Episode description

Picture this; You're a new high school graduate in August 2020 and the COVID crisis has forced all your college classes online. Your university has announced it is still going to charge you full tuition to attend in the fall.

What would you rather do; Pay $50k in tuition for online classes? Or take a $50k investment to skip school in the fall and build a company?

Danielle Strachman is a Founder and General Partner of the 1517 fund, a VC firm that invests in makers, hackers, and scientists working outside of traditional institutions. Danielle was also one of the founding members and director of the Thiel Foundation, a program that gave $100k grants to entrepreneurs under 20 years old as an alternative to college, and also co-founded the Innovations Academy, a project based charter school working to help students have more purposeful learning.

During our discussion, Danielle and I take a look at the Invisible College program, and how Danielle and her partners are giving students amazing opportunities by investing $50k in ideas and R&D-stage teams that want to work outside of school in the fall.

We also dive deeper into how building Innovations Academy and the Theil Foundation helped shaped the 1517 fund’s philosophies of investing in young minds, and how it has already lead to some amazing results.

And finally, we take a look at the current educational system in America and how colleges are no longer set up to help students succeed like they were in the past.
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The Invisible College: https://www.1517fund.com/post/invisible-college
1517 Fund: https://www.1517fund.com/

Danielle Strachman - https://twitter.com/DStrachman