pressure. Anybody else . She was brave. Anybody got a second followup . Because its a good place yell it. I love the back. You guys in the front are not holding your own. Well give you some time. Go ahead. Hi there. Im a teacher so please bear with me, but im interested in mr. Yangs formal education and in particular given the event where we are today what you feel the role of reading played in your life and i how you see that affecting your field of endeavor. Yeah. Of so start at the beginning. You have an amazing resume. Where did you go to school . You know, ill give my participants some credit. [laughter] parents some credit. Theyll appreciate it. I graduated from Brown University in the mid 90s. I studied economics and political science, and i went to law school at columbia. So i really think reading is very important. I think that, you know, i joke with people its like, oh, you seem really literate. [laughter] when i meet someone. But i mean that in, like, a general win way. I think genuine way. I think the fact that reading was a formative process for me when i was young. I said to someone when i came in this building yesterday, wow, this building looks really happy. I remember coming to libraries as a kid and getting so pumped up and checking out all the biographies of, like, Zachary Taylor tecumseh, whatever. I was a really nerdy kid. You know, the fact that this i also want to take my hat off to katie plato and the library foundation, all the people that made today happen because today is very much an emblem of entrepreneurship where somebody said hey, you know what san antonio would really benefit from . A world class book festival. That takes a tub of work a opportunity of work and a gathering of work. Hats off to the work you do. The more formal education people get, the better off they are general isly speaking. An implication that you dont have to read anymore and im pretty sure im not oh, yeah. I think its terrible. I was also saying that to someone. Not just read, but read books. You know, i like ped it to, like, if you read blog articles, i was likening it to throwing pebbles in a pond. Reading a book is like throwing a boulder in the pond and the boulder sits there at the bottom of the pond, and it makes an impact op your thinking whereas if you read magazine articles, most of them bounce off the season. They dont actually penetrate your mind. So its not just read, its read books, you know . This is great. I get to be a poster child for literacy. [laughter] smart people should read things. But dont stop there right . I mean, thats the risk is that you read the book, and then you use that as a substitute for the actual doing. Yeah. Thats this is true. So i set my narrative because it informs some of the themes of the book. I graduated from law school i went to law school because i had no idea what i wanted to do. Anyone else go to law school because they didnt know what they wanted to do . You might remember it. Its really a terrible place to find yourself. [laughter] you know it doesnt say selfdiscovery school, it says law school. [laughter] so Law School Still left me very much adrift. So i became a corporate attorney in new york because thats what you did out of columbia at that time. I was a corporate attorney for five months [laughter] and i left and said, you know, this isnt a really good fit. I remember going back to my parents and saying i dont think this is the job we raised you to do. They were like, what are you talking about . Is. [laughter] so i left to start a company in 2000. I was 25 years old, and theres a lot of mist similar when someones on mist similar. Oh, start a company what the heck does that even mean . So what it means is you quit your job the first thing and the second thing you do is create a powerpoint deck on your laptop and say hey, this is the company im going to start. Would you like to give me some money . And then you approach rich people for money. What rich people do you know . Like in my case, none. So you ask your friends its like do you know any rich people . Theyre like well, yes i do. And then you end up in theyve living rooms or on their boats being like hey, ive got this idea for a company. Those are the actual mechanics involved. I dont know if that was what you did. We didnt know rich people either and yes, we eventually found some. It was good. [laughter] its an important step. Yeah, it really is. So as a 25yearold with my powerpoint deck its not like people were just throwing money at me. I got rejected over and over and over again until id run out of minute and moved out of my apartment. So six months later someone wrote a check for 25,000 to our fledgling Little Company and i remember running to the bank to cash that check. I better get there before they change their mind, you know, put a stop on this check. Because it seemed like a ton of money to me at the time. We got the money together, launched it. I was on tv with Darius Rucker then he was hootie, now hes Darius Rucker. And the company i thought, was off to the races, and then the bubble burst. And most of you are old enough to remember 2000, 2001. It was like, you know, i speak at College Campuses and i say do you remember a time when your parents were really sad . [laughter] there were, like these arrows going down and a lot of red . You have to say before there was an iphone first, it just sort of encapsulates how long ago that was. Thats true. Were getting on at least im getting on in years. So when the bubble burst my company went out of business because nobody cared about my little dot. Com at that time. Im like 26 i just lost investors a quarter million which seemed like a ton of money at the time. I still owed 1 is 00,000 100,000 in law school debt, my parents were like, what happened to you . We thought you were relatively bright. So the question is what do you do then