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The Venture Mentoring Team (VMT) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by Bob Nelson, Jim Ryan, and Tom Mersch—three accomplished entrepreneurs and close friends united by a shared mission to support entrepreneurship. Their vision centers on harnessing the power of mentorship to help startup founders and underserved small business owners reach their fullest potential.

In 2014, the founders of VMT played a key role in launching the Tech Runway startup accelerator program at Florida Atlantic University. Through this experience, they quickly recognized the transformative impact of mentorship on founders and the global demand for training and credentialing successful executives and entrepreneurs to become effective mentors. This realization led to the creation of VMT in 2017. 

Since its inception, the VMT has expanded rapidly, establishing partnerships with universities across multiple countries, collaborating with dozens of corporate partners, and has vetted, trained and certified  several hundred mentors. These VMT certified mentors selflessly donate their time and expertise to support entrepreneurial success.

The nonprofit is funded through a combination of grants, corporate contributions, and revenue generated from its e-learning mentor training courses. VMT’s ultimate goal is to enhance university and corporate startup accelerator programs whose mission aligns with ours by providing certified mentors, thereby becoming an integral part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Through its efforts, The VMT aims to serve as the connective tissue connecting startups and accelerators with venture capital, community partners, corporations and more driving job creation and wealth generation worldwide.


– Jim Ryan

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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