Industry insights:
“Through IVMS, we were able to get very specific, valuable insights into the industry from our mentors that would have otherwise taken us years to obtain. Also, having a pool of mentors with varied skills allowed us to have a much more holistic help from the programme for different parts or stages of our business.” - Vishnu Menon, Founder & CEO, Uteepi
The Imperial Venture Mentoring Service (IVMS), launched in September 2017, is Imperial’s flagship mentoring programme to support our innovators and entrepreneurs.
IVMS is an advisory service for any student or staff member showing a clear entrepreneurial intent and wishing to realise their entrepreneurial idea via the development of a startup company. IVMS uses team-based mentoring where two to three mentors work with a startup for an open-ended period. Team mentoring offers a unique opportunity to advise the leader of a venture and to selectively lend the mentor’s wealth of contacts and experience to the venture.
The advice is provided by a pool of mentors, experienced in entrepreneurship, working on a pro-bono (free of charge) basis. IVMS is modelled on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Venture Mentoring Service, which now has 165 experienced startup mentors and has assisted circa 1,500 ventures, which have gone on to raise over $1.4bn in funding in 18 years of operation.
IVMS complements and works with many Imperial entrepreneurship centres and programmes to provide an additional resource to our startup community. The road to becoming an entrepreneur is often challenging. Through hands-on mentoring, IVMS entrepreneurs learn how to perfect their products/services, identify markets, build businesses and secure funding.
Are you a venture looking for further support?
To discuss whether IVMS is the right approach for your business or idea please email ivms@imperial.ac.uk to arrange a meeting and discuss in more detail.