if your goal is to try to build a company . So i would submit to you all if you could find 26yearold me and say, all right things look pretty bleak, but heres the game plan, what is the plan . What advice would you give that person . [inaudible] im sorry . Yeah. Dont give up. Dont give up, yes. Yeah, why didnt you quit . Well, i mean, the company disappeared out from under me, so i quit in that sense. There was no place to go to work. So the issue that i was trying to address for myself is actually what i started an organization to address for emily and katherine and camille and oh young people which is other young people which is if you want to develop as an entrepreneur, how do you learn . How did you learn . I read no, i wasnt going to say i read books. No books. There was barely even a google. Can you imagine having to learn stuff with no google to back you up . I dont know how we did anything. [laughter] so the tack i took was i should find someone whos better than me at this, which is everyone apparently. And learn from that person. For a period. Become their apprentice. So i became the lieutenant to a more experienced entrepreneur for four years a guy named manu kapur at a software company. And while i was there i learned a lot about how to grow a business. And so i then became the ceo of an Education Company called manhattan gmat that helps people do deathsing in the Business School testing in the Business School. That company was then acquired by the Washington Post in 2009. So when i was at manhattan gmat, i personally told the analyst taught the analyst classes how to do welch on this test, and i was like p man these guys remind me of my time at the law firm. Theyd gotten really good grades and too long the hardest job offer they could get. What am i doing here . I should take the gmat and go to Business School and hit the reset button and get 100k in debt like i did. Years earlier. So when my company was acquired, i thought wow wouldnt everyone just be much better off if we could direct this talent to Early Stage Growth Companies where they would learn how to build and operate a business the way i learned in places like san antonio and new orleans and st. Louis as opposed to having everyone converge not everyone, but having a lot of people con vrnlg on new york and San Francisco and d. C. , boston, chicago and l. A. . Wouldnt that help the country help young people, help businesses help the economy . You know . And i had seen opposite in my law School Experience in class where i saw all these people that were in very, very specialized transactional roles. Do you guys know what a corporate lawyers actually do . [laughter] no offense to corporate lawyers in the room but theyre like these very large wheels, and youre helping them turn. So i started this Organization Called have beenture for America Venture for america to hopefully solve the same problem for todays College Graduates that i faced in my 20s. And so i put in 120k of my own to start the organization in 2011, and our budget was 200,000, so it was me and friends. But this year our budgets around 5 million and supporters include bank of america, ubs, pwc, reid of match, dan gilbert, jeff weep or, tony shea, like people around the cup. And Graham Weston here in san antonio. Thank god for graham. So the organization is built to try and channel people into essentially, like entrepreneurial environments and apprenticeship roles in organizations around the country. The thought is if you want people to learn how to build a business, theyre not going to just learn it on their own. Theyre going to learn alongside someone like dirk who has some experiences, and hopefully theyll be put in a position to have a better sense of what they want to do professionally. And thats part of the complication right . Its not just one thing right . Some people start you joined as number four. There are lots of different roles in that ecosystem to participate, and you dont, you know, my mom used to go what do you do . Computer stuff. That was enough for her. [laughter] turns out thats a pretty broad, thats a pretty broad discipline. [laughter] the same thing for entrepreneurship. Its not just all raising money or starting it or oh, yeah, yeah, completely. So one of the themes of the book is the way people think about entrepreneurship is very, in my experience quite misleading or inaccurate. They think its about creativity or having a great idea. And really, you know, its the idea. I compare it to having a kid where its like conceptions having the idea, but then you have to, like, freaking raise the kid. [laughter] you know what i mean . Then its like nights of waking up and, you know theres going to be some poop. Yeah. And theres gonna be some poop. [laughter] so entrepreneurship is much more about all these like million micro steps you have the take to build an organization like this book festival. I mean, like having the idea is one thing but then actually, like, you know, like telling people about it, showing up every day like pushing the ball forward inch by inch. And those things take years typically. So youre not looking for people who are creative and have great ideas, youre looking for someone who will commit years to a process. And thats what we need more of. Okay now. Front row. Look see . Youre being represented. Youve got a question. Andrew k ive had a chance to work with some of these incredible young talents youre bringing into vfa and hope, actually, to hire one one of these days. But as i look at this still nascent program that youve launched when you look at the number of cities youre in and the size of the budget it sounds like although youre an entrepreneur, youre going to have to be the advantage list for this for maybe evangelist for ten twenty years because its going to keep growing and require you to be in the front of it, the face