Entrepreneurs are forward-thinking individuals who require support and wisdom as they explore and commercialize new research concepts. Mentorship is a key part of that support network, which is why it is a central part of the Missouri Innovation Center’s services. 

Resources and financing help entrepreneurs put plans into action, but without the knowledge and wisdom that come from experience, it’s easy to misguide the use of those resources. Mentors provide guidance that can improve results and reduce risks. They can offer practical guidance in key business decisions and emotional and mental support during the low points in the often-daunting startup process.

If you want to tap into the transformative power of mentorship in startup success, though, you need to engage with the right mentor in the right way. This starts with properly defining mentorship’s critical role in startup growth. In this article, we will define mentorship in a startup context and consider how founders can use that framework to guide mentorship selection, optimization, and analysis.

Understanding Mentorship in the Startup Ecosystem

Mentorship can take many forms in different settings. Here are some of the key elements to consider when looking for an effective mentor as an entrepreneur.

Mentor-Startup Relationships

Mentors function on a relationship level. They are not meant to make major decisions or help with detailed aspects of running a business. Instead, startup leaders must understand that a mentor represents an ally that functions in an advisory role. 

With that in mind, it is important for startups and mentors to have clearly defined, overlapping interests. This is why, at the Missouri Innovation Center, we have invested in cultivating a vibrant community of entrepreneurially-minded individuals, many of whom have deep experience and wisdom in multiple areas of life sciences and entrepreneurship. 

Our business mentoring services (which are available to both resident and non-resident clients of MIC) seek to put ambitious but inexperienced founders in close proximity with mentors who have experience in key areas, such as bio-tech, radiopharma, animal health, renewable and alternative energy, and nanotech. Having mentors with experience in these areas gives our startup clients access to individuals with invaluable industry expertise. 

Along with expertise, good mentors have important competencies, such as strong communication and problem-solving skills. They also possess a willingness to challenge founder thoughts and decisions. 

Strategic mentoring should also be mutually beneficial. A mentor should have a passion for mentorship. This allows them to enhance leadership skills and increase job satisfaction as they help others.

Types of Mentorship Programs for Startups

It’s important to realize that even within a startup setting, there are different kinds of mentorship structures. Here are a few common ones:

• Corporate mentorship programs provide on-the-job vertical mentorship support within an organization.
• Accelerator and incubator mentorship, like that offered at Missouri Innovation Center, provides third-party experienced support for startups seeking support as they industrialize and commercialize business concepts. 
• Industry-specific mentoring networks provide broader mentorship support through larger intra-industry networks focused on shared interests.
• Peer-to-peer mentoring opportunities allow those seeking advice and ideas to benefit from mutual relationships with and advice from others in similar situations.

Finding the Right Mentor: A Strategic Approach

Once you understand what to expect from mentorship and how it looks in your particular startup setting, you want to take steps to strategically choose the best mentor. This starts with identification and requires careful evaluation.

Identify Potential Mentors in Your Industry

There are many channels you can use to identify potential mentors. When you attend an industry event, consider what connections you can create. How can you leverage professional associations to connect with potential mentors? If you lack these more direct channels, you can use platforms like LinkedIn to find individuals who may be a good fit.

As you tap into these channels, use criteria to narrow your choices. For instance, filter mentor options by an individual’s willingness to mentor others and track record as a mentor. Does their past experience align with your startup’s goals in areas where you need support?

Research and Vet Potential Mentors

Once you have a pool of potential mentors, you want to narrow them down to your best choices. You can do this by conducting informal background checks on individuals to see what others think about them. 

Do they have a positive track record and good feedback from people they’ve worked with? Are there any success stories or references you can connect with to learn more about them? This is where having a pre-selected group like the mentors at Missouri Innovation Center can provide a natural filter to narrow your candidate pool.

When it comes time to choose the mentor you want to build a relationship with, make sure to talk through your company’s vision and mission. Ensure that these core areas are compatible with your mentor’s passions and expertise.

Build and Nurture Mentor Relationships

Mentor selection is an important first step, as that lays the groundwork for a positive and fruitful long-term relationship. However, it is just the starting point. Once you have a mentor, consider how you can cultivate your relationship over time to create outcomes that are mutually beneficial to both you and your mentor.

Establish Clear Expectations and Goals

This is ground zero for any startup initiative. Set realistic objectives that you want to see from your mentorship experience. Are you looking for objective feedback on ideas? Do you need help navigating challenges and setbacks? Is accountability important? What about personal or professional growth?

Use Effective Communication Techniques

Consider your professional rapport as you go about achieving your mentorship objectives. Create structured communication frameworks with clear boundaries and consistent interactions. Here are a few pro-tips to ensure every session is well worth everyone’s time, as well.

• Use active listening strategies, such as attuning to the thoughts and feelings of a speaker.
• Always prepare for mentor meetings ahead of time to avoid wasting valuable time during a meeting.
• Ask impactful questions with clear desired outcomes.
• Demonstrate commitment and point out progress as you communicate over time.

Maximizing the Value of Mentorship

Once you have the right mentor, clear objectives, and a strong mentorship framework in place, it’s time to fine-tune your experience. Here are five tips to further improve and optimize an already healthy mentor relationship.

