Entrepreneurs Apply | MIT Venture Mentoring Service

Submission Date *

Year

Month

Day

Venture Name *

Venture Name (if you do not have a venture name, please enter TBD)

Venture Address *

Please note that your venture must be located in the Greater Boston area in order to be eligible for mentoring.

Venture Industry *

Venture Industry

If other, please specify:

Have you formed as a legal business entity? *

Have you formed a legal business entity for your venture?

Other Entrepreneurial Activity

Please check all that apply, past and present.

Other Entrepreneurial Activity

Other:

Primary Contact Name *

Primary Contact Role *

Primary Contact E-mail Address *

Please provide the best e-mail address for us to use to reach you. You are not required to use your MIT e-mail address.

Primary Contact Phone Number *

Primary Contact MIT Affiliation *

In order to be eligible for VMS, students and alumni must be associated with a full degree program.

Secondary Contact Name

How did you hear about VMS? *

1. What do you do? *

Please provide a succinct 1-sentence description of what you do: Example: Something like “we create and sell game software for consumers". “We are the X for Y” can work very well here – example: YouTube’s concept statement was “Flickr for video”.

2. What is the problem? *

In a few sentences, please describe what problem you are solving: Example: The amount of junk mail in everyone's email inbox is growing despite attempts to fight it. You can't be sure who sent you the mail. In addition to wasting time and being annoying, this poses threats to security, spreads viruses and clogs up networks.

3. Who has it? *

In one or two sentences, describe who has this problem: Example: This is costly for everyone in the chain: end users, IT departments and ISPs.

4. How will you solve the problem? *

In a few sentences and in completely NON-TECHNICAL terms, please describe how you expect to solve it: Example: We have software that guarantees that the sender is who they claim. This can be implemented at ISPs and enterprises, allowing the entire chain to validate every email's origin and discard invalid messages before they travel further.

5. How will you make money? *

In a few sentences, describe who will use it, who will pay you and how you envision selling to them. Again, you do not need to provide in-depth financial details. Example: We will sell our software and services directly to the ISPs, web mail providers like Google and Microsoft, and F1000 companies through direct sales. We will provide a free add-on for email clients like Outlook so end users can easily adopt it.

6. What is the secret sauce? *

In a few sentences, describe what is special about your solution and product: Example: Breakthrough identification algorithm that can be inserted into the backbone system at a switch level. Based on cutting-edge research developed under government grants by the founders as MIT researchers.

7. Is there IP? *

In a few sentences describe the IP status. Also if you are a student, is this venture idea based on your research at MIT? If yes, has it been disclosed to the MIT Technology Licensing Office?

8. What is your current status? *

It’s just fine to be very early in the process, even at the idea stage. Please check one:

Idea exploration

Ready to launch

Making revenue

9. What type(s) of VMS help do you think your startup needs? *

(please check all that apply)

Additional Comments

Please let us know if there is anything else we need to know about your venture.

Advanced Materials
Aerospace and Defense
Automotive and Transport
BioScience
Business Products and Services
Chemicals
Education
Consumer Products and Services
Electronics
Energy/Power/Propulsion
Environmental Services and Equipment
Financial Services
Food and Beverage
Healthcare
Information Technology / Internet
Media and Entertainment
Medical
Pharmaceuticals
Real Estate
Retail
Security Products and Services
Telecommunications
Other

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