of it. Does that reconcile with your own thoughts on the timeline for building vfa to its potential . Wow wow. [laughter] way to go front row. [laughter] thats a great question. Very savvy. So when i launched venture for america, i thought to myself for this thing to have a prayer, im going to need to be here for five years minimum so im not even allowed to think about anything else for five years. At the end of five years, ill look up and evaluate. So five years is one year away and looking at it, i think youre totally right that at the fiveyear mark im going to probably reup for another five years mentally. But, yeah, it turns out these things like, you know, organizations take different periods of time to buildment to their potential. And i think venture for america is just scratching the surface of what we can be. Ive already resigned not resigned, i mean im excited about the fact that this is going to be the defining thing i do in my life professionally. I mean like i have two priorities, its venture for america and my family, you know . And thats just the way it is. Congratulations. Yeah thanks. Yeah, you should hire someone. [laughter] working on it. On the evangelism front theres a major documentary being shot on venture america right now, and its probably going to premiere at south by southwest next year. Its telling the story of 10 or 12 of our fellows who are building businesses in detroit. We have 34 young people in detroit right now, and some of them have started companies. So theres a documentary film group has an oscarnominated producer 1. 5 million budget. So hopefully itll spread the word. What do you think People Struggle the hardest theyre coming in to try and find this path, what do you think they struggle with the most in this process . What do they find the most challenging . You know, i think the transition from school to Early Stage Companies is difficult because theres a lot that you need to define for yourself in the company context. Its very muddy, you know . Like i describe it as space where when you go to school and if youre a good student its pretty structured, you know . Tests, like book reports youve got to do them. Then you get to a company and its like okay, you know, figure out how to drive the growth of the company and, you know its up to you to define how youre going to spend your time. You have to prioritize for yourself the maximal thing you can do. So i think thats really difficult for a lot of people in the transition. Like they get there and they also crave some degree of affirmation that might not be there. They might crave a degree of feedback or evaluation might not be there. If youre used to getting as and youre there for three months and no one tells you anything good you start having doubts as to where or. The other thing and you and i chatted about too is a lot of young people are very competitive in terms of, like, the way theyre progressing professionally or even monetarily. So if youre in an environment where its muddy and its unclear how much of progress youre making and youre not sure how much youre advancing or what your opportunities are going to be and then you have a friend whos, like, working at some like, Reputable Company or going to, like, a high value graduate program or something you think wait, am i like, screwing up . Am i like, falling behind that person . And then you start having these doubts as to, you know, the choices in life and what not. Not to make too much of it, but i actually think that stuff is the most difficult part for many young people who head to less structured environments. Its complicated, you dont know if you made the right decision before its too late. Yeah, because, again, you have to invest years for any significant data, do you know what i mean . If you want data immediately youre probably in the wrong in the wrong game. Probably, yeah. Do you guys want to inject another question . No . So how did you convince people to give you millions of dollars to do this . Wow. You know, i think venture for america is just the right idea at the right time. I think people it sounds for young people, like, why are they devoting themselves professionally to what was then a new organization . Well, they want to build a business. They want a degree of Training Network support prestige, like all these things that these Big Companies are giving them. For the company b and as an operator, how many of you run a business in here . Probably at least a few of you, right . If you run a business, you know that there are always issues identifying talented people to enlist particularly if youre a relatively small firm because no ones heard of you or what not. Were solving a problem for the companies, for the communities. So a city like san antonio, you know wants as much talent as it can get, keep as much talent as it produces. And people on a National Level want there to be more dynamic Growth Companies around the country. So i think were solving problems for everyone in every direction. Its like a win win win. And theres also a lot of good fortune and a lot of its like anything elsewhere, you know, if you look at any step in the way, like i can point to a particular human being who stepped up and said, like hey andrew, let me help make happen for you. One of the dynamics around starting an organization is that theres a massive team effort involved. There are a lot of people that reach out and help you, and then you individually get like a little bit too much of the credit because, like, youve got to give credit to someone and its easiest to give credit to the individual. But most any founder will tell you that there were dozens of people involved, and the same is true for us. Hundreds of people involved. Actually right now its thousands. Same thing. You get to accrue a lot of goodwill as a founder for a lot of work everybody else did. So