Overview

The MIT Venture Mentoring Service (VMS) was founded in 2000 to provide entrepreneurial education to MIT students, faculty, staff, and alumni through hands-on mentoring. Our mission is based on the belief that a fledgling business is far more likely to thrive when an entrepreneur with an idea can draw on the advice and guidance of mentors with proven skills and experience — and when such advice is provided by a team of mentors in a conflict-free, confidential, trusted environment. THE OUTREACH TRAINING PROGRAM MIT VMS has attracted inquiries and visits from academic institutions, economic development organizations, and entrepreneurship programs worldwide. In response to this interest in our activities, we established our Outreach Training Program in 2006. Our mission is to help other organizations establish their own formal venture mentoring programs modeled upon our successful experience. Through our core Immersion Program curriculum, as well as Additional Programs, we can provide organizations comprehensive assistance as they plan, build support for, establish, improve and scale their mentoring programs with significantly reduced startup time. This training provides an effective path for the development and growth of a mentoring program. All of our programs are delivered by MIT VMS Outreach instructors, specially selected and trained from the pool of MIT VMS volunteer mentors for their business and mentoring experience, their enthusiasm, and their interest in working with your particular organization. To date, more than 90 organizations from 23 countries have sent their leadership teams to our Immersion Program. Many of them credit the Outreach Training Program with having helped them adopt practices that would have taken 3-5 years to develop independently. From working with them, we have learned that the MIT VMS Model is effective, replicable, adaptable, and scalable.