UIF’s focus with Venture Mentoring is on individual entrepreneurially inspired Venture Leaders and those affiliated with identified educational, research and other organizational enterprises. Our principle objectives of Venture Mentoring is to assist in identifying individual and organizationally-associated Venture Projects with a potential for success, Venture Leaders with a passion to pursue them and to assist in organizing identified brain trust mentoring resources in support of the Venture Leaders and their Venture Projects.

Venture Mentoring exists to encourage, support and assist the initiation and successful development of entrepreneurial venture enterprises. UIF categorizes two types of entrepreneurial ventures. We refer to them as an EVenture™ and an ADVenture™. Venture Mentoring considers both EVenture™ and ADVentures™, with appropriate Venture Leaders as entrepreneurial ventures, however, each with different dreams, visions, objectives or goals.

An EVenture™ is an entrepreneurial development and commercialization venture which includes the commercial development, individually or in combination, of a technology, product or service.

An ADVenture™ is an entrepreneurial personal interest, shared participation and education venture which includes the shared participation and education on topics and activities of mutual interest such as skateboarding, rock climbing, art and history.

Venture Mentoring supports individual entrepreneurs and educational, research and other organizationally-associated entrepreneurs with their identified entrepreneurial venture in either category. Each EVenture™ and ADVenture™ is initiated by the Venture Leader in a dedicated Venture Mentorsphere™ and referred to as a Venture Project.

A Venture Mentorsphere™ is the navigational infrastructure is which a Venture Leader initiates their Venture Project. It is also the operational infrastructure where the Venture Leader engages UIF and their personally selected mentoring resources they believe are necessary for a successful Venture Project. Each Venture Mentorsphere™ includes a Venture Leader, Venture Project and a Venture Mentorage™. It also includes books, authoritative sources, inspirational speeches, quotes etc.

Venture Leaders and their emerging Venture Projects always need a lot of advice and assistance. They usually do not have the financial resources to obtain it. Venture Mentoring is designed to support their effort by bringing together and activating educational, research, commercial and other organizational brain trust resources. These include faculty, students, researchers, scientists, alumni, employees, customers, associates, clubs, professional and social organizations, friends and other organizational supporters to serve as part of the available mentoring resources for the Venture Project.  From this brain trust, Venture Leaders determine the mentoring resources they need to advise and assist them in accomplishing the objectives of the identified Venture Project.

Each educational, research or organizationally-associated entity that participates will:

• Have its own UIF web-based organization presence where their organizationally-related ventures are listed either with a description for non-confidential or by code for confidential ventures. Only Venture Leaders and individuals authorized by the Venture Leader will have access to the Venture Mentorsphere™ and Venture Project.
• Have access to and the use of the UIF Virtual Mentor™ and Open-System Mentoring™ web-based technology to assist in the development of the Venture Project.
• Assist in identifying entrepreneurial ventures that have a realistic potential for success.
• Assist in identifying faculty, students, researchers, scientists, alumni, employees, customers, associates, clubs, professional and social organizations, friends and other organizational supporters who are willing to serve as leaders, mentors and as other types of mentoring resources for the identified Venture Mentorsphere™.
• Assign a Venture Mentorsphere™ Advisor to coordinate their venture activities with UIF, encourage the development of Venture Projects and Venture Leaders, identify and cultivate their brain trust and work to make appropriate parts of it available to each identified Venture Leader as mentoring resources.  Additionally, an advisor is expected to monitor the operation of each associated Venture Mentorsphere™.   

UIF will:

• Make available UIF Virtual Mentor™, and Open-System Mentoring™ to facilitate successful mentoring in support of the Venture Leader and a Venture Project.  Each Venture Mentorsphere™ consists of a Venture Leader, Venture Project and a variety of personally-selected mentoring resources. These include Mentors, Menteges™ and many other types of mentoring resources, such as books, inspirational quotes etc, which the leader decides is important for the identified venture success. The leader will identify and select Mentors and Menteges™ and decide which of those recommended by others they want to include as part of their Venture Mentorsphere™.
• Make available to each Individual Participant UIF mentoring resources of Navigation, Knowledge and Empowerment.
• Provide hands-on overall organizational program management advice and, for the first several institutional ventures, provide advice on the implementation in the initial creation of each venture.

The Venture Leader will:

• Initiate, lead, steer and drive their identified Venture Project in its development, commercialization, personal interest, shared participation and education efforts.
• Decide what mentoring resources they need in the venture effort and select the individual Mentors and mentoring resources who they think are willing and available to provide such assistance.
• Accept or reject the application of an outsider who wishes to become a Mentor or other mentoring resource for the venture enterprise. Applicants are accepted or rejected at the sole discretion of the Venture Leader.

Mentors and Menteges™ can serve in as many venture enterprises in which they wish to be involved and into which they are accepted by the Venture Leader.

Educational, research or other organizational enterprises can have as many Venture Projects as they have ventures with potential, Venture Leaders to lead them and Venture Mentorsphere™ advisors to assist them in the monitoring of such ventures.