Venture Mentoring Service (VMS)

The VMS program supports current undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, staff, and faculty from the Faculty of Arts & Science who hold a leadership role in a venture. 

Venture Requirements: 

• Your venture must be in the early or growth stage. 
  • Early-stage ventures are focused on product development, market validation, and building a foundation. 
  • Growth-stage ventures are focused on rapid expansion, increasing revenue, and scaling operations to meet rising demand. 
• We are not currently accepting applications from ventures in the initial ideation stage (e.g., brainstorming, research, or refining business concepts). 

While we mentor the entire venture team, our primary client is the founding entrepreneur with a Faculty of Arts & Science affiliation. This individual is expected to remain an active and central participant in all mentoring activities. 

Additional Requirements: 

• Applicants must be local to the Greater Toronto Area. 
• Entrepreneurs must commit to an ongoing relationship with VMS, including providing regular venture updates and meeting with their mentors monthly. 

If you're accepted into the Venture Mentoring Service (VMS) program, here's what happens next: 

• You'll receive an enrollment package via email. This package will outline the VMS program's rules and procedures, and it will include a required acknowledgment and release form for you to sign. 
• By signing, you're acknowledging that VMS mentors are volunteers and the CfE incurs no liability in the process.
• Once you've reviewed everything and returned your signed form, our staff will contact you to schedule your first mentoring session. 

Important Dates to Remember: 

• Mentee application results: Expected by late October 2025 
• Mentor application results: Expected by late November 2025 
• Program start: January 2026 

We provide face-to-face/virtual team mentoring, drawing from a pool of carefully selected and trained mentors who are industry experts. All interactions with VMS are confidential and under nondisclosure. Mentors follow a strict code of ethics.

This is a free service provided to students and alumni in the Faculty of Arts and Science and we do not take equity.

We help with critical aspects of building and scaling a non-profit or for-profit venture. Your venture can be from any industry or technology, and should be in an early or growth stage. Our goal is your success and development as an entrepreneur.

VMS mentoring services are advisory. All business decisions remain under the full control of the participating entrepreneur. We provide practical mentoring that is focused on what your next steps should be.

Mentoring sessions are scheduled by the Centre for Entrepreneursip (CfE) staff at the request of the mentee to ensure timely response to challenges and issues as they arise. Members are encouraged to establish a set date each month dedicated to the mentoring session. In the session, a group of mentors meets with the entrepreneur(s) to provide practical advice and coaching. CfE staff may attend to ensure smooth running of the session and appropriate follow-up. Entrepreneurs benefit from a variety of perspectives and the diverse experience of the mentors taking part.

VMS meetings should be held approximately once a month, depending on the availability of both mentors and mentees. Please note that while there is no set end date for a mentee's participation in the VMS program, all mentees are reviewed twice a year. These reviews assess adherence to VMS guidelines, progress on their ventures, and feedback from mentors. Based on these evaluations, some mentees may be discontinued from the program.

VMS mentees/entrepreneurs are expected to commit to a sustained relationship with VMS and to be professional, open and responsive to the volunteer mentors who work with them. They are also expected to provide VMS, to the best of their ability, with accurate information about their venture.

The venture is responsible for the following:

• Scheduling meetings with the VMS office and providing meeting agendas;
• Taking meeting minutes and providing them to the CfE staff; and
• Providing monthly updates and post-session surveys to the VMS office.

When entrepreneurs enroll in VMS and engage with a team of mentors, VMS services are available as long as needed.

At this time, VMS serves early-stage and growth-stage entrepreneurs, connecting them with experienced mentors and a vibrant community of peers committed to mutual growth.  

• Early stage ventures are focused on product development, market validation, and building a foundation.  
• Growth stage ventures focus on rapid expansion, increased revenue, and scaling operations to meet rising demand.  

Please note that at this time the VMS program is not accepting applications from initial ideation stage ventures (brainstorming, research, refining of business concept phase).

Mentors are carefully selected based on their expertise in business formation and operations, and for their skills as advisors as well as their desire and ability to give back.

They are drawn from a wide range of industries, including both for-profit and non-profit ventures. Our mentor pool can include founders, serial entrepreneurs, CEOs, COOs, CTOs, CSOs, and SVPs along with experts in finance, funding, human resources, law, marketing, product development, sales, and team formation. They have contacts across a broad range of industries and markets.

VMS works with the many other programs on entrepreneurship, innovation, and translation at U of T, and VMS mentors are also active in many of those programs, as well as programs outside of U of T.

Check out our "Meet the Mentor" story series to learn more about some of the previous mentors in the program.

Mentors have all agreed to make a significant and sustained time commitment to the program.

Mentors adhere to a strict code of ethics. Mentors are required to subscribe, in writing, to a Statement of Principles that govern their behaviour, outline their responsibilities, guard against conflicts of interest, and control financial involvement with the entrepreneurs and their ventures.

In addition, all mentors sign a non-disclosure agreement ensuring that all their interactions with mentees are confidential. Mentors may not solicit business from ventures or invest in ventures they are mentoring.

Mentors participate in VMS for many reasons; the top reason being a desire to give back to the Arts and Science community as an alumni.

Relationships between mentors and mentees are formed based on the needs of the mentee and the interests of available mentors. Mentors provide advice, but the actual work is the responsibility of the mentees/entrepreneurs. The membership of a mentor team may change over time as the needs of a venture change.

If you have extensive entrepreneurship/business experience, live in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and would like to apply to be a VMS mentor, please fill out the Mentor Expression of Interest form.

Please Note: Application Deadline is October 26, 2025. For any additional questions on becoming a mentor, please email vms.entrepreneurship.artsci@utoronto.ca