Q&A with NewStory Charity Founder, Alexandria Lafci

By: Avril Langevine

Can you briefly tell me about your career path/story to date before you founded NewStory Charity?

I’ve always been very interested in social impact. The issue of homelessness is something that I took an interest in at early age because my mom went through the foster care and group home system. I got involved with Teach For America (TFA) right after college and taught in SE DC, Anacostia. Many of my students were in periods of homelessness or instability throughout the year. Because of this their attendance in school, and thus their performance, was not on par with their peers. I saw both their mental and physical health impacted and the effect on entire families as parents’ health and ability to hold a job also affected my students.

As far as wanting to start my own organization, I had found I thrive in helping to collaborate and to lead individuals toward a goal. I was head of Black Student Union (BSU) in college, and started my first organization in college leading students at BU and Emory business brigades helping capacity building in South America. I wanted to have a social impact while being in a position of leadership. NewStory brought this together.

What did you learn from your experience in the Y Combinator start-up program that helped you to succeed?

We are very much a tech company. We are smart and ambitious, but are lacking in experience. I think it is important for anyone to be aware of strengths and areas of improvement. Y Combinator is unmatched in thought leadership and impact on building tech startups. I knew it was a long shot, with a less than 3% acceptance rate, but really believed in what we were doing and wanted to get world class mentorship. I now have priceless mentors, not only from Y Combinator, but also other fellows. It’s a group from which I’m always learning.

How did it make you feel to ring the NASDAQ bell? Did you ever think you would be where you are today?

It’s like an amazing thing — it’s an addictive feeling to create something from nothing, which is the reason I imagine I’ll always be in entrepreneurship. That’s what drives me — creating things of value. I think the best thing about working in social impact is that all the achievements and things like NASDAQ are ultimately about making a market impact on the people we serve.

NASDAQ was celebrating 100 homes in 100 days by Sept. 8, which was the goal. Fast Company wrote an article about it. We pulled off 600,000 in 3 months time, which is impressive for new startup with only 3 people. The fact we could meet it was tremendous. We had the good fortune of meeting the NASDAQ chairman and he said ‘let’s celebrate’.

Is there anything you wish you had done differently?

I wish I had started earlier. I had ideas in college that I didn’t act on for one reason or another. The best way to learn is to do, which I’m grateful to be thinking about now. I wish I had taken the leap earlier. There is no greater opportunity than building something.

What advice would you give someone interested in launching their own start-up?

Start somewhere.  Something I fell into personally was that I started to think about entrepreneurship and then got overwhelmed by how big and lofty the ambition was. It is very easy to get discouraged. The best way to get over that is to break what you need to do into pieces of what you can do now, down to just an hour a day.

What did you learn from MLT that informs your work?

When I applied to MLT I was working at corporate job, learning a lot but not happy or fulfilling my purpose. I was basically climbing up the wrong ladder. MLT emphasizes meta cognition and taking a deep dive into what drives you and why. I’m someone who wants to meditate and write in journals but MLT truly forced me to reflect. I had been working on entrepreneurship a little on the side but MLT inspired me to take a leap. I kept coming back to the same things – that I like to build things and I wanted to have an impact.

What’s next for you?

I recently became my sister’s guardian because we lost our mom. Mom was in the foster care system, and she had come from such trying beginnings. She was a nurse, and managed to pull herself up. She always instilled confidence in us, almost an unrealistic amount. She really believed in us. Part of my motivation is in trying to honor how much hard work she put in and how much she sacrificed for our success.

At NewStory, we’ve proven we can build a brand people love and are inspired by. We’ve proven can raise funds. The next step is scaling, building this out to, not just homes, but communities. Communities need homes, but also other infrastructure that will vary community by community to make each community self sustaining and help it to thrive: schools, roads, childcare centers, factories. The great thing about our platform is the ability to crowdfund. It’s incredibly impactful to, not only contribute to a family, but spread this capacity to change communities to everyone. People can run fundraising campaigns for their birthday, at Christmas, when they run a 5k, and can set any monetary goal they choose. These campaigns bring in an average of $1k each. These campaigns are unmatched in their accountability and transparency and it’s a beautiful thing for people to see their impact.

If you would like to join in you can create your own campaign here.

You can also email me for other ways to get involved. New Story Charity has been looking for interns in business development and social marketing, also corporate partnerships, as well as hiring a full time digital marketer.