Introducing the Inaugural Promising Ventures Fellowship Class of 2019
Today, 33% of children in the U.S. are not ready for kindergarten. That number increases to over 50% for children from lower income families. At Promise Venture Studio, we believe that we can make meaningful progress toward closing the achievement gap when social entrepreneurs can scale the impact of evidence-based solutions for young children and families facing the greatest adversities.
Our Promising Ventures Fellowship Program is our newest program to help a select group of early childhood ventures make breakthrough progress toward such growth and impact. That is why we are so excited to introduce our inaugural class of 2019.
Promising Ventures Fellowship — Class of 2019
Read up on these 12 early childhood ventures to learn about their mission and impact.
Together with our partner, The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (HCDC), we selected the twelve Fellowship teams based on their current outcomes, potential for scaled impact, and our ability to support them in achieving their ambitious growth and impact goals.
Ranging from new startups to long-time field-contributors, the teams are diverse in terms of skills, experience, and background:
50% are nonprofit organizations; 50% are for-profit companies.
50% reach populations that are >95% disadvantaged.
33% have six or fewer FTEs, while 25% have 60 or more FTEs.
89% are female-led.
The Fellowship runs for three months and is designed to meet each team where it is with customized support including:
Direct support toward achieving ambitious goals for impact and growth.
Connections to experts and resources from the Promise network.
One-on-one advising from a senior Promise partner.
Adaptive leadership skills development in peer group huddles.
“Our team came with a strong tech background, but was new to the early childhood space. The Fellowship has provided such in-depth support that has accelerated our design, growth, and connections in the field. It’s been instrumental to our day-to-day thinking and to our overall mission to make child specialists accessible and affordable to every family.”
— Jessica Toh, co-founder and CEO of Huckleberry
Beyond accelerating the journey to scaled impact for these twelve ventures, the Fellowship gives us an opportunity to understand more deeply the needs of social entrepreneurs in the early childhood field. Such insight will help us continue to evolve programming for our larger Promise Venture Network, a growing community of hundreds of social entrepreneurs and leaders in the early childhood space.
Thank you to the inaugural Promising Ventures Fellowship class of 2019 for welcoming us as part of your teams this summer. We feel honored to work with you.
