One distinguishing feature of IDEA: Northeastern’s Venture Acceleratoris our dedication to providing high quality coaching and mentorship to our ventures.
IDEA Coaches are highly motivated students and recent graduates who are trained to guide ventures through the business planning process.IDEA Mentors are experienced entrepreneurs who team up with these Coaches to help guide ventures. Mentors typically become more involved with individual ventures as they mature and face new challenges and needs.
Ventures work with their Coach and Mentor as a group, receiving advice and guidance via in person meetings, emails, and phone conferences. The three parties meet as often as desired, operating with a common goal of progressing the venture to become investment-ready or self-sustaining.
Overseeing such a robust operation is no small feat but it’s one that James Gorman eagerly embraces in his role as IDEA Head Coach.
James has been involved with IDEA for just over a year but is tasked with quite a few high-level responsibilities, including “on-boarding” each new venture. This entails a detailed introduction to IDEA’s resources and processes. James is also responsible for assigning ventures in the Set stage to IDEA Coaches, who they will work with throughout the development of their ventures.
Additionally, James is responsible for training and monitoring Coaches and ensuring that the relationships between ventures, Coaches, and Mentors are as beneficial as possible. Finally, James monitors ventures on a monthly basis to track their progress and to ensure their needs are being met. Since James first took on the position of Head Coach, he has seen the number of Coaches grow to a program-high 26, with 48 ventures currently working actively with a Coach.
It is clear when speaking with James the value he sees in the IDEA Coach-Mentor program. “Coaches have a deep understanding of the IDEA Business Planning Guide, as well as what needs to be done to further progress and develop an idea,” James explains. “Mentors,” he continues, “have a plethora of experience in developing and executing successful businesses. Combined, these two are a formidable team that helps guide our ventures towards success.”
In addition to his responsibilities as Head Coach, James is a full-time student in the D’Amore-McKim School of Business, studying Finance with a minor in Economics. (Oh, and he even coaches a few ventures of his own!)
“Between orienting new ventures, coaching my own ventures, monitoring ventures, coaches, and mentors, and holding venture workshops, I end up spending about four times as much time working on IDEA compared to classwork,” he reflects. “But I enjoy every minute of it. Our Coaches and Mentors are an integral part of our ventures’ success and I’m proud to have a role in such a critical part of the IDEA framework.”
On behalf of the IDEA Management Team, we’re proud to have him as well!
