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Getting Started
The Venture Mentoring Team assists startups and small businesses via regular in-person or virtual meetings. Founders and/or principals of mentee companies interact with a select group of VMT mentors who have expressed interest in working with those companies after an initial application and vetting process. (That process is described for both startups and small businesses elsewhere on this website.) Each meeting lasts 90 minutes to two hours.
What's Next?
We begin by asking the entrepreneurs what’s keeping them up at night, and what they have accomplished from the previous meeting. VMT mentors, who are committed to a strict code of confidentiality, listen deeply, ask questions, and make suggestions as appropriate. These may come in the form of insights, lessons learned from experience, constructive critiques, recommended strategies and tactics – anything that can bring value to the relationship.
After a robust discussion, action items and priorities are established, and a future meeting is planned at an interval determined by the entrepreneurs, which they feel offers sufficient time to accomplish their stated goals.
Achieving Goals
Entrepreneurs are asked to circulate notes to their mentors within 24 hours from the close of the meeting, and to submit an agenda no less than 24 hours prior to the next meeting. Mentees may reach out between meetings for assistance with special situations, or for one-on-one discussions if necessary.
Entrepreneurs are under no obligation to follow the direction of VMT mentors. There may even be a diversity of opinion among the mentors at times. We fully appreciate that the companies we serve belong to the mentees we serve. We do, however, speak from experience, having achieved a degree of success ourselves, and we will always state what we feel is right.
This formula has helped thousands of companies grow and achieve their goals.
