JMU Venture Accelerator.

My co-founder and I were hand selected by the James Madison University Board of Directors as 1 of 10 JMU based ventures to take part in a selective fellowship program. Over the course of the Summer, we stayed at JMU and worked in the X-Labs and affiliate facilities where we worked on building our venture, Hich, alongside other bright founders.

Mentorship.

Our team received startup courses, or programming, taught by Executive Director for the Center for Entrepreneurship, Patrick McQuown. Each week, our cohort met with and learned from a variety of guest speakers across business, academia, and venture capital where we learned of topics including startup fundraising, equity, and cap table management to team culture, product market fit, and lean development practices.

Build or Sell.

The program emphasized two valuable components of any startup venture, building and selling. Without a working product and without customers, you don’t have a business. Ideas are great on paper but nothing beats action and execution.

The program provided our team $8,000 of non-equity venture financing with 3 months of startup mentorship and brought value that no college class could ever bring. At the end of our program we pitched our ventures to the Board of Directors, alumni, deans, first lady and President of the school.

Collaboration.

The program sponsored a cohort trip to New York City where we met with and learned from prominent alumni entrepreneurs within mobility, fintech, sports, and digital marketing including notable startups Mekanism, Axle, Rally, Action Figure (formerly Transit Screen), and Rally Road.

We were fortunate to tour the National Hockey League (NHL) headquarters in downtown Manhattan where we heard from keynote speakers on their trials and tribulations navigating the startup realm.

Our Summer ended with a trip to Princeton University where our cohort spent a day collaborating with and revising our pitch alongside their venture teams.

Round Two.

The next summer my team was selected again for the selective fellowship program, this time as a mentor team with an improved product and team. We were granted $10,000 in non-equity financing from James Madison University which we put forth to our venture. Throughout the Summer we continued to build and sell and work alongside other startups as we mentored them through their first year in the program.