The Commonwealth is fortunate in the number and diversity of organizations that are providing mentoring and related services to existing and aspiring entrepreneurs and startup ventures across the state.
The Innovation Institute is pleased to be able to support select organizations in expanding and enhancing their programs and activities to reach more people, target diverse communities, and increase their impact.
The Innovation Institute supports entrepreneur mentoring as means to build regional start-up ecosystems and communities of innovation across Massachusetts. The opportunity to engage in a strong mentoring relationship builds the confidence and success of new businesses and plays a crucial role in lowering the barriers to entry for owning and running a business. In addition to the impact they have on individual entrepreneurs, mentors are a key part of a healthy entrepreneurship ecosystem, both inspiring new business leaders through their example and bringing needed expertise on the business development process.
With funding from the 2012 Jobs Bill, the Innovation Institute designed and ran the Massachusetts Innovation Mentoring Initiative, a grant competition aimed at supporting new and novel programs to increase the number, success, and diversity of start-ups and small businesses in regions across the Commonwealth. The list of awardees and their project detail can be found here.
Continuing with their mission of supporting entrepreneur mentoring across Massachusetts, the Innovation Institute with funding provided by the 2018 State Budget, opened a public procurement in March 2018. This solicitation offered grants to “fund multi-year projects to strengthen entrepreneur and startup mentoring activities in regions and communities across the Commonwealth.” The list of awardees and their project detail can be found here.
The Innovation Institute sees entrepreneur mentoring as a means to build, driving the development of a new phase in support for strategies to help create the conditions for growth.