Entrepreneurship Mentor Program
The secret to our success.
This is where the magic happens! Our community mentors are the key drivers of success in all of our entrepreneurship programs. Our students receive team mentoring in the classroom and individual mentoring in our Runway Program, Entrepreneurship Living Learning Community, and Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program. With backgrounds ranging from engineers and designers to CEOs and directors, our mentors provide our students, veterans, and alumni with a wealth of experiential knowledge that can only be found right here in Southwest Florida.
Mentorship Opportunities
New Venture Lab
The capstone course in the Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship Degree, New Venture Lab is a course highly dependent on our mentor community. Teams of 5-7 students work together to develop a functional business plan for a solution that solves a problem. Mentors work closely to provide assistance with teams' financials, manufacturing, design, packaging, software development, and more.
Veterans Program
The Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program (VFEP) is a one of a kind program in the state of Florida. Although several Florida Universities are partners of the VFEP, Florida Gulf Coast University is the only one to award participants with a one on one mentor experience and substantial seed funding for veterans to launch their businesses.
Runway Program
The FGCU Runway Program is our flagship university-wide program. Students from all backgrounds and disciplines work to develop a business solution to a real problem. The outcome of the Runway Program is for participants to actually start a business. Students across the university will be able to take ideas that they develop into the Runway Program.
