The Community Network Effect

Mentoring

Before your accelerator class begins, we match you with a business mentor, who will work with you through the entire class. Based on the information you give us, we hand-select our mentors to match expertise with the needs of your business.

All of our mentors are entrepreneurs who founded and run their own businesses. They have been through the same processes you are going through, and find joy in sharing their wisdom with you and learning with you.

You and your mentor will establish a weekly meeting time. This is a set day and time every week in which you can talk to your mentor. In that session, you and your mentor will check-in on your business wins, review your development activities and connect you with resources to meet your business needs. Your mentor will dive in deeply to support you, providing encouragement and holding you accountable to building a business that is aligned with your values and goals.

Community & Social Networks

We know that starting a business that makes a positive change in the world isn’t easy, and the path can be lonely. As a participant in one of our accelerator programs, you don’t have to be alone in your journey. The program is designed to support you with a community of peers.

You start your accelerator program as part of a cohort that moves through the same business development processes together. Through group activities in classes and weekly peer mentoring calls, you receive encouragement, feedback and support from your peers to help you move past your fears and doubts, and stay on track in building your business.

In addition, through our online social networks and events, we bring together participants and alumni from across all our accelerator programs to help you expand your network and grow your business.

Business Partnership Network

As a participant in our accelerator program you will gain access to our business partnership network which can be valuable for networking and business development, and provide business resources for your business. Our business partnership network further reinforces our community by bringing together businesses that are committed to creating a positive social impact and that can mutually benefit from and support one another. Many businesses find synergy in working with, partnering, or learning from other like-minded entrepreneurs.

We appreciate the value that partners bring to our community, and are always looking for opportunities to collaborate on building an ecosystem for “next economy” entrepreneurs to thrive in our community. Some of our current partners include:

What I would like to tell others about the Uptima experience is that community is valuable. There are so many things that we struggle with alone in front of our computers that we can get help with. Having access to a mentor during the week, as well as talking with my fellow students, helped tremendously with questions that came up between classes.

Talia Dashow, Play Professional