if that sounds good to you, you should be a founder. [laughter] you dont get that dividend on day one though. No, no, no. No. [laughter] i mean one of the other themes of the book is that entrepreneurships like extraordinarily trying and demanding on, like, personal levels so its not like oh, im going to be my own boss, its a great way to get rich. Really not much of that applies. [laughter] sometimes it would be nice to have a boss. Yeah sometimes, you know . I have a wife, which is the same thing. [laughter] at least in our marriage. [laughter] yeah. So, you know, i think in the best of cases you start an organization because you really want to solve a particular problem. And if thats what drives you then your odds of success go up. So when you started, you had this kind of clear idea around kind of vetting and connecting and solving this problem. I guess how has that refined as i mean, now youve been doing it for a couple years. Hows that refind as youve gone a refined as youve gone along . You know, what ive realized is that and this is partially because im a parent relatively recently, you know . My sons two and a half, and my second is due in august, two little boys, anyone has boys. And when i started venture for america, i thought, oh, thisll be great, you know . Get people to do this in these places as opposed to this in these places and im like everybody wins. Everyone wins. But you realize that the transformation actually takes place inside the individual. If you believe that and to the teachers question or comment in the beginning, our brains dont finish wiring themselves until our mid 20s, like 25, 26. So if you graduated from college and felt like you didnt have it all figured out like of course you didnt. You werent even freaking, you know like biologically complete. [laughter] how are you going to know . So the formative experiences you have between the ages of, lets say, 22 and 26 are immensely important in terms of forming like, what sort of person youll be and what your political professional aspirations are going to be. And so with venture for america what i thought of was like, hey you know, people do this in this place instead of this. It actually ends up being what happens inside of, you know, their head or, you know, their spirit during those years ends up being the crucial question or factor as to what theyre going to do afterwards. And so not to be too deep about it, i realize were not creating companies, were helping complete young people into the sort of people they want to be. And if you do that successfully some of them will Start Companies. Not all, because that would be ridiculous. Right now about 25 of our graduates have started a company. And to me, thats very, very high because youre talking people who are 22, you know, and having them for two years. Youre also creating a playbook so that they can do that, and they feel okay about doing it right . Yeah. And so much of thats, like i mean, would you have given the 25yearold a quarter of a Million Dollars to do your idea . Well, we didnt get it from any one perp. Would i have given them 25 grand . [laughter] and i think the first person who gave us money i seriously think is just because they felt bad for me. [laughter] it wasnt even like, oh, this is going to make me rich. It was like, oh man, andrew, here you go. Go do it. So would i have given myself money on that level . Maybe. You know i think, i think that role models are hugely important. I think one reason why having you up here is awesome and the fact that everyone knows your story here is great. When i was at law school or when i was in law school, and you hebb this maybe remember maybe, there were certain things that were held up to you as super awesome, like clerking. The most awesome thing you can do. What is clerking . Clerking means you go work for a judge and help write their opinions for one year. And its considered really prestigious. Economically. And then you get to the law firm and its like do you know whats awesome . Being a partner at this law firm is super awesome. So as a young person, you respond to whatever the role mod hells are. If models are. You know whats awesome . Starting a company in detroit. That is awesome. And people will look at it and be like, oh interesting. Maybe i should try and do that. The institutional so theres another misperception that entrepreneurs are born. Who thinks that . Born entrepreneur, not born entrepreneur . You know, at least someone. [laughter] and to me its like a parent that apparent that people respond to role models and narratives people respond to resources, people respond to institutions that if we tell our top people, hey, its not enough to get your hand stamped and go get paid. Like that actually will not remake our society any like, great way economically or socially. Like your job should be to try to create opportunity toes not just for yourself, but for some other people too. If you just present the challenge, thats what people will try and do. One of the problems that venture for america is trying to address is that we dont think were asking enough of our young people. We think that were asking them to like, advance within institutions and then, like assume positions that we understand. But what we need them to do is actually build institutions that will help lead us where we want to go can. And to go. And law schools a good example where a lot of parents still do you have kids that you like you know, say hey, you should go to law school . Is that and theyre like robs laughing because the National Data is such that its almost clearly theres a surplus of Law School Graduates to the tune of tens of thousands of year. And to this point its more or less like a tax. [laughter] on people who are attending. And the debt load is nondischargeable even through personal bankruptcy thanks to some good