After a four-year hiatus, the Joshua Venture Group re-launched at the end of June and is back with a new executive director, Lisa Lepson. Lepson was the guest speaker at the first Jumpstart Innovation Forum, which took place at The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles on Nov. 19, part of a national tour, one part of which is to inform the community of an upcoming social entrepreneurial fellowship.
The forum was the first in a series offered by Jewish Jumpstart, an incubator for Jewish innovation, which was founded by Shawn Landres and Joshua Avedon. Lepson spoke to the crowd of approximately 50 about the Joshua Venture Group and its Dual Investment Program, which will have eight fellows in its 2010-2012 cohort of young Jewish social entrepreneurs. Participants receive $40,000 annually for two years to start their ventures, along with health benefits, a toolkit including invitations to their semi-annual retreats and the opportunity to be part of a community.
Abbie Schiller, president and founder of The Mother Company, learned of the forum from Jumpstart, through Facebook and Twitter, and said it was helpful. “[Entrepreneurship] can be a truly alienating, lonely world,” she said. “To find a community of like-minded, intelligent individuals is so refreshing.”
