Starting a for-profit or non-profit venture is challenging.
Founders are constantly making decisions in the midst of uncertainty. Many entrepreneurs seek an experienced mentor for guidance, and these relationships are one of the critical factors for a venture’s eventual success.
A fledgling business or non-profit is far more likely to thrive when an entrepreneur can draw on the advice and guidance of a team of mentors with proven skills and experience in a conflict free, confidential, trusted environment.
Enter the Trinity Venture Mentoring Service.
VENTURING INTO SUCCESS
Trinity VMS helps entrepreneurs from the Trinity community overcome challenges by connecting them with high-level mentors.
17
current participating ventures
29
current participating mentors
Proven Partnership
Trinity VMS is a MIT VMS sister program. All mentors adhere to a strict code of ethics and are focused on developing the entrepreneur. Each entrepreneur is matched with a team of experienced mentors, providing more in-depth insight than traditional 1:1 relationships.
CONNECT, EXCHANGE, GROW
Information for Ventures
When you join Trinity VMS, you will be matched with a team of mentors who will offer their expertise and insight to help you develop your business. Meetings feature objective, unbiased, confidential business advice and guidance, and cover a wide range of topics that you, the entrepreneur, set yourself.
Entrepreneur Expectations
As part of the VMS program, you will be expected to be:
- Serious about learning, making progress, and building a business
- Punctual
- Prepared
- Ready to give your mentor team the whole story
- A consistent, good communicator with the VMS program
Entrepreneur Requirements
Venture founders must:
- Be Trinity students, faculty, staff, or alumni
- Be able to attend VMS meetings
- Be based in the greater San Antonio area (as must the venture as a whole) or agree to virtual mentoring guidelines if outside of Bexar County
Student entrepreneurs: Note that involvement in this program is secondary to your academic interests at Trinity.
Time Commitments
One-Time Commitment
- Venture orientation
Recurring Commitments
- One mentoring session (90 minutes) every four to six weeks
- Time dedicated to building your venture
Benefits Spectrum
- Meetings scheduled around your availability
- The ability to change your mentors as needed
- Targeted advice and brainstorming
- Qualified mentors from a variety of backgrounds
- Near-term action items and advice
- Confidentiality
- Life-long growth and commitment: mentoring evolves as you and your venture evolve
Testimonials
Trinity VMS is an unparalleled opportunity to learn from the pros and make your budding business bloom. Learn what the mentors and participants have to say about the program.
Advice for Those Seeking Mentorship
Have a chat with Lyn Swoboda Akhil ’06 and Lauren Swoboda Pepping ’06, the entrepreneurs extraordinaire behind Cookie Cab, and hear what they recommend to those considering Trinity VMS.
What VMS Means for Participants
Listen to Selena Davila '21 and Jacob Hurrell-Zitelman '20 of Quick Sip testify to the transformative insight and guidance that Trinity VMS has given them along their entrepreneurial journey.
ENCOURAGING ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCELLENCE
Information for Mentors
As a Trinity VMS mentor, you will work with entrepreneurs from the Trinity community and provide objective, unbiased, practical, and professional business advice and guidance following a team mentoring model licensed from MIT.
VMS Mentors subscribe to a Statement of Principles which governs behavior and ethics, outlines their responsibilities, and guards against conflicts of interest.
Mentor Characteristics and Qualifications
In order to serve as a mentor in the VMS program, you must:
- Have 10+ years experience as a founder or corporate executive (C-Suite)
- Genuinely desire to develop stronger entrepreneurs
- Be respected by (and respectful of) colleagues
- Leave behind any personal agendas
- Exhibit willingness to work within a structured program
- Be able to enthusiastically work within a team mentoring model
- Desire to support diversity and inclusion efforts in entrepreneurship
Mentors' Key Role
As a mentor, you will help budding entrepreneurs by:
- Listening and understanding their specific needs and aspirations
- Educating and encouraging them
- Helping them think through their alternatives and set targets
- Advising and coaching them through constructive criticism, asking questions, and offering “actionable” advice
Time Commitments
One-Time Commitments
- Mentor orientation, part I (4 hours) and part II (1 hour)
Recurring Commitments
- One community mentor meeting per month (90 minutes)
- One to two venture mentoring sessions per month (90 minutes each)
- Program communications (every two to three weeks)
- Venture document review (every two to four weeks)
- Venture follow-ups (one per venture every two to four weeks)
Benefits Spectrum
- Join a community of accomplished leaders who share your passion and commitment to advancing San Antonio’s entrepreneurial ecosystem
- Assist in furthering Trinity University's educational mission
- Develop a connection to this prestigious institution and its exceptional students and alumni
- Enjoy the distribution of the responsibility of guiding a venture among a team of mentors
- Focus on mentoring while the program handles the administrative work
- Grow from your connections during the monthly mentor community gatherings
Ready to get started?
I want to be a mentee.
Application Checklist
To apply, you’ll need:
A lean business model canvas
An executive summary
Questions and Applications
If you have any questions, email mentoring@trinity.edu.
I want to be a mentor.
Application Checklist
To apply, you’ll need:
Your resume or CV
Letter(s) of recommendation from any professional you've mentored in the past or from an existing VMS mentor.
Questions and Applications
If you have any questions, email mentoring@trinity.edu.