Turn Mentor Advice into Actionable Strategies

You may feel encouraged or inspired by mentorship interactions, but always consider how you can go further. How can you adapt specific advice to your startup’s unique context? Talk with your mentor about implementation strategies. 

Don’t judge the results of this process based on intuition, either. Consider clear metrics that can help you track and measure mentorship outcomes, as well. (More on those metrics further down.)

Expand Your Professional Network

Mentors typically have a degree of success that comes with their own network. Make sure to leverage their connection to influence and build your own network, as well. 

Ask your mentor for introductions and connections. Use these to build long-term professional relationships that will last far beyond any specific mentorship context.

Use Mentorship as a Catalyst for Personal and Professional Growth

Don’t restrict mentorship experiences to your startup. Use them to develop personally as an ambitious but well-rounded entrepreneur, as well.

Use mentorship influence to help build personal leadership skills. Use their experienced advice to vicariously learn life lessons, such as improving emotional intelligence or building resilience and adaptability.

Avoid Common Mentorship Pitfalls

Remember that not all mentorships are created equal. There are times when a specific personality fit might not be ideal or you may have missed something during a background check that is cause for concern.

Look for red flags in a mentor-startup relationship, such as a lack of regular communication or a breach of confidentiality. Is your mentor balancing guidance with encouraging independent decision-making? Are they maintaining professional respect and boundaries? Assessing these regularly is an important way to ensure a mentorship relationship is still effective.

Measure the Impact of Mentorship

Finally, even if your mentor relationship is strong and healthy on a relational level, you want to ensure that it is productive, as well. Take the time to establish key performance indicators for your mentorship based on your pre-set goals and objectives.

What quantitative outcomes indicate a successful mentorship? Are there project completion rates or revenue growth figures you want to reach? What qualitative factors can you consider, such as better decision-making, perceived value of guidance, or overall mentee satisfaction? Track these over time and use them to assess your mentorship investment as you go.

Building Meaningful Mentorships

Mentorships in a business setting are practical and important aspects of professional success. In a startup scenario, in particular, they can provide invaluable support for pioneering founders looking to find their footing in unknown areas of the business landscape.

However, it is important not to treat mentorships as a panacea or a magic bullet. Simply having a mentor doesn’t guarantee any kind of qualitative or quantitative result. To get these from a mentor relationship, you must be intentional in your selection and strategic in your ongoing relationship.

At Missouri Innovation Center, we invest in mentorship as a cornerstone element of any successful startup incubator strategy. Startups come to us often looking for resources, and yet it is the value of experience-driven advice that often stands out as particularly important in their startup journey. If you are a high-growth business venture in the life sciences field, we invite you to get in touch with our staff and explore the mentorship opportunities available. Again, these are open to both residents and non-residents of the business incubator, and they are designed to provide coaching and support for innovative but inexperienced entrepreneurs as they seek to turn their visions and theories into commercialized realities.

A startup is only as strong as its founding team. This group must have the capabilities, tenacity, and teamwork required to make sound decisions as they guide a new company through the earliest stages of building a business.

Diversification is a critical component for most professional teams — but it is particularly important for groups overseeing the formulation, launch, and initial growth of a new business. From skill sets to experience, training to demographics, it is important to invest in a diverse management team for your startup.

As a business incubator, Missouri Innovation Center has prioritized the role of team building and leadership as part of its healthy support structure for entrepreneurial leadership. Over the years since its inception, MIC’s own leadership has seen the intangible yet impactful value of balanced teams as a way to make stronger decisions and drive better business outcomes. In this resource, we will explore why this is the case and consider how founders can take advantage of this by assembling balanced management teams.

The Business Case for Balanced Management

Diversity in leadership is more than a talking point or a corporate initiative. It is a well-documented business strategy with a positive, real-world impact on business. For example, McKinsey reports that diversity creates a more holistic impact. The global management consulting firm’s findings come from a years-long analysis project, which revealed the top quartile of companies with a greater emphasis on women’s representation or ethnic diversity in their executive teams were 39% more likely to financially outperform compared to the bottom quartile.

Another study by CloverPop found that a team that is diverse on age, gender, and geographic lines makes better decisions than an individual 87% of the time. In comparison, an average team with less diversity only did so 66% of the time.

The power of diverse leadership largely comes from an ability to avoid blind spots. A homogenous leadership group is naturally limited in areas like market research, leading to misalignment with target audiences. They also lack well-rounded perspectives on innovation, adapt to change slower, and struggle to holistically solve problems.

Key Dimensions of Management Team Diversity

While diversity and DEI are common in the current vernacular, the truth is that team diversity spans across a variety of areas, all of which should at least be considered when launching a startup. Here are five key diversity dimensions to evaluate when building a well-rounded team.

Background and Experience

A new business may not have a long track record, but its members should. It is wise for founders to seek out professionals with specific backgrounds and industry experience that relate to the unique demands of their field. 

Founders can also meet some of these experiential needs by building veteran boards of directors and boards of advisors. However, they should also seek experienced individuals who are willing to engage as members of management, as well, to provide an informed perspective in day-to-day decision-making.

