Positive outcomes from VOYAGERS
VOYAGERS is all about peer support — people in the community helping each other achieve impact. Here are some examples of the positive outcomes we get to hear about in the community.
•Leon shared a stage with President Obama after an introduction by Alby
•Anshika won £700,000 in grants after an introduction by Tess to a grant application writer
•Tam made an introduction for Sophia that led to Sir Richard Branson intervening to ensure the safe evacuation of Afghan women and children after Kabul fell to the Taliban; and Ariel introduced Sophia via a connection to a member of the Norwegian royal family to help support the Afghan refugees (“Who knew that Sophia and I would end up becoming best friends — she is really the kind of person who lights my heart on fire so I’m so happy and grateful to you for facilitating the community”)
•Oliver found a mentor and startup adviser on a VOYAGERS cycle ride
•Fiona and Laura collaborated to give cancer researchers access to patient data
•Sophia found an investor through the VOYAGERS Health-Tech group WhatsApp chat for her mental-health app
•Stephen hired a marketing lead through the VOYAGERS network
•Nadav and Eviatar launched Climate First, a climate-tech accelerator programme, after meeting in a VOYAGERS WhatsApp group
•Cosima hired a senior health-service executive within 24 hours thanks to an introduction by Pavel
•Harry gave Zack an investment term-sheet after meeting on a VOYAGERS adventure
•Nadine received investment and speaking opportunities, and an introduction to a Harvard team for a collaboration
•Matt offered pro bono help to a London hospital to help develop its innovation processes
•Pippa ran a workshop on self-publishing
•Harpreet offered Vishal a senior editorial introduction at The Lancet
•Alby connected Natalie‘s organisation with an investment firm to conduct COVID research in Oxford
•Ariel and Ben received help from the group in 3D printing Covid protective equipment for hospitals in Zanzibar
•Jason gave a lecture to Sandra‘s students at Columbia
•Tom met the founding team from his fund’s first investment in our WhatsApp group chat
•Nik sourced a recruiter via our newsletter’s “asks and offers”
•Sarah was introduced to the TED Talks team after sharing her story at our Lazy Book Club
•Mehdi was introduced to senior NHS executives to present a portable diagnostics device
•Bella and Sophia leveraged the network’s connections to enable hundreds of Afghan girls and women to leave the country
•Jake invested in two companies he met via VOYAGERS “and have learnt so much about incredibly specific sustainability niches”
•Laura and Fiona collaborated to develop effective personalised cancer treatments
•Nazneen shared an opportunity to obtain grant funding for regulatory work which brought five-figure grants to Povl, Sylvain and Laura
•Mario and Annika found jobs through VOYAGERS connections
•Ramesh invested in Stephanie‘s company after meeting on a VOYAGERS adventure
•Jeff offered to review startup pitches; Marc took away “some excellent feedback on our seed deck as well as super insightful thoughts on valuation”
•Shweta found her first investor “and an amazing partnership through members I met on the group – can I just say how useful it has been to be part of the VOYAGERS community”
•Remy found that joining an “outstanding” VOYAGERS trip sparked new friendships that months later were proving professionally valuable
•Jack found that a VOYAGERS dinner meetup led to “3 potential business deals and 1 potential investment, totally casually”
•Mathias received direct approaches with funding interest after our monthly newsletter mentioned his company’s fundraise
•Huw met Michael on a VOYAGERS cycle and that led to a new job
•Tom invested in Yudi‘s business after they met in a VOYAGERS chat group; Tom then introduced Yudi to Michele, who invested personally and made an introduction to a fund that led a round
•Caitlin invested in ecoLocked after meeting the co-founder in a VOYAGERS workshop about running successful boards. Caitlin also hired Roberta, who she met in VOYAGERS, as her fund’s investment analyst
•Eshel is working for Yair‘s fund after meeting through VOYAGERS
•Andreas and Marta sourced a hire through VOYAGERS
•An Israeli VOYAGER met a Canadian VOYAGER and discussed relocating to work for his company
•Claire found an auditor to secure a grant via our health group
•Galia met the main scientific adviser for her company through the network
•A Health-Tech VOYAGER messaged our WhatsApp group to ask if anyone had with a rare cancer affecting a family member; within 15 minutes she had a recommendation for a specialist surgeon who saw the relative within days (“The power of your community is unreal!!”)
•A Health-Tech VOYAGER sent us this message in the days after Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed: “I never thought that your group was going to be a lifesaver! The information flow in the WhatsApp group made all the difference allowing us to stay ahead of events as they unfolded. Despite the phenomenal speed of the collapse, we were able to mitigate, brief shareholders, staff and suppliers by Friday lunchtime – enlisting crucial support, early. I first learned about SVB difficulties in the VOYAGERS WhatsApp group on Thursday evening. Had I not seen the info flow then I would have had no clue on Friday morning.”
•Ravi’s academic partner dropped out last-minute from a medical-grant application and he found a replacement by posting a message in our health-tech WhatsApp chat, “which has only been possible because of VOYAGERS”
•Janette met an investor for her drug discovery company at the VOYAGERS Edinburgh Festival Adventure 2022 (“VOYAGERS made all the difference”)
•Simon, Kelly and Sasha built a business partnership for their companies Alula Health and Ally Health after meeting through VOYAGERS (“What happens when two VOYAGERS cohorts meet and clear synergies are unlocked? We partner up!”)
•A Health-Tech VOYAGER sent us a note after personally receiving a serious medical diagnosis. “I just wanted to say that the VOYAGERS network has been VERY useful for me working through my health issue. [Named founder] and her chief scientific officer have been very helpful, as well as [named founder] who knows a lot about the condition. So it’s amazing to see the network in action in a non-company-building and investing way! I’m very grateful to you for this.”
•Veronica invested in Ed‘s business after they met on the VOYAGERS ski trip in Switzerland
•Frederick, Sergey, Lena and Sergei hosted a Planet Winter School at the Climate Lab in Vienna, which came out of a conversation in hot rivers and glacier hikes on our 2023 Iceland trip
•Lindsey found a role at Five Lives thanks to an announcement on a VOYAGERS Health-Tech WhatsApp group
•Stephanie at OKKO Health hired Naveed as a product manager after meeting through VOYAGERS
•Daniel at SafetyNet Technologies found a collaborator through our “asks&offers” newsletter to join an EU consortium writing a proposal for monitoring ocean biodiversity. “They directly referenced your newsletter as the inspiration to reach out. “Crazy thing is it was someone who already knows us, but didn’t know we were working in this area and now they do.”
•Nik at BioCorteX found “an excellent team” to revise their website through the VOYAGERS “Shared recoomendations” document
•Gustaf and Gaspare launched GalenoAI after meeting at a VOYAGERS Copenhagen dinner
•Andreea helped two VOYAGERS startups receive Innovate UK grants
•Fridtjof of Planet A Ventures led Thaleron’s pre-Seed round after meeting its founder Jorgen on our a VOYAGERS ski trip
•Daniel at EWOR secured Ricardo as an investor after meeting on a VOYAGERS adventure
•Jakob at Bees & Bears met their two largest pre-Seed investors through VOYAGERS (“You built an impressive community!”)
•Ricky became a mentor to Stenver after meeting through VOYAGERS
•Danielle at Clearly met Marius and Katharina at Pace Ventures, which became her lead investor, through VOYAGERS
•Rachel met Ross on our Douro Adventure and Ross’s VC fund invested in Rachel’s health-tech startup
…and plenty more.
Did you benefit from a VOYAGERS favour? Let us know: david@voyagers.io
