The ENGAGE Mentors are a group of experienced business leaders and entrepreneurs who volunteer their time, knowledge, and experience to help UWM innovators develop their ideas and start-ups into stronger companies. They provide useful feedback, advice, suggestions, and action items to keep moving forward.
Call for Presenters
Are You Looking for Feedback on Your Startup, Product, or Innovative Idea?
Click below to learn how you can receive feedback, advice, suggestions and action items to keep moving forward. Any UWM entrepreneur is welcome to sign-up. Pitch sessions are 1:00pm on the last Thursday of each month, mostly virtual. Stay tuned for our quarterly events!
What are the Objectives?
Strengthen the budding UWM innovators and teams within the Milwaukee community by providing useful feedback, advice, suggestions, and action items to keep moving forward.
How do Innovators Start?
Contact the UWM ENGAGE program manager, Jessica Silvaggi, to learn more and fill out a questionnaire to describe the current state of your idea and your needs. You will be paired with a team of mentors that best fits your topic and needs.
Who qualifies as an Innovator?
Our “innovators” include a variety of stages of exploration of an innovation including researchers, students, new company founders, or entrepreneurs working to grow their businesses. We want to provide guidance at any level of entry.
What do we offer?
• Mentor/mentee matching for regular meetings/networking/feedback/goal setting
• Monthly practice pitch/feedback opportunities with mentor group
• Quarterly educational panels/events
• Speed mentor events to talk to multiple mentors
How do Mentors Start?
Becoming a Mentor
Contact the UWM ENGAGE program manager, Jessica Silvaggi, to learn more and fill out a questionnaire below to describe your expertise areas, interests, and amount of time you are willing to volunteer per month. You will be matched with innovators based on your answers.
Time Commitment
Each party gets out of the program what they put into it. A goal would be at least a monthly meeting between mentors and innovators to keep the ball rolling. You can stop at any time as an innovator. We prefer mentors commit to at least 6 months to keep continuity for an innovator team. The program is flexible, and we are available to help for a single meeting with innovators as well as long term mentoring.