Technical and Business-Oriented Approaches

Thinking styles are a nuanced but essential element of a balanced leadership team. In a field like life sciences, it is easy to become focused on the technical side of leadership. As you seek the knowledge and input of pharmacologists, microbiologists, lab technicians, and similar individuals, you also want to consider the business side of things.

Business-oriented mindsets can help a new company navigate things like financials, marketing, branding, and market expansion. Missouri Innovation Center further supports this entrepreneurial need through a mentorship program that connects highly qualified business professionals with founders to answer questions throughout the startup journey.

Educational Diversity

Education is another common thread when launching a technical or life-sciences-based company. Often, educational qualifications will play a primary role in developing products and services. This is the case for many of MIC’s incubator companies as they have developed complex offerings, like Elemental Enzymes’ agrotech solutions or NorthStar’s radioisotope supply solutions.

However, it’s important to remember that education comes in different forms, and more than one of these is required to build a successful business that supports a good product idea. This is why MIC has leveraged Missouri’s university system to cultivate a network of educationally diverse professionals that range from technical college graduates to self-taught entrepreneurs.

Cognitive Diversity

It is no secret that entrepreneurs are willing to take risks. This is the calculated effort that ultimately pays off in big wins and thriving businesses. However, a management team shouldn’t become risk-imbalanced. 

Diversifying the cognitive and risk-tolerant elements of leadership leads to more balanced decision-making. Founders should staff their fledgling C-suites with a blend of forward-thinking individuals, problem-solvers, detail-oriented leaders, practical realists, and so on.

Demographic Diversity

Demographic diversity is the most common form of DEI initiatives — and with good reason. It is more than a way to level playing fields and provide cross-cultural equity. When you bring individuals from different backgrounds and demographics, it broadens a management team’s potential.

When a business integrates women, ethnic minorities, multiple generations, international cultures, and more from the outset, it positions a company to have a complex and nuanced understanding of how it operates. From identifying target markets to understanding consumer behavior to balancing scientific theory and application, bringing more qualified voices to the table ensures that no stone is left unturned as your leadership engages in making critical decisions on a regular basis.

Assembling Your Balanced Team

Understanding the need for a diverse team is a good first step. But how do you assemble one? Here are five tips to help you identify and fill management gaps with diverse leaders.

Audit Your Existing Team

You can’t make informed hires without knowing where your weaknesses are. Conduct a thorough audit of your current team composition. Use the criteria outlined above (background, education, demographics, etc.) to identify gaps and define where you are lacking talent. 

Use Third-Party Resources

Missouri Innovation Center provides services to support talent acquisition and team building. From mentorship advice to advanced networking opportunities, these can shortcut the process of sourcing talent to fill specific management needs.

Recruit for Diversity

Don’t recruit your leadership in a flat or restrictive manner. Expand your strategy by setting clear goals, diversifying your talent channels, updating job descriptions, and fostering an inclusive company culture.

Overcome Unconscious Bias

It is easy for bias to seep into the recruitment process. Avoid this by adopting things like blind resume screening and cultivating diverse talent networks.

Create Diversity Paths

Go beyond recruitment by developing pathways for clear advancement within your company. This should embrace diverse and multi-faceted professional development tracks that empower and enable a wide cross-section of candidates to advance within your company as it grows.

Cultivating an Environment Where Diverse Teams Thrive

The best way to foster diversity from the top down is to build it from the ground up. As you consider diverse members for your management team, it is important to also invest in establishing a startup culture that can not just promote diversity but help a diverse team thrive. You can do this in a few different ways:

• Teach psychological safety: This seeks to show team members that it is okay to take risks, express ideas, voice concerns, and ask questions — all without fear of negative consequences. As Professor Amy Edmonsun from the Harvard Business School explains, psychological safety should feel like “permission for candor.”
• Work in a diverse environment: When you rent office space and equipment at an incubator like MIC, you gain access to a large and diverse group of peers, mentors, and administrators. Investing in environments like this can help you shape an inclusive leadership strategy and holistic team dynamics.
• Leverage diverse perspectives on purpose: Be deliberate about how you work diversity into your decision-making processes. Seek multiple opinions, allow room for discussion, and make sure everyone is heard.
• Balance efficiency with inclusivity: Finally, don’t forget to maintain balance in your diversity efforts. Efficiency and productivity are still priorities for a startup. Ensure that your diversity efforts are keeping pace with your entrepreneurial needs.

Assembling Balanced Management Teams

Your management team is a central component of your startup. The people you hire to lead a young company will be responsible for many of the key decisions that can set your enterprise on the path to success.

This group requires careful, thoughtful, and deliberate selection — and diversity plays a major role in that process. From expertise to demographics and more, make sure you are looking for ways to use diverse opinions, backgrounds, and experiences to strengthen your core executive team’s capabilities as your company gets off the ground.

If you work with an incubator like Missouri Innovation Center, you can also expect to have further support once your company is up and running. The ability to lean on informed and experienced third-party lifelines is critical to long-term executive balance. It provides an outside opinion on where your leadership team’s strengths and weaknesses are to maintain this critical piece of your company as you continue to grow.If you are an entrepreneur looking for support and guidance as you select the core members of your management, we encourage you to get in touch with our team at the Missouri Innovation Center. We can show you the resources we have available to help with team development. Together, we can build a vision for your startup that uses a balanced management team to achieve benchmarks, realize vision, and drive long-term success.

