Mentor Program

CIE Mentors are community advisors with professional know-how who want to empower the success of other entrepreneurs.

145 CIE Mentors available to help entrepreneurs. About 70% of CIE Mentors are active attorneys, investors, software developers, digital marketing experts, founders, and more, and 30% of CIE Mentors are retired C-suite executives and past founders. CIE Mentors meet in teams with entrepreneurs to provide advice for 6 months to help founders reach their next milestone.

How do I apply for a team?

UNCW students, alumni, faculty and staff, and community entrepreneurs working on high-growth startups are welcome to apply for a CIE Mentor team. Teams typically consist of 3-6 CIE Mentors. If you fit the definition of a startup (see below), please contact cie@uncw.edu to request a CIE Mentor Team Application to complete.

CIE Mentors work with startups that are scalable in nature. Often, they are tech-enabled or science-based with intellectual property.

Because CIE Mentor teams are only formed for startups, 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:

• Refine initial ideas
• Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
• Conduct alpha testing/customer discovery
• Get useful data from alpha testing and customer feedback
• (Potentially) pivot the idea and repeat steps 1 through 4
• Validate scalable product
• Create a pitch and demo in order to secure investment
• Secure investment and/or start selling
• Go!

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.”

If you are starting a business that doesn’t fit this definition, there are other CIE programs that can help you such as 1 Million Cups Wilmington. Your first steps should be looking at the CIE list of events and programs. If you are interested in one-on-one advising, you are still in luck! There are many programs in the Wilmington region that support the success of small businesses and entrepreneurs. Please visit wilmingtonbusinessresources.org for a list of organizations.

What happens after I apply?

After you determine that you are a startup and return the completed application to CIE, this is the process of the CIE Mentor Program:

1. Initial contact-The CIE Director and/or the CIE Pipeline Committee will contact you. They may schedule a follow up meeting to learn more about your business. They will help you to prepare for a meeting presentation.
2. Present at meeting - You will present at a monthly CIE Mentor meeting at CIE. Your presentation will cover the basics of your startup and will highlight what you want from mentoring.
3. Team formation - At the meeting, CIE Mentors will determine if a team is formed and, if so, who will be on it and who the Lead Mentor will be. Even if a a team isn’t formed, recommendations will be provided after the meeting.
4. Kick-off meeting – Your Lead Mentor will work with you to schedule the first mentoring meeting. At the meeting, the final goals of mentoring for the next 6 months will be agreed upon. The Lead Mentor will be your primary point of contact for the next 6 months for scheduling and correspondence with the team.
5. Monthly meetings - You will meet monthly for 6 months with your CIE Mentor team. Each meeting is about 1 hour long and is usually scheduled at CIE.

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.

Level 1 – Concept

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.

Level 2 – Development

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.).

Level 3 – Launch

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.

In February 2018, CIE took the first steps toward developing and launching a mentor program that would engage community advisors and advance innovative ventures. Taking inspiration from the MIT Venture Mentoring Service and the New Enterprise Forum Coaching models, CIE developed a program that surrounds entrepreneurs with a team of advisors and supports them through significant milestones.

In September 2018, CIE was awarded an ECOSYSTEM Partner Grant from the NC IDEA Foundation to grow the mentor program and related activities. The program was officially launched on November 28, 2018, with 65 mentors, four active mentor teams, three committees, and more than 500 hours logged by volunteers. The launch event featured welcoming remarks by Chancellor Jose V. Sartarelli and recognition of NC IDEA president and CEO Thom Ruhe and Senior Director John Austin. By June 2019, the program had more than 100 mentors, 10 active teams, and two teams with successfully completed engagements.

The program has continued to grow over the last few years and currently has more than 140 mentors. These mentors continue advising, supporting, and inspiring entrepreneurs to reach their goals and develop successful businesses. 

• Become a Mentor
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