Mentor Working Process

Each team will be mentored in a format using a 4-member “Board of Advisors” with whom they regularly interact. There will be two volunteer Mentors assigned to the Board, the first being an entrepreneur who has started a venture from scratch, and the second being more of a generalist who understands the business building and operational process. In addition, each team will be asked to recruit another Board member with domain experience specific to their venture, and also provide one of their own team members to serve on the Board of a different team in the Challenge.

We are hoping for two scheduled meetings a month, each of 1 to 2 hours. Mentors should also be available between meetings questions or advice. One regular meeting per month should be used to monitor the venture creation progress, and another, less formal meeting should be used to provide support and coaching as needed.

Mentors should interact with the teams to make sure that, based on Steve Blank’s “4 Steps to the Epiphany”, or a similar methodology, they are perfecting their product by having sufficient customer interaction and feedback. Also, using the tools described in Alexander Osterwalder’s “Business Model Canvas”, or a similar methodology, the team should construct both a business and financial model for their venture, and create a formal written Business Plan. This plan will include an offering to be used by the team as the basis on which to raise money from investors.

Mentors should also assist the team in the process of identifying and creating a suitable prototype (or a model, simulation, etc.) to be used with potential customers to validate the product, and to be used with investors in the money raising process.

In the week of October 10th you will be introduced to your team, and by the end of the following week you should have had your first meeting. Additional dates for milestone reviews will be provided later. The Venture Challenge ends in mid-February with final judging and awards.