Mentor Information

Mentor Signup

We are currently scheduling mentor availability for Week 7: March 4 – March 8, 2024

Please offer up your time slots on SignupGenius (Click Here).

The mentor signups for Week 7 will close on Thursday, February 22, 2024 at 11:59 PM.

Please signup now.

Mentor Resouces

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Judging Rubric
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Pitch Deck Slides

Items from last year’s seminar (2023)

For those of you who are participating this year for the first time, feel free to view the Q&A seminar from last year to get a feel for this imitative. The recording starts with an important message from the President and CEO of eMerge Americas, Melissa Medina.

Slide Presentation
Seminar Video

A few things to note that are different this year

  • Instead of the program being 5 weeks, the program has been extended this year to 12 weeks.
  • Founders Day is on: April 17, 2024
  • eMerge Conference is on: April 18 – 19, 2024
  • These sessions are 1 on 1 office hours. However, whenever possible, we will create teams where there is 1 founder with a few VMT Mentors in a meeting Zoom room.
  • We suggest viewing the video on “The Pitch Deck” in the VMT eLearning platform, if you have not done so. Feel free to reach out to Hayme at [email protected] if you need access to the eLearning platform modules.
Florida Atlantic University

The path taken by entrepreneurs is never a straight line and is full of twists and turns that often require expertise and guidance from professionals outside of the organization. We at 2nd Vault could not be more grateful and appreciative of the time and knowledge provided to us by the Venture Mentoring Team. Every minute spent with our mentoring team is time well spent and invested. The VMT mentoring team is a perfectly crafted group of professionals that all have meaningful direction and insights to provide. The VMT mentors keep us focused on what is in front of us systematically, helping to lead our company to scale. We feel so fortunate to have been selected as mentees of the VMT and hope to pay it forward in the future.  Thank you for all you do and the impact you have on start-up founders, as there is no price one could ever assign to the value we have received.

Kevin C. Cox, phD, MSE

Senior Instructor and Assistant Director

Elevate Together

Office Depot initiated the Elevate Together program in 2021 partnering with The Venture Mentoring Team, the National Urban League and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to deliver impactful, measurable and scalable support services that foster business creation and growth opportunities for Black and Hispanic businesses.

It has been an honor to partner with the Venture Mentoring Team during Elevate Together’s launch and early stages. Their mentoring methodology and training set a high bar, and their mentors have been invaluable to our Elevate Together grant recipients.

We look forward to the VMT’s continued work with Urban League affiliates, Hispanic Chambers and other community partners to provide mentoring services to minority-owned small businesses as they grow and expand their mentoring services.

Sharu Goodwyn

National Manager, Community Investment, Elevate Together

Alex Price

National Director, Community Investment / Co-Leader, Diversity Council