On Wednesday, June 16th, GGF’s Program Lead Sandra Waithaka, hosted our 2nd annual Alumni Panel with a live Q+A. The Panel was intended to answer any questions about the Fellowship and to give insights on what the program looks like from people who have gone through it before. Alumni Zak Kaufman of VeraSolutions, Amanat Anand of SoaPen, Marquett Burton of FletchApp, and current Fellow Danya Sherman of KnoNap were able to provide those insights.
A broad range of questions were asked and many aspects of the Fellowship were clarified. Some insightful takeaways from each Panelist are highlighted below and the link to the Facebook recording of the Q+A is here.
Marquett discussed how the Fellowship helps make your company more global and helps you scale the impact of your venture. He identified GGF as unique from other organizations in how GGF helps you connect with people who are very different from you, so that you get that diverse perspective, but also with people who are very similar to you so that you also feel “at home” and comfortable in the program.
Amanat provided recommendations for future applicants, that GGF is looking for any entrepreneur who is solving problems that many communities face and are doing so with very innovative solutions. Also, for an individual who is looking to be in a community such as the GGF Fellows cohort where they are giving back.
Zak helped clarify what the $10,000 targeted capital can be used for. He emphasized that it is best not to have a set plan for the capital before going through the program. He learned it can be used for many different things. It has to be focused around enhancing your leadership capabilities. For him, one of those things included spending more time on his physical and mental health. He used part of the funds to buy a Headspace account and started meditating so that he could sustain his drive and passion for his venture more long term. The money can be used in a variety of ways, but helping you network, host meetings, and improve skills you want to get better at, are just a few more examples.
Danya provided a slightly different outlook since she is still in the 2021 Fellowship. She highlighted how this Fellowship cultivates you individually as a leader, which will in turn grow and help your company too, which is another way that The Global Good Fund Fellowship is different from other Fellowship programs.
All of these Fellows and Alumni emphasized how important and impactful their business mentor and executive coach relationship was to their company’s growth. They all still keep in contact with their mentors, and continue to network with the other Alumni and Fellows in their year, as well as other cohors.
The sense of community was evident to everyone on the call, as when the panelists were asked at the end to use one word to describe their GGF experience, “community” was echoed twice. The other two words were “growth” and “introspection.”
We hope everyone on the call, and everyone reading this feels the urge to apply for our Fellowship, or knows someone else who would be interested. Click here to learn more and start your application. There are only two weeks left until applications close, so don’t wait!