Entrepreneurship Professional Mentor Program
Entrepreneurship Minor
- Summer Entrepreneurship Academy
- HIES LLC
- Practicum Courses
- Entrepreneurship Professional Mentorship Program
- Summer Fellowships
- Student Ambassadors
Gain Insight from Seasoned Professionals
This mentor program is designed to enable student participants to proactively connect with both local and extended professionals, and discover feedback and insight into the startup community from seasoned professionals across the country.
For mentors, the program provides an opportunity to meet and interact with innovative and passionate students, guide students in evaluating their ideas and concepts, and share stories of your successes with entrepreneurship classes and with student entrepreneurship clubs.
Students: The Entrepreneurship Mentorship Program is right for you if:
- You have an innovative idea for a new venture and would like an experienced entrepreneur to provide feedback to help you determine if the idea is viable, as well as receive guidance on how you can do research and take other actions to proceed.
- You have written an executive summary or business plan for a Pitch competition or other business competition and would like feedback.
- You are developing a business idea and have legal and/ or accounting questions and would like general advice on these issues.
- You have already launched a startup, and seek guidance and feedback on how to get your venture to the next level
- You are curious about entrepreneurship, and would like to speak to a successful entrepreneur about what’s involved.
- You would like to invite an entrepreneur to speak to a student club event.
Current Mentors
Past Mentors
Kailey Euceda
Baker Hughes, IP Licensing Program Manager
UT Grad: MS Technology Commercialization, 2020
Douglas Fairbanks
Johnson and Johnson, Global Director of Commercial Development, Robotics
UT Grad: MS Technology Commercialization
Mike Feldman
Alithya Group Inc., Senior Vice President of Oracle Practice
UT Grad: BBA and Master’s of Public Administration, 1994
John Graff
Current: Sonim Technologies, Chief Marketing Officer
Previous: National Instruments, Zebra Technologies, Uhnder
UT Grad: BS Electrical Engineering, 1987
Josh Lawton-Belous
Global Cyber Alliance, Global Business Director
UT Grad: MS Technology Commercialization, 2017
Lance McNeill
City of Austin’s Economic Development Dept., Small Business Program Manager
UT Grad: Master’s of Public Affairs, 2015
Neha Pachade
Cognizant, Senior Consultant (Product Owner)
UT Grad: MS Technology Commercialization, 2020
Hear from the Mentors
“Very satisfying experience! It was a joy giving back.”
“We formed a good bond and I will make myself available as a resource going forward for my mentee.”
“[It was satisfying] to watch the mentee and their business concept evolve.”
Make a Connection!
Here’s what the mentors say are the characteristics of an ideal mentee:
- coachable
- passionate
- intelligent
- affable
- ambitious
- conceptualization skills
- organization
- inquisitive mindset
“Someone who is eager to acquire perspective and try out different techniques for growth challenges. Engaged, interested, and inquisitive. Mentors can help solve problems or guide career experiences. I think it’s important to have a mentee who shows up with questions about what they want to do with their future. It’s ok to not know what you want to be and to be exploring interests. Mentors can help talk through it.”
Hear from the Mentees
“I have benefitted so much from this mentorship! [My mentor] connected me with another one of his mentors… who is helping connect me to events that go on in [my field]. [He] also encouraged me to take action on one of my business ideas and helped me with the first steps that I needed to go through to launch it.”
“I was able to receive both entrepreneurial advice and career advice from my mentor which helped me discover what I wanted to do during my final semester of college.”
“I think overall I learned that I am on the right path and having the ‘discovery’ mindset in college is something I should take advantage of. [My mentor] helped me see that there are careers in [my field] that will allow me to combine my entrepreneurial mindset with [my field] and overall made me very excited about what the future has to hold. I learned so much about what it is going to take to start my business and am very excited to continue putting in the work to make it a reality.”
“We had very similar interests and a lot of [my mentor’s] background covered careers that I have been interested in so it was really nice getting to talk with him about what he like/disliked about each job he has held.”