The Institute is successfully recruiting experienced startup CEOs to help Founders build world-class businesses. It’s a modest time commitment compensated with a share in the upside. More importantly, the Mentors will help others learn from their mistakes and set-up the next generation for success.
Mentors will run one or more company building Sessions and answer related questions. Specifically, Mentors need to (1) prepare a company-building assignment and supporting materials around one of the Session topics, (2) help to run a three hour evening Session with the help of two other Mentors, and (3) answer questions by participating Founders as they come up once the Session is completed. A commitment to one Session may take six hours, and Mentors are invited to further contribute by hosting more Sessions and by working closely with Founders they like.
Mentors get approximately one third of the value generated by companies, the same amount as the Founders. While the participating Founders split their upside evenly, the Mentors are compensated based on their contributions. For example, Mentors receive more upside for each Session that they host. The Mentors are also rated by the Founders, and the top-rated Mentors get additional upside. Compensation based on Founder ratings is an incentive for Mentors to work with Founders more closely, and the fact that the upside occurs from all of the companies in the program is an incentive for Mentors to focus on the companies that they like, versus the most promising businesses.
The ideal Mentors are running their second or third startup with a number of relevant experiences in any of the following areas:
- Ideation
- Product Planning
- Modeling and Finance
- Team Development
- Company Formation
- Publicity and Awareness
- Fundraising
Each Semester has 25 Mentor positions, and the list for the 2009 Summer Semester is growing nicely.
