Mentoring

The ICE Volunteer community extends its deepest gratitude to the following individuals, without whom the ICE competition would not have been such an outstanding success.

Chairperson
David S. Miller

Volunteers
Mentor Recruiting Chair: Dave Fachetti

Mentor Vetting Chair: Roger Nauth

Mentor Orientation/Bootcamp Chair: Todd Robida

Mentor Matching and Website: Karen Krucik

Other Volunteers
Rick Daniels

Sahir Surmeli

Special Thanks
None of anything we wanted to accomplish would have happened without Kimberly's help!

OBJECTIVES OF THE MENTOR COMMITTEE

The Mentor Committee strives to provide to its mentors the opportunity to interact with exciting new companies, to give back to the entrepreneurial community and to network with their peers.

In selecting mentors, the committee maintains the following guidelines:

Mentor Guidelines

The mentor must have relevant experience. This includes one or more of the following:

• Having been on the founding team of one or more startup companies

• Having invested in or made the decision to invest in startup companies

• Knowledge of the clean energy industry through direct experience working with clean energy technology startup companies as a consultant or as an employee (domain experience).

• Functional expertise in areas relevant to success in the competition (presentation skills, business plan writing, etc.)

The mentor must also have:
• Strong interpersonal, communication, and teaching skills

• Willingness to meet in person with the team at least once, although most sessions may be held over the telephone if necessary. Teams will be located on east coast, between New England and North Carolina.

• Desire to help the competition and to help the clean energy industry succeed
• Willingness to help any company with which they are matched succeed by helping them to create a compelling story for raising funds

• Ability to be selfless and allow others to take credit for their work

A mentor will be a volunteer advisor to a team, not a member or a paid consultant:

• The mentor’s objective shall not be to reap financial benefits from the competition or any business spawned.

• A mentor may not discuss forming any business or financial relationship with a team until after the competition is concluded.

• A mentor will not have, and agrees not to assert, any ownership interest or other rights in any business or intellectual property provided by the team or developed in the competition.

• A mentor may not disclose any confidential or proprietary information obtained in the competition to any third party or use such information for the benefit of any third party or for any purpose other than serving as a mentor.

• A mentor may not take any action to discourage any person from participating in the competition or to cause any team or team member to discontinue their participation in the competition. In no event will the sponsors or participants in the competition be liable to any mentor for any liability, damage, claim or cost whatsoever arising out of or in connection with service as a mentor, and each mentor shall release all sponsors and participants from any such liability, damage, claim or cost.

The mentor commits to proactively contact the team with which they are matched, to meet with the team face-to-face, and to spend an average of at least 1 hour per week assisting the team as long as the team remains in the competition (commitments will begin when the semifinalists are selected in mid to late February and most commitments will end by the April semifinals or if successful, at the finals on or about mid-May.

Mentors should expect to spend a total of 10 to 20 hours helping their team over the course of the competition.

The ICE Mentor committee will review the qualifications and references of interested volunteers and match the volunteers with teams. Though best effort will be made to optimize use of each volunteer’s available time and expertise, some volunteers may not be matched with their first choice team or may not be matched at all.