Leadership gaps can affect all organizations, regardless of their size, net worth, or legacy standing. In fact, a 2021 survey from consulting firm DDI affirms just how widespread leadership gaps are — and how many leaders are aware of those gaps.

According to the survey findings, fewer than half of the leaders that were polled felt they were adequately prepared to lead effectively. And most of their organizations weren’t providing any help: Just 28% said they were receiving assistance to improve their leadership skill sets.

These statistics reveal just how essential it is for you as an entrepreneur to identify, assess, and fill the critical leadership gaps within your startup. Without a clear understanding of what your leadership gaps are, you will have difficulty overcoming them through the use of strategic approaches and leading-edge resources.

To begin, let’s talk about what leadership gaps are and how they affect organizations.

What is a leadership gap in an organizational environment?

Picture a person standing on the bank of a river. Across the river is another shore line. A bridge connects the two banks.

The first bank represents the leader’s current capabilities. These are the skills and knowledge that are readily available and abundant. The second bank — the one across the water — represents all the skills and knowledge that the leader lacks. The water is the gap between those points. The bridge, of course, is the connector that leads the leader to full-scale potential by closing the gaps.

Your job as a startup founder is to acknowledge the water (e.g., the barrier between where your leaders are today and where you need them to be tomorrow) and then create a strong bridge for them to cross. 

You can’t expect leaders to dive into the water alone and hope that they’ll swim safely to the other shore. Instead, you must provide them a safe, efficient, and clear-cut way to get across for their benefit, as well as the benefit of your organization. Only after you’ve moved all your leaders across can you start exploring new territory and expanding your horizons.

How can you find the leadership gaps on your team?

To get your leaders to their next level of professional development (e.g., the other side of the river), involves measuring their leadership aptitudes in a variety of areas. There are numerous tools to achieve this goal, including written assessments that are designed to determine an individual’s core competencies against a continuum.

For example, an assessment may measure a leader’s communication abilities, digital literacy proficiency, emotional intelligence, creativity, inclusivity, or decision-making powers. You can lean on your leaders’ assessment results to offer them the individualized and group education they need to nurture their innate talents. That way, they can be assets — and help you build a high-growth, economically strong venture. 

It’s important not to take this step lightly, especially if you want to remain competitive. According to a 2023 Deloitte survey, just 23% of business people feel that their leaders are able to meet the leadership needs of the modern, boundaryless, asynchronous workplace. Consequently, closing your leadership gaps can make your organization stand out.

What are the common types of leadership gaps and their warning signs?

Leadership gaps can be unique to a given business. Nevertheless, some leadership gaps are quite common within startups and other organizations.

The first frequently seen leadership gap is a gap in technical expertise. Technical expertise can encompass anything from a lack of digital proficiency to a lack of knowledge about the technical equipment, information, or protocols involved in a specific industry. Without technical expertise at the leadership level, your employees will have difficulty getting the answers and managerial assistance they need and expect.

Soft skills leadership deficiencies are also commonplace. Soft skills tend to involve human interactions, such as the ability to communicate effectively, show empathy, and handle conflicts. Leaders without soft skills may come across as cold or unfeeling; this can lead to confusion, frustration, and turnover.

A third leadership gap involves limitations related to strategic thinking. The world changes quickly, and decisions need to be made rapidly. Sometimes, leaders don’t have all the facts; they must be able to strategize confidently, especially when answers are needed fast.

Another leadership gap area that’s not always recognized (but is highly important) is a failure to succession plan. All leaders need to put succession planning measures into place. Otherwise, their roles will not be filled promptly when they’re no longer part of the company.

The warning signs of leadership gaps aren’t always obvious and may be deceptively subtle. For instance, you may start to see a lot of cultural turmoil and not realize that it stems from a leadership gap rather than another factor.

Another red flag for leadership gaps is a lack of decision-making on the part of a leader. Alternatively, the leader may make all decisions solo, even when there’s time to gather data, talk to others, and become more informed. Likewise, micromanagement can indicate a leadership gap. Leaders who feel overwhelmed may feel the need to control their employees’ and colleagues’ work. 

When you see symptoms of leadership gaps, you aren’t relegated to figuring out what’s going on without help. Plenty of leadership gap analysis tools exist to help you and your leaders understand where your gaps lie.

What are some common leadership gap analysis tools?

If you’re new to exploring leadership gap assessment tools, you may want to start with some of the most frequently recognized. Many have free versions to give you a taste of what they offer.

Heading the list of traditional leadership assessment options is the DiSC assessment. The DiSC assessment measures a leader’s aptitude in each of four areas: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. Because DiSC is broad, it may be beneficial to use it in conjunction with another type of tool that drills more deeply into leadership skills.

For instance, a 360-degree leadership assessment can be a good choice if your team has been in place for a while and needs more than a DiSC assessment to identify leadership gaps. A 360-degree assessment retrieves and analyzes information from a leader’s colleagues to provide a holistic look at the leader’s strengths and challenges from both internal and external perspectives. 

