The CIE Mentor Program is available to both campus- and community-based startup ventures. UNCW students, alumni, faculty and staff, and community entrepreneurs are welcome to apply for a mentor team. We only form mentor teams for startup ventures. There are other entrepreneurial support services for more established businesses (please ask for a referral by contacting CIE).
Get to know the CIE Mentors you could learn from at UNCW.
Mentor teams are formed for startups, so be sure you have a startup venture before applying. Defining a startup is tricky. Not all startups follow the same steps and not everyone shares the same definition for ‘startup’.
Here’s a checklist of typical steps involved in the startup stages of a business:
Bestselling author and professor of entrepreneurship at Northwestern University, Mike Moyer, has this definition: “An early-stage company is one in which participants are putting their personal contributions of time, money, ideas, facilities, relationships, supplies or equipment at-risk,” Mike tells Startups.co. “In most cases, companies who have enough money from revenues or investment to provide market-rate compensation to participants are not considered early-stage.”
For the purposes of the CIE Mentor Program, we’ve defined three levels of early stage startups. The definitions cover the majority of the ventures that work with CIE mentor teams.
The entrepreneurs have an idea they’ve been investigating. They’ve done some basic research on the market and competitive products, and informally bounced the idea off potential customers and advisors. They may have obvious knowledge gaps.
The entrepreneurs are committing significant resources (time, money, relationships, equipment, etc.) to the active development of the business idea. They are working on a Minimum Viable Product, low-fi prototype, website, or other method to test the product or service with prospective customers and get feedback. They are researching the market and competition. They are gathering information required to develop financial projections (material costs, pricing, staffing, etc.).
The entrepreneurs have a Minimum Viable Product (an actual prototype, app, customer interface vehicle and/or website) being tested with early adopters or being used in an active sales effort. They will have well-defined, realistic financial projections, a clear understanding of the competitive landscape, an established delivery mechanism, and have marketing and staffing plans included in their completed business plan.