VentureSpur is going to be posting several blogs in the upcoming weeks highlighting a short interview with some of our mentors.  First up is Bruce Ballengee!  Bruce is one of our new mentors for 2013 and President & CEO of Pariveda Solutions. 

What was the most important thing a mentor ever did for you?

Provide great advice about how to live life.

What do you think a mentor can do for a startup? How can a mentor help?

A mentor can share relevant life experiences.  Usually, a mentor has been there and done that – as in had successes and failures doing essentially the same thing when they started businesses in the past.  The mentor’s role is to share those, along with other business advice.

What kind of startups and technologies do you currently find interesting?

For sheer ability to change the world in a big way working patiently with little things its nanotechnology and life sciences (alone or in combination) – swing for the fences and strike out a lot, but if you get a hit it’s going out of the park.  For what’s challenging but with better odds on a faster return, but unlikely to change the world, its solving complex business problems with technology – usually software.  The more complex the problem and elegant the solution, the better.

What is the most important part of a company’s application when applying to an accelerator and why? Product description and design, market opportunity analysis, sales and marketing plan, team biographies, or something else?

Fitness for an accelerator, assuming it’s a viable idea with good people, are they at the right developmental stage and mind set to benefit from an accelerator (and in the case of a particular accelerator, what it may uniquely offer that can develop synergies with the applicant firm)?  Which applicant firm can achieve the greatest delta V during the accelerator process?

To lean more about Bruce, read his bio on our mentor page!

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Kraettli Lawrence Epperson

Managing Director at JumpPhase Ventures

This blog is dedicated to providing advice, tools and encouragement from one entrepreneur to another. I want to keep this practical and accessible for the new entrepreneur while also providing enough sophistication and depth to prove useful to the successful serial entrepreneur. My target rests somewhere between the garage and the board room, where the work gets done and the hockey stick emerges.

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