Get access to experienced
non-tech talent
For companies seeking a sustainable pipeline of quality talent, becoming a Venture for Africa partner means access to experienced mid to senior-level professionals that can hit the ground running, deliver key results, and potentially stay on as full-time team members.
HOW IT WORKS
Step 1
Role optimisation call with the hiring manager.
Step 4
Top candidates shortlisted to VFA Partner dashboard
Step 2
Role uploaded to VFA’s network of experienced professionals.
Step 5
Startup interview(s) with the fellow.
Step 3
Qualified applicants interviewed and rated by VFA
Step 6
Final candidate decisions made by Startup.
BEHIND THE SCENES
VFA works with startup partners who are looking to hire mid to senior-level talent across product, finance, data and growth-focused roles.
We evaluate the best fit from our talent pool which is made up of skilled local African and global talent who want to transition to working with high-growth startups.
We take qualified candidates through our selection process and provide our startup partners with a shortlist of prospective fellow profiles to review and interview top candidates.
Successful candidates are given fellowship offers by VFA and matched with a startup partner for 3 months, during which they work on outlined deliverables and receive a monthly stipend.
What we're looking for
VFA offers fellowship programs designed to help startups effectively fill talent gaps. Startups who work with us are carefully vetted and fully committed to bringing in the best talent to drive the ecosystem forward.
Our partners are:
ACTIVELY HIRING FOR KEY ROLES
As some of the fastest-growing on the continent, startups that work with VFA are actively sourcing talent to fill key roles on the continent, across functions. They commit to interviewing candidates who complete VFA fellowship programs.
REQUIRE EXPERIENCED HANDS
We work with our startup partners to understand the deliverables required within the first three months of each available role and use that information to recruit experience top-quality talent from across the continent and beyond. We provide the platform to connect both parties, where fellows can begin to deliver on key results from day one.
Partners we've worked with
Hear from our partners
Cathy Chepkemboi
CEO
Tushop
I find the model VFA offers quite attractive because as a young company trying to hire senior talent, you don’t want to make the mistake of bringing someone who the team will reject, in terms of culture fit. The team also stayed on top of the process with us. I don’t know how we would have found the fellow we worked with without VFA. His culture fit has been 110%.
Priscilla Queirolo
Head of Growth
Diool
VFA provided high-quality candidate profiles and managed the first part of identifying and attracting potential candidates; which is one of the most time-consuming phases for a startup at our stage. There was also clear and constant communication throughout the engagement which was something we highly valued.
Ike Eze
CEO
AjoCard
The Venture for Africa model has worked quite well for us as it’s generally tougher to convince experienced profiles to jump into startups full-time from the start. You usually have to tick more boxes and provide stronger assurances to them. The way I would describe it is it’s almost as if VFA is for executives what internships are for students coming out of college and I like the output we've seen from the fellows we've placed so far.
Alex Dobyan
Data Analytics Manager
Sokowatch
If you have a job description for a role or business problem that you want to tackle, so far, VFA has shown a pretty good intuition to be able to take that and find someone within its pool of candidates that will be able to make an impact in a fast-growing startup.
Chijioke Dozie
CEO
Carbon
One of the things that has been beneficial is that a lot of the fellows are people who - while they like to work in teams, they have the capacity and experience to work independently or semi-independently. This means they are able to work on a project for 12 weeks and solve problems. I can give a VFA fellow a task to do and without having to guide them or micro-manage them; they can actually deliver that project in the given time frame.
Kago Kagichiri
Former Global Head of Innovation
Sokowatch
Angelina was a great addition to the team, and we were quite impressed with her work. She took the lead as the main UX researcher on the team, and she was also very adaptable. Overall we were happy with the experience and are keen on working with more VFA fellows in future.
Ann-Elise Francis
Head of Growth
Turaco
This was a great experience to get a highly-skilled professional to join our team for 3 months. VFA did the heavy lifting in understanding Turaco's needs and who might fit with our culture. Olivia's work has set the foundation for Turaco understanding who it is as a brand and where we want to go. Without her expertise and guidance, we wouldn't have been able to accomplish what we did, at least not in 3 months!
