Entrepreneurship Professional Mentor Program
Entrepreneurship Minor
- Summer Entrepreneurship Academy
- HIES LLC
- Practicum Courses
- Entrepreneurship Professional Mentorship Program
- Student Ambassadors
Gain Insight from Seasoned Professionals
The Entrepreneurship Professional Mentor Program (EPMP) instills a mentorship component that integrates professionals with a select set of current Entrepreneurship Minor students. EPMP is a mentor program designed to enable student participants to proactively connect with both local and extended professionals, and discover feedback and insight into Austin’s fast-growing startup community from seasoned professionals across the country.
EPMP is for Entrepreneurship Minor students who are eager to learn more about professional development, entrepreneurial empathy, business planning, networking, and managing uncertainty.
There are two different tracks a student may choose for their mentorship:
- startup development
- career development
Fall 2021 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.”