Conversation with Max Keller from Start Global.

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Wendy Bolger is a seasoned innovator and the Founding Director of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Loyola University Maryland, a position she has held for over five years. Under her leadership, the Center launched the Baltipreneurs Accelerator, Loyola Crisis Navigators, and won a bid to host the prestigious Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers 2021 Conference.

Prior to her role at Loyola, Wendy was the Director of Program Innovation Strategy at Share Our Strength | No Kid Hungry, where she led the innovation team in its mission to end childhood hunger through scalable programs.

In 2023, Wendy's contributions to entrepreneurship were recognized with the Entrepreneur Support Organization of the Year award at the UpSurge Awards. Her work is central to fostering a thriving startup ecosystem, making a significant impact on teaching, investing, accelerating, and empowering entrepreneurs.

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Joe Allen, CPA, CA, is a seasoned executive with an extensive background in fostering innovation and steering investment. He is currently the Managing Director of Accelerator Programs at the University of New Brunswick, a role he has held since December 2017. In this role, he utilizes his vast expertise to shape and lead initiatives that support budding entrepreneurs and start-ups.

Parallel to his role at the University of New Brunswick, Joe also serves as a Board Member of the Canada Cleantech Alliance since April 2022, further solidifying his commitment to sustainable solutions. With a keen focus on green technology, Joe plays an integral part in supporting and promoting the growth of the cleantech sector in Canada.

As an entrepreneur himself, Joe is the Co-Founder and CEO of Devil's Keep Distillery, a Fredericton-based company that he has been leading since December 2017. His venture into the distillery business showcases his versatility as a leader and innovator.

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Lotte is an accomplished professional with diverse experience spanning various roles within community management, communications, and business education. She has spent more than seven years at DTU Science Park, Denmark's leading deep tech community, where she currently serves as the Head of Community. 

In this role, she oversees the organization's mentor program and alumni activities, facilitating knowledge sharing and value creation through strategic matching of deep tech companies with experienced mentors. With her wide-ranging experience and deep understanding of community management, communication, and deep tech, she's an invaluable asset in the world of tech innovation and startups.

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Jodie is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in economic development, project management, and education. As the Principal of MeadowCreek Consulting for over 7 years, Jodie has helped clients achieve optimal outcomes through research, feasibility studies, and project management. Prior to that, she served as the Community Economic Development Coordinator at Community Futures Centre West for 15 years, where she led various projects that created new businesses, jobs, and contributed to the organization's long-term sustainability. Jodie also spent nearly 6 years at the University of Calgary as a Program Director, focusing on the growth and sustainability of continuing education certificate programs.

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Igor Gorlatov interviews Adam Sutcliffe, a virtuoso in the design and program management of ventures, products, services, experiences to bring to market

00:00 Intro
00:17 Adam's experience of studying in the US
02:52 An example of a helpful American who inspired Adam
05:28 Adam talks about his current role at British Design Fund, and his plans for the next 6 months
08:59 Team mentorship vs 1x1 mentorship
13:24 A success in mentorship from Adam's experience
17:00 How is Adam able to find balance while being involved in so many things?
20:27 Challenges Adam faced on his career journey that have informed his approach to mentorship
23:26 As a mentor, how do you deal with a diligent founder who does not make progress?
26:00 VC - Academia connections in the UK
33:34 What does it take to offer mentorship at scale?
39:20 What excites Adam the most about 2023: various things he is doing, or the startup that he has joined recently?

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Simunza leads support for entrepreneurs at BongoHive, Lusaka’s first innovation and technology hub that provide a range of startup and tech programmes, workshops and events all focused on making Zambia Africa’s next hotbed of innovation. BongoHive’s entrepreneur support programs includes a pre-accelerator boot camp, a sector agnostic accelerator and short focused masterclasses.

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Conversation with Brittney Ziebell, Director of Entrepreneurship at Silicon Couloir, Jackson WY 

0:00 Introduction
1:17 Are you working full-time to run the mentorship program?
1:35 What makes your mentorship program different?
2:20 What's the secret to being a great mentor in your program?
3:15 Have you ever said no to any mentor applying to your program?
3:54 Do mentors have to be entrepreneurs?
5:17 What's the secret in putting together a great team of mentors?
6:22 Trial period, and how often do startup change mentors on their team?
7:06 What are the current priorities in enhancing mentor experience?
10:11 What kind of founders do you currently serve?
11:41 How do you engage founder and figure out the right fit for them?
13:36 What are the tricks or hacks to deal with diligent founders who are not making real progress?
14:55 Does it help to focus on founders as people vs. just focusing on their businesses?
15:26 Do you ever "fire" founders?
18:04 Challenge with the homework and three-page agendas
19:01 How does mentorship fit into the founder journey in your startup ecosystem?
21:01 Are there other organizations that do something similar?
21:58 What have you found to be a way to measure and demonstrate success of the mentorship program?
23:51 Team
24:26 Sharing success stories through write-ups and case studies
25:40 Do you reach out to broader community?
26:27 What made you apply for this role?
28:11 Was there anything you didn't expect when you took on the role?
29:29 What's your honest assessment of Traction5 that your program is using?
33:56 Talking to sister mentorship programs
35:19 What are the specific insights you implemented from conversations with other mentorship programs?
37:04 What's your thinking on scaling the mentorship program?
39:40 What would you say to someone new who wants to start a mentorship program or joins to lead existing one?

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I very much enjoyed our conversation with Hannah Horne about mentorship and what it takes to build a startup community.

Some of the topics we covered:

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝑴𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒎
👉 What is VMS or a Venture Mentoring Program
👉 What makes Rock Hill VMS and Gravity Center successful

𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝑩𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈
⚡ What does it take to create trust in the community
⚡ The hardest part about re-setting the your mentorship program

We also talked about 𝘖𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘴 that can be available to startups in addition to mentorship, and how to make it work in a manageable way.

I hope you'll enjoy our conversation as well, and please share with those who may find it valuable.

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