Now, if you’re just starting up a business, you may not yet have a team to produce a statistically significant 360-degree assessment of your leaders. In that case, you could turn to other assessments such as the Hogan Assessment, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Test, or the CliftonStrengths™ from Gallup.

The Hogan Assessment aims to provide a predictive snapshot of how well a leader is likely to perform based on a variety of data points. It’s quite thorough and used by many companies, including during the hiring process.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Test may remind you of the DiSC assessment tool. However, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicators place leaders into one of 16 different categories rather than into four categories. Still, it may oversimplify or overlook core talents that other assessments that are far more personalized provide.

As a relative newcomer to leadership assessment tools, CliftonStrengths from Gallup has risen in its influence. CliftonStrengths focuses on uncovering individuals’ natural abilities as well as opportunities for improvements. 

Individualized assessment tools aren’t your only options. You can also measure leadership gaps from an organizational framework. After all, you might have strong leaders in place but not have the processes or relationships necessary to drive success. Your leaders could be hampered by inefficient workflows or complicated (and unnecessary) protocols that make them ineffective despite their having the innate skills to do their job functions.

In smaller, flatter organizations, skills matrices can assist in constructing a catalogue of leadership inventories. With an inventory in hand of the leadership abilities across your startup, you could then see your leadership gaps and either fill them through upskilling or talent acquisition.

How can you assess your organization’s leadership capacity?

Once you’ve conducted a leadership gap audit through the use of your preferred assessment tools (and possibly with the help of a consultant), you can look at your findings objectively and evaluate your bench strength: Where is your organization strong in terms of its existing leaders? Are you succession-ready, if someone leaves?

You can also start to determine which of your leaders are high-potential versus which are high performers. High-potential leaders may not have the skills and training, but they have the innate talents to lead your company into the future. High performers are already showing themselves as effective leaders, but they may be valuable in other areas of your company. (In other words, they could be untapped human resources.)

It’s a good idea to assess your leadership culture and effectiveness against your organizational dynamics and business outcomes, too. Again, this will give you a clearer view of exactly how leadership gaps are affecting your startup from every angle.

How can you create action plans to fill leadership gaps?

Once you know your leadership gaps, you can start to build bridges to overcome them. Five ways to make that happen include the following.

1. Develop targeted leadership development programs

Rather than taking a scattershot approach, you may want to work with a consultant or coach to construct targeted training plans for each person. Or, you may wish to train all your leaders in the same areas to ensure you have duplicative skills sets. This is where being a part of an incubator like the Missouri Innovation Center can be beneficial. You can leverage the experience of professionals who are well-versed in leadership development programming and can make recommendations.

2. Recruit talent

Sometimes, recruiting new people makes the most sense for your startup. You could even consider hiring fractional leaders, such as part-time CFOs or CMOs. By choosing talented leaders who possess the skills your leadership team lacks, you can rapidly fill gaps.

3. Mentor and coach leaders

Setting up a formal mentoring program can allow leaders to learn from other seasoned leaders. Mentoring can be critical to the development of leaders. Unfortunately, some statistics suggest that fewer than four out of 10 professionals have a mentor, despite three-quarters of them believing in the power of mentorship. Making it easier for your leaders to enjoy the advantages of mentorship will pay dividends back to your organization.

4. Offer job rotation and “stretch” assignments

Doing a job can be a great way to learn a skill. If you realize that you and other leaders lack an understanding of certain roles and functions, assign them to work on those roles and functions for a period. They’ll gain insight and expertise; plus, they may find it easier to empathize with employees in those positions. Along these same lines, consider assigning emerging leaders some projects that will require them to push their limits.

5. Create leadership succession pathways

Sit down with your leaders to discuss their goals. Then, use what you find to create promotional and leadership succession maps. Creating succession pathways, particularly for leaders who are interested in rising through your organization, helps them feel more invested in your organization and excited about learning.

How do you know that leadership gap plans are working?

After putting your leadership gap plans into place, you’ll want to make sure they produce the outcomes you desire. 

You can measure how well leadership gap plans are working by setting key performance indicators (KPIs), along with anticipated (and realistic) timeframes. Case in point, you may want to see a 10% turnover decrease across your organization or within a certain department within six months or a year. You can use that specific goal as a KPI.

Measuring and monitoring KPIs will help you calculate the ROI of your leadership development investments. Accordingly, you can continuously make adjustments to ensure that you’re progressing.

What are a few common leadership gap planning pitfalls to avoid?

Any plan can go sideways. Consequently, be on the lookout for a few leadership gap planning pitfalls.

First, avoid focusing all your attention on your C-suite and senior leadership team members. They won’t be with your organization forever; you should spend time, funds, and effort on your organization’s next generation of leaders.

Next, try not to rely mainly on external hiring to fill all your leadership gaps. This can lead to a bloated payroll, which can cause financial difficulties. Paying to train your current leaders may be more cost-conscious. That said, you may want to fill some openings; in that case, be sure your leadership talent pipeline is diverse.

Finally, be sure to identify leadership gap solutions that are targeted to align with your organization and its strategic aims. Generic, one-size-fits-most leadership gap plans are unlikely to move the needle in a long-lasting and substantive way.

