Venture Center Partners With Entergy Arkansas To Support Mentorship Program
by June 16, 2015 1:09 pm 80 views
The Little Rock Venture Center has announced a partnership with Entergy Arkansas to support a strategic sponsorship of the nonprofit’s Mentor Training Program, officials said Tuesday.
Entergy Arkansas President and CEO Hugh McDonald said a key goal that Entergy shares with the Venture Center is supporting local economic development and attracting and retaining knowledge-based, technical talent in Little Rock.
“Entergy fully supports The Venture Center to further recruit and train new mentors,” McDonald said. “The Venture Center’s systematic approach to growing knowledge-based companies and accelerating ideas to real viable business, strongly aligns with our innovation and economic development priorities.”
Lee Watson, President and CEO of The Venture Center, which is supported by The Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, said funding from Entergy will allow The Venture Center to conduct four sessions of its mentorship training program in the coming year and certify up to 50 new mentors.
“A successful mentor program de-risks an entrepreneur’s path and dramatically increases the speed at which a new idea can build traction and enter the market. The Venture Center offers structured mentorship, backed by a proven methodology leveraging seasoned business leaders, investors and serial entrepreneur,” Watson said. “Mentorship is not ‘let’s have coffee.’ There exists a very real process to move entrepreneurs from ideas to real ventures and we’re excited to be expanding this offering in Central Arkansas.”
The Venture Center’s mentor training is a half-day course which guides participants through an introduction to the unique Venture Center methodology and mission. In addition, prospective mentors walk through the steps in mentoring a startup founder taking a business from idea stage to a scalable, investable venture, officials said.
The course is presented by Lou McAlister, the center’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence. “Mentorship can mean the difference between success and failure for the early stage entrepreneur,” McAlister said.