Venture Mentoring Service (VMS)

Eligibility:
 

• VMS serves current undergraduate students, graduate students, alumni, staff and faculty from the Faculty of Arts & Science who have a leadership role in a venture.
  • While we mentor the entire venture team, our actual client is the founding entrepreneur with an Arts & Sciences-affiliation. We expect that he or she will remain an active and central participant in all mentoring activities.
• Participants must be local to the Greater Toronto area.
• Entrepreneurs must commit to an on-going relationship with VMS.
  • Expect to send updates on your venture and meet with your mentors on a regular basis.

Application Process:
 

• MENTORS

  • 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 by no later than October 26, 2025.

Mentor Expression of Interest Form

• MENTEES

  • If you are a U of T Faculty of Arts & Science student or alumni at the St. George campus and would like to apply to be a VMS mentee, please fill out the Mentee Expression of Interest form by no later than October 1, 2025.

Mentee Expression of Interest Form

Enrolment:

• If accepted, you will receive an enrollment package by email. The enrollment package materials describe the rules and procedures of VMS. There is also a required acknowledgement and release form for you to sign.
• By enrolling, you acknowledge that the VMS mentors are working with you on a volunteer basis and that the Centre for Entrepreneurship incurs no liability in the process.
• Once you have reviewed that material and returned your signed waiver of liability, staff will work with you to schedule your first mentoring session.
• Mentee application results are expected to be announced by October 25, 2025.
• Mentors application results are expected to be announced by November 20th, 2025.
• The program is expected to start in 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 all aspects of building a non-profit or for-profit venture. Your venture can be at any stage for any industry or technology. 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 Centre staff at the request of the entrepreneur to ensure timely response to challenges and issues as they arise. In the session, a group of mentors meets with the entrepreneur(s) to provide practical advice and coaching. Centre staff 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 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 office; and

Providing monthly updates to the VMS office.

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

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

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 previous mentors in the program.

Mentors all have 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 entrepreneurs are formed based on the needs of the entrepreneur and the interests of available mentors. Mentors provide advice, but the actual work is the responsibility of the 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: Our 2024 application cycle has closed and we’ll review all received applications in summer/Fall 2025 when the application cycle opens again. For any additional questions on becoming a mentor, please email vms.entrepreneurship.artsci@utoronto.ca