Bridging leadership gaps for your organization’s future success

Every organization has leadership gaps. But by spending time identifying your gaps now through a thorough assessment of your leadership and organizational strengths and weaknesses, you make it possible for your current and budding leaders to realize their capabilities and be more confident contributors. In no time, they’ll be crossing the bridge that will lead them (and your business) into a stronger, more fulfilling future.

The Missouri Innovation Center (MIC) provides support for high-growth business ventures that improve human life and sustainability. Our emphasis is in the life sciences sector, and our facilities and services are tailored to support startups seeking to establish and grow enterprises in that sector.

Life sciences startup founders are often interested in the facilities and equipment they can access by partnering with MIC. However, many find that access to a thriving network of business professionals is just as valuable in the process of launching a company. One critical form of this intangible and essential support that is particularly important is our mentorship program.

Mentors play a key role in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. A good mentor can help with a variety of challenges. Whether it is making a key hire or an unexpected pivot, a mentor can coach founders through the process of transforming from novices to leaders.

However, a mentorship program only works if the right mentors join it. What does it take to become a mentor? What are the benefits, processes, and challenges of this unique form of business building? 

In this resource, we will consider the benefits of becoming a mentor, the unique opportunity it offers to give back to others, and what it takes to become a mentor in an established and reputable network like that maintained by the Missouri Innovation Center.

What Does the MIC Mentor Network Look Like?

Mentorship programs come in all shapes and sizes. At MIC, we have cultivated a program structured to help ambitious, inexperienced business leaders navigate the turbulent waters of launching a startup. We only accept qualified coaches who have strong communication skills, clear industry experience, and are able to fully commit to the weighty responsibilities of guiding and influencing an entrepreneur.

A strong selection process is especially important in a field like life sciences. Client companies that lease space and pay for services at MIC are seeking to enter a highly competitive, high-risk, high-reward business landscape. They are focused on niche areas, such as:

• Nanotech
• Drugs
• Radiopharma
• Biowaste
• Animal health, 
• Renewable and alternative energy
• Diagnostics
• Medical devices

No matter how good a startup’s products or services might be, these verticals require significant up-front investment and sound business decision-making for a new company to survive. Every action is important and benefits from clear, impactful guidance from a business coach. This avoids wasted resources, shortened runways, and missed opportunities.

Mentorship Networks: What Are the Benefits to Mentors?

It’s easy to see the benefit that a mentored individual gets from having access to a wiser, more experienced business leader. (Although even then, there are some surprising additional benefits that are easy to overlook, which we’ll touch on in the next section.)

But what about a mentor? If you’re considering becoming a mentor for a business founder — or even formally joining the Missouri Innovation Center mentorship network — realize that mentorship isn’t all about pouring out into others. Mentoring is a nurturing, developmental task that requires a socratic approach to help teach entrepreneurs how to analyze and solve problems.  It is not consulting or a human web search where the entrepreneur asks questions and the mentor provides answers.  

Networking With Other Industry Leaders and Innovators

When a mentor operates individually, they are isolated and have limited opportunities to connect with others outside of their own network. However, when a mentor joins a larger group of like-minded individuals, as is the case with the Missouri Innovation Center’s mentorship network, they naturally increase their ability to connect with other professionals. 

They also can enjoy the assumption that everyone within this network is at least successful enough to be able to provide experiential wisdom to others in some capacity. Furthermore, by mentoring in the entrepreneurial space, they can expect to rub shoulders not just with proven business leaders in key industries they care about but with cutting-edge innovators in peer-to-peer settings.

Professional Development Opportunities

Mentorship programs provide a wide swath of advisory value to founders. A program like MIC’s allows mentors with business, niche, industry, and even science-specific experience to speak into a young business and help its leaders make decisions.

This cross-section of experience and wisdom can also benefit mentors. As they build their networks, it can open up opportunities for professional development and horizontal growth around their strengths. This empowers mentors to use this deepened knowledge in their own ventures as well as in their efforts to advise and coach others.

Exposure to New Technologies

Our world is advancing at breakneck speed. Something that was innovative five years ago can feel like ancient technology in the present. This has made continuous learning a critical piece to the entrepreneurial puzzle, not just for founders but for mentors, too.

Seasoned entrepreneurs must still remain open to digital transformation and should maintain a willingness to trial new technology as it becomes available. Mentorship environments are a great space where you can engage in this growth-oriented approach, equip yourself with the latest technological tools and knowledge, and actively demonstrate to founders the importance of an ongoing investment in continual learning in key areas like technology.

Enhanced Leadership and Coaching Skills

The act of coaching can help startups navigate launching and scaling a company, but make no mistake. It can also have a positive impact on the individual doing the coaching. 

The long-term process of mentoring an entrepreneur provides ample opportunities to develop coaching skills. They can practice active listening and emotional intelligence. They can learn to build professional relationships that last, communicate better, and provide constructive feedback. Coaching may be primarily aimed at the benefit of the coached, but it can also enhance a mentor’s leadership skills in the process.

Resume Building and Professional Recognition

It’s one thing to be recognized for your business accomplishments. Helping others achieve their own entrepreneurial dreams is another layer of professionalism that you can’t tap into on your own.