lobbying on the part of some lenders. So thats, to me, a great example. Like a yesterday solution for tomorrow. What we need to do is apply the tomorrow solutions which its going to be up to them to invent. So you use things to be more flexible and more responsive and more open. Yes yeah. Thats the hope, that if we push them to help define their futures and know that without their help that the opportunities are not necessarily going to be there then its a much more honest conversation. So one of the interesting things, you brought up detroit but you always talk to me a lot about san antonio. What do you find so interesting about san antonio as an opportunity for venture for america . San antonio has everything that we look for which is that, one, its got a robust set of Early Stage Companies that are looking to grow and expand. So thats great. Because our thesis is that the average College Senior should not be starting a company and if you ask them to do so, it probably would not work out very well. So we need companies for them to work inside of and help grow, and san antonio has that. We look for a supportive leadership which we have here thanks really to you and graham and the platos and so many other people here in the community that have embraced us. And then the third thing that its not right now receiving natively an inflow of talent at the same levels as the coastal cities. Yeah were still working on that. Yeah. Thats part of it too, i think to myself, look theres a war for talent going on in the country right now. Some people are fighting and some people arent. But you have to acknowledge that in order to be able to compete effectively. Oh, look. Back rows back. Trying to think of how to word this, but do you think theres a place for your young people in some social settings like education . I work in a school, and we have problems in education. Or do you think that your concept works and they build a company, and they have these social awareness like mr. Graham who, westen, who, you know, his thing is rebuilding cities. And does it work . Can it work both ways . Well, congratulations on the work you do. I mean, i think that i ran an Education Company. I think educations vital. I think that the work on the ground like the last miles always the most important thing. You can have like, education policy, but it comes down to whats going on in the classroom, whats going on with that individual student. Whether valerie and selena are learning what they need to learn on a dayin dayout basis. So its certainly not an either or, is what i would say. Its just that there are some young people that would 100 be extraordinary teachers, and thats completely what initialed do, you know . What they should do, you know . What were suggesting in part is that everyone should try and do the things that theyre most designed to do or wired to do. And the problem we see is that there are a lot of people that are doing things they are not designed to do because thats whats being presented to them or thats whats being presented as achievement or success or thats what pays the most money. Thats what were trying to break up. Were just trying to make it like my dream is that people do what it is they ought to be doing. And i know for many young people thats 100 being a teacher and being an educator, and thats great. Theres also been some shift in this thinking around teach for america. I mean, in some ways you have some parallels, right . Oh, yeah sure. If anyone didnt catch that, we pretty much named ourselves as teach for america for startups. Im an uncreative guy and you can name something obvious, thats what you should do. [laughter] but, yeah. So we teach for america has proven many things that people would not have thought necessarily would have been possible. And theyve grown to become like a national institution. And if we can the same then, you know, wed be thrilled. Lets go to dan, this guy. Andrew, you made a great case for young people that are interested in entrepreneurship in turning themselves into a successful entrepreneur, but i wonder what your thoughts are before that. What do you think is the ideal education for an aspiring entrepreneur . Should they just get a good liberal Arts Education or are there things they should learn in the classroom about Accounting Finance marketing that sort of thing . Thats a great question, and i think about that a lot as a parent. Hey, what are we going to do with you . I feel like hes going to grow up with so much pressure because his dad started an Organization Called venture for america. Im a big believer in formal education, so venture for america as an example we only take ap applicants who graduated college. So we just drew that line. And certainly i made the comment earlier today i think the emphasis on s. T. E. M. Education is great. I think more people who are studying engineering and science and math but there is so much value to be had like, in every realm, and its not all people who work with computer stuff, as dirk put it. That with venture for america we take artists we take anthropologists, we take creatives. The ceo of the company in detroit theyre doing Real Estate Property management, he was a creative writing major at wesleyan and was a playwright, you know . If you look at the people who are entrepreneurs out there, a lot of them have really creative backgrounds and were not engineers or math majors or what not. Like if you just actually just line up like 20 even the Silicon Valley ceos, a lot of them studied something that was not s. T. E. M. So i would say that if you have a child and youre thinking like hey, you know, i want them to be potentially like entrepreneurial, just encourage them to be good at school. Find what it is that they enjoy studying and just tell em to kick butt at it. Oh, theyre not going to become too good a student. There