A Summer of Learning: Reflections from Tsai CITY’s Summer Fellows
For the second year in a row, Tsai CITY’s Summer Fellowship took place virtually — but that did not deter this year’s cohort from fully embracing the multi-week, full-time accelerator. Featuring discussions, panels, one-on-one mentoring, and a $15,000 grant, 15 fellowship teams were able to leverage these resources and transform their ideas into full on ventures.
Ahead of their presentations at Tsai CITY’s annual Demo Day on August 19th — a chance for fellows to highlight their work — Frailty Myths, Funbotics, and PF Glucose reflected on their summer experiences: what they learned, how their projects have evolved, and what comes next after a summer of growth.
Meet Three of the Summer Fellowship Teams
Frailty Myths
Founded by Georgia Hirsty (SOM ’22) and Erinn Carter, Frailty Myths applies the proven effectiveness of experiential learning to Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion programming by pairing hands-on skills with facilitated conversations in workshops for communities and workplaces.
Although they’ve been doing programming for the last five years, Georgia and Erinn decided to apply for Tsai CITY’s summer accelerator to scale the work they’re doing and have an even bigger impact. For Georgia and Erinn, that meant learning how to integrate the fundamentals of accounting, marketing, graphic designing etc. — topics the accelerator explores in depth — into the programming they’ve already built.
Funbotics
Started by Pranav Avasarala (YC ’22) and Andonny Garcia (YC ‘22), Funbotics seeks to ignite passion for STEM in under-resourced and underrepresented communities of youth across the country by providing free access to STEM education. Originally founded in northern Virginia in 2016, Funbotics expanded its robotics camps to Yale in 2018 as an undergraduate organization, partnering with Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science, Yale Pathways to Science, and Dwight Hall at Yale. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the venture shifted to virtual engineering camps that students could participate in from home.
Funbotics took part in the Tsai CITY 2021 Spring Accelerator, which helped them create an organizational structure and mission, and decided to apply for the Summer Fellowship to continue receiving mentorship at Tsai CITY.
PF Glucose
Led by Rohan Ahluwalia (YC ’24), PF Glucose aims to reduce the pain, inconvenience, and expense associated with glucose monitoring devices by producing a non-invasive device. Its device allows patients to painlessly and inexpensively detect their blood glucose values. Seeking mentorship, connections, and funding, Rohan decided to apply to the Summer Fellowship to take his new startup to the next level.
Fellowship Takeaways
“The fellowship has been a holistic and meaningful time for us to professionalize.” — Georgia Hirsty
The fellowship’s virtual nature proved challenging for experiential learning and hands-on focused projects like Frailty Myths. Georgia described that finding places to connect as a cohort could be difficult at times, and she felt herself yearning for face-to-face interactions with other entrepreneurs in the program. Rohan similarly described that the virtual nature of the program did not provide participants the same sense of community as in previous years.
Despite that, many fellows felt that program managers did a great job fostering community and support virtually, making sessions fun and encouraging relationship building among the cohort. Participants even received boxes featuring items from each other’s ventures, which Erinn described was a “great way to connect with everyone” and learn about each project first-hand.
While the fellowship might have looked differently sans COVID-19, its virtual nature allowed participants to complete the program from anywhere in the world, including Erinn and Georgia who are both California-based. Following a year’s efforts of integrating accessibility into virtual programming, the summer fellowship was no different. As a remote, non-Yale participant, Erinn still found the resources accessible and the virtual space welcoming as instructors and other participants were eager to help. Despite the challenges, the fellowship made them both realize the importance of networking and navigating connection-making within virtual spaces as they continue to build their own inclusive programming. Much like Frailty Myths, Funbotics gained deep insights into all of the aspects of running a successful venture, from managing a team to logistics and legal components. The fellowship’s $15,000 funding allowed Funbotics to create a budget and sustainable model to run their programs. The team solidified its social media presence, and engaged with alumni through digital newsletters. Pranav and Andonny also stated that the fellowship taught them how to recruit and manage a bigger team. These skills, coupled with a persistence to create partnerships with engineering corporations such as Creality, allowed them to deploy a free, three-day 3D printing bootcamp which served over 50 students, giving many of them free 3D printers.
Funbotics had also hoped to launch its robotics and Arduino camp this August but building off the sustainable models the team created during the fellowship, Pranav and Andonny realized that there was a lot more unexplored potential with the curriculum. The team decided to continue developing its curriculum to make it a truly unique and life changing experience for future participants.
“The fellowship has specifically helped me grow by providing me [with] skills to manage founder burnout and giving me a community that supports each other.” — Rohan Ahluwalia
Like Frailty Myths and Funbotics, the fellowship allowed Rohan to learn the building blocks of a startup from understanding the value of market research to identifying customer’s needs. Through mentorship, PF Glucose grew its capital, continued researching and developing, expanded its team, and identified important next steps, which include testing prototypes. Beyond growing their ventures, the fellowship cultivated personal growth for participants as innovators, students, and members of a learning community.
All teams cited how valuable having one-on-one mentorship was in developing their business fundamentals throughout the summer. Paired with experienced advisors, each team had direct access to someone who pointed them towards resources, guided their planning, and pushed them out of their comfort zones. Not only is Tsai CITY’s fellowship providing students with networking, funding, and learning opportunities, but it’s committed to building a comprehensive ecosystem of mentorship and collaboration.
“Tsai CITY has taught me the value of mentorship. It is admirable to tackle a problem on your own, but as a team you can make great leaps.” — Andonny Garcia
Next Steps
The summer fellowship enabled participants to identify the next steps that would propel their ventures forward, leveraging mentorship and accessible spaces to do so. While Frailty Myths hopes to integrate more business fundamentals into their programming, Funbotics wants to build on their established curriculums to run more 3D printing bootcamps and develop new curriculums to further engage existing Funbotics students. And PF Glucose will continue R&D, with the hopes of starting a clinical trial to test its prototype by the end of the year.
Whatever next steps lie ahead for this summer’s cohort, it’s evident the Tsai CITY fellowship provided them with the building blocks and resources to keep learning and moving forward. As the center continues providing different accelerators for eager innovators, prioritizing feedback, reflections, and ideas for programming will play a key role in further strengthening an ecosystem of collaborative innovation.
To learn more and see what these teams are up to, follow them on social media @frailtymyths and @funbotics_org. To hear from our other teams’ experiences tune into Tsai CITY’s annual Demo Day on August 19th.