A mentor is able to add a unique element to their resume, even if it is already full of impressive accomplishments. In addition, the recognition that comes with investing in others is unique, and even if it isn’t their primary goal (which is appropriate), it doesn’t change the fact that it is good for a mentor’s personal brand.

Benefits to Mentees: The Mentor Impact

When a mentee can find the right individual and maximize their mentor relationships, it can have a powerful impact on their career and business trajectories. While it’s easy to understand that as a general concept, it’s worth considering some of the specific and unique ways mentors in a network like that at Missouri Innovation Center can positively influence the founders with whom they work. Let’s look at a few examples:

• Mentees gain access to industry expertise and guidance: The simple benefit of gleaning wisdom and avoiding mistakes through the advice of others can have an astronomical impact on a cash-strapped, risk-prone startup leader trying to find the best path forward.
• Mentees expand their professional networks: It can take years to build a strong professional network. A mentee can shortcut some of this process through connections obtained through a mentor.
• Mentees accelerate learning and skill development: A coach can help a founder learn key skills and hone business capabilities at a much faster rate than if they had to do so alone through individual experiences.
• Mentees gain increased confidence and motivation: The experienced advice of a seasoned mentor can infuse a cautious, inexperienced entrepreneur with the boldness to make decisions, even if they come with calculated risks.
• Mentees have a higher likelihood of startup success: Numbers don’t lie. Studies have found that Mentored businesses are 12% more likely to stay in business after a year and that they are twice as likely (70%) to survive beyond five years.

Benefits to the Innovation Ecosystem

Finally, it’s worth mentioning some benefits that a qualified mentor in a healthy mentor network has on the innovative output of a larger entrepreneurial ecosystem. In the case of the Missouri Innovation Center, we have found that our mentorship network has strengthened and amplified our impact on the entire mid-Missouri community we serve. 

The businesses bolstered by our mentors are actively fueling economic development in the region. The cross-industry collaboration and knowledge sharing within our system are creating a synergistic impact, and the accompanying job creation is attracting and retaining talent.

When you step back and look at it from a holistic perspective, a well-connected and supported mentor can be the game-changing difference-maker that leads to an ever-widening ripple effect across companies, industries, and entire regions.

How to Get Involved as a Mentor

If you’re considering becoming a mentor, what steps can you take to turn that into reality? In the case of a system like Missouri Innovation Center’s mentorship network, you start by applying. 

Once we’ve vetted your qualifications, you can begin a period of training where you will learn how to teach others through your experience and direct them toward the resources provided at the MIC facilities. You will also go through things like goals, expected time commitments, and other responsibilities.

If you’ve thought of becoming a mentor in the past, the time has never been better. As the world changes, opportunities continue to arise, but they are surrounded by an increasingly complex world of technological, global, and industry-specific challenges. 

A strong mentor/mentee connection can be the perfect tool to help innovative entrepreneurs (both those established with something to offer and those starting and in need of support) build confidence, maintain clarity, and make the best decisions for themselves and their businesses.

At Missouri Innovation Center, we offer the mentorship and resources required to build operational frameworks around great business ideas. Part of that is establishing proper governance structures to oversee the establishment and growth of a business. 

While it’s easy to understand the roles of, say, a CEO or Director of HR, some leadership structures are more confusing. If you’re unsure about the composition and responsibilities of a board of directors as opposed to a board of advisors, this resource is designed to provide definition, clarity, benefits, and best practices regarding these two important areas of business oversight and leadership.

Boards of Directors: Legal Structure and Responsibilities

A board of directors is a legal entity with critical oversight and responsibility over the governance of a company. It is responsible for financial oversight, compliance, risk management, and helping to make strategic decisions.

These are typically broken down into detailed and well-defined roles, such as fiduciary responsibility, which includes categories like duty of care (prudence) or duty of loyalty (prioritizing organizational interests). A board of directors must be careful to comply with all laws, regulations, and corporate bylaws while executing these functions.

Board members are former members of an organization who are held personally liable for things like misconduct or negligence. They exercise voting rights and must adhere to formal meeting and documentation requirements, such as quarterly meetings or maintaining minutes.

Boards of Advisors: Role and Purpose

In contrast to a board of directors, a board of advisors functions as an informal, non-binding group. It does not have any legal responsibility for organizational finances or compliance. Members can offer guidance, expertise, and mentorship, although they do not have formal roles or responsibilities in the operation and decision-making processes.

The lack of legal requirements makes a board of advisors a more flexible group, both as it pertains to membership and operation. As an unregulated group, each board of advisors can follow customized functions, and its members can fill unique or circumstantial roles. A board of advisors can focus on strategic, high-level guidance and can meet as needed.