really shouldnt be a problem on that level. Wait, all the way in the back. Ive been thinking a lot about apprenticeships, and i never really thought about about i prenticeships to be a intend neuro, but we dont vail really have an Apprenticeship Program like they do in europe. I wanted sort of a follow up to your believing in formal education. I went to law school, so clearly i guess i believe in that somewhat. Sort of do you think we would benefit from more of an aprep disship Apprenticeship Program in this country or we should stick with what were doing . I 100 think we should freaking ramp up aprep disships to the german level. Germany has three levels of education. One is like our four years, another is socially a two years and then go to work, and one is straight apprenticeship. We should do the same sort of thing. Venture for america was inspired by the apprenticeship model certainly the ideas, but also the israeli model. Israel is, by any metric, the most entrepreneurial country in the world. And they have mandatory military service. Obviously, you know, im not suggesting that, but they have p mandatory military service for two years before college and then they travel, so by the time they graduate theyre typically 24, 25 and they Start Companies at very high levels in part because theyve all made buddies with each other and operated as teams in the military for two years, people from different parts of society. So, you know, like the im all for a gap year as an example. If you can take a year off between high school and college thats great for your personal development. Yes to apprenticeship, gap years, yes to getting people out of the classroom and into more work environments. Here we go. As long as youre saying yes to everything i was curious if youd ever consider yeah. [laughter] for those of us who are, everybodys living longer and many of us had multiple careers in our lifetime, would you ever consider a venture for america for old or folks . [laughter] [applause] so another misconception about entrepreneurship is that its for young people. The average age of a perp who starts a company in the u. S. Is close to 40. Thats like the median. Most entrepreneurs are actually experienced professionals by the time they start a business. I would love for there to be a venture for america for more experienced professionals. I think itd be very value add. What drives me is really this inefficiency in our allocation of talent and energy. And thats everywhere, you know . Its like were picking the low happening fruit which is postcollege, but like i know what exists at every level of the economy and every experience level. And wed like to get there eventually. If someone wrote me a check thered be a venture america yeah. We have one more in the middle. [inaudible conversations] do you screen . How do you do you screen the companies, the Startup Companies that the young people go to work for, and how do you do that . So we have a team that meets with managers and tries to assess how the opportunity would be for recent college graduate, whether itd be a Good Development opportunity. We have more companies than we have fellows so this year well have approximately 200 job offers for about 140 fellows as a competitive aspect. But, yeah, we do vent and screen companies, and we have a fulltime team that goes around. They have a good job. They get to go meet with startup managers and founders which is like my favorite thing to do. [inaudible] so the success excuse me. The success rates very good. On the company side, 75 of fellows are rated in the top 1 to top 10 . Theres a relocation as in the fellow ends up at a different p company. Like a significant portion of the time but less than, you know id say its around 30 or so is, 30, 35 . Within the two years. [inaudible] the fellow changes jobs. What about coaching . You mean a company goes out of business . Theres probably a failure rate of about 20 within the two years. Some of these companies go under. So if youre a young person, this is great. You get to see a company go you under, youre totally find. Hey, venture for america, my company went under, can i get a new one . [laughter] were giving you in some ways like resume and downside protection. So they were giving me the signal, so i would say that andrew is going to be out there signing books, so if you have more questions for him hell be available. And i just want to thank you so much. Thank you. [applause] itll be upstairs in the jahuli room is where you can find him. [inaudible conversations] and now from san antonio, texas, photographer eli reed discusses his book, a long walk home. [inaudible conversations] you hear me . All right. Good afternoon. Thank you for your patience. And thank you very much for coming to the third annual san antonio book festival. And just a reminder, as soon as this session is over mr. Reed will be signing books up on second floor and a portion of our proceeds will go to san san antonio public library. To avoid any confusion, there are at least two public figures who are named eli reed. One is this amazing photojournalist who is with us today, and the other is a talented r b singer who goes by the name of eli paper boy reed. [laughter] so if you came here to afternoon [laughter] expecting to see hear this guy i think hes going to be in brooklyn next weekend. But we have the real eli reed. And we are in the presence of a great artist and a great storyteller and a great conscience. If you can understand how Louis Armstrong could interpret the blues and joys of a people through a trumpet, if you can appreciate how shakespeare could sketch the full range of emotions with a pen then you can know how eli reed is able to capture and preserve thes sense of our humanity with his camera. He has made documentaries and don still photography work on such films as poetic justice higher l