Key Differences in the Composition of a Board of Directors and Board of Advisors

The considerable differences in the form and function of a board of directors compared to a board of advisors make the selection and composition of each group quite different. Here are a few of the key factors to consider:

• A board of directors is formally elected by either stakeholders or shareholders, whereas a board of advisors can be informally appointed.
• Directors tend to need specific financial, legal, or other governance training. Advisors are often chosen based on experience or expertise.
• A board of directors should be structured and numbered based on regulatory specifications (often containing around 12 total individuals, although many boards are smaller). Advisory boards are designed to meet organizational needs and can vary widely in number and structure.
• Directors are hired with fixed terms and clear legal obligations. Advisors lack these binding duties and are often appointed for flexible, shorter stints.
• Directors receive clear compensation packages, such as salaries, stipends, or stock options. Advisors are compensated on an unstructured basis and may even be unpaid or receive a simple honorarium or equity incentive.
• Directors are given legal decision-making powers and are expected to exercise them when necessary. Advisors offer more broad, experiential, mentorship-focused advice.
• Directors are held accountable for decisions and have agency in the trajectory of a company. Advisors offer advice and can influence but are not legally (or even generally) held accountable for the actual day-to-day decisions they impact.

In all cases, an advisor is the more flexible option, whereas a director must adhere to specific organizational and regulatory guidelines.

Benefits of Directors vs Advisors

There are clear applications and benefits for both a board of directors and a board of advisors. Here are some of the most obvious advantages to each group.

Benefits of Board of Directors

A board of directors:

• Provides a shared and accountable sense of legal oversight and governance.
• Prioritizes shareholder guidance and represents their best interests.
• Considers the implications and implementation of present and future regulatory compliance.
• Provides strategic direction aimed at creating specific results, such as growth or increased revenue.

Benefits of Advisory Board

A board of advisors:

• Provides a flexible, scalable, and deep source of expertise across as many fields and areas of advice as desired.
• Comes with industry connections, networks, and reputational prestige.
• Offers mentorship opportunities that cultivate future leadership and expertise within internal organizational pipelines.
• Reduces administrative burdens through shared advice and group guidance.

Practical Considerations for Businesses

When companies are considering establishing a board of directors or a board of advisors, here are some questions to ask regarding which one is right for your situation.

When should you establish each type of board?

A board of directors is critical to legal governance in a corporate setting. A board of advisors can be helpful with initiating growth or establishing strategic guidance without the need for formal oversight for leadership.

What are the cost implications involved?

A board of directors comes with fixed (and generally higher) cost implications. A board of advisors brings more flexibility and lower costs to the table.

What are the time and resource requirements required?

A director will need to commit to significant time, whereas an advisor can provide occasional input. The former has a more dramatic influence on the time and resources of both its members and your company.

How does either board integrate with your business strategy?

Is there a strategic advantage to creating a board of directors (such as incorporating a business) or a board of advisors (such as accessing industry expertise)?

Building a Board for Your Startup

As your startup grows, consider the advantages and disadvantages of a board of directors compared to a board of advisors. Once you’ve chosen the right fit for your growing company, keep best practices in mind, too, including:

• Careful selection based on director vs advisor criteria.
• Meeting structure and frequency.
• Communication protocols and performance evaluation.
• Conflict resolution measures.

Whether you’re looking for a board of directors to meet legal requirements or a board of advisors to provide soft guidance and key insights to a growing company, make sure you invest in these areas thoughtfully. Choose the board that meets your company’s needs and growth goals at the moment, and then staff it with properly vetted, well-qualified individuals who can positively contribute to your company throughout their tenure.

Environment plays a key role in innovation. It is a critical piece of the creative puzzle that can facilitate ideas, spark synergy, and guide processes. Speaking about the importance of workspaces and where ideas come from, science author and media theorist Steven Johnson said, “If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect.”

The Missouri Innovation Center has invested in the importance of settings and situations for its entrepreneurial clients in the life science sector. Along with resources such as wet labs, shared resources, and collaborative spaces, MIC maintains a facility that is uniquely designed to encourage and amplify the creative process. 

From fostering important connections to creating thoughtful spaces, this resource will consider the role of environment in the innovation process and how MIC’s industry-leading incubator offices and labs are empowering the next generation of innovators.

Understanding the Innovation Process

The process of facilitating innovation starts with understanding how the creative process works in the first place. This is a subtle and nuanced part of business that remains unreplicable by software and AI algorithms and requires humans engaging in indefinable processes. 

The complexities of the act of creation, particularly through innovation in a business context, consist of a few components. The creativity of individual contributors is important. So is the culture of a founding team. Availability of specific resources is also a factor, as is strategic alignment that helps transform the potential of an idea into a solution with value for an end user.

The innovative journey typically takes place on a similar timeline. This includes:

• Ideation: This is the initial act of coming up with an idea with real market potential.
• Evaluation: This consists of fleshing out and testing an idea to thoroughly consider the costs and benefits of investing in it.
• Experimentation: Early iterations, prototyping, and testing attempt to form a real-world version of a good idea and then refine it into something with consumer value.
• Implementation: This takes working prototypes and attempts to scale them at affordable costs.

Each of these stages is critical for transforming ideas into successful products and services — and environment plays a part in each stage.

For example, a physical space can create opportunities for collaboration as an entrepreneur looks for ways to implement an idea effectively. If they are in the experimenting phase, having access to the right facilities and tools can impact modifiability. It can also help them conduct more thorough testing or accelerate the ideation process, leading to a faster time to market.

The Science Behind Environment and Creativity

What does science have to say about spatial importance for innovators? While it’s easy to generally reinforce the claim that an entrepreneur’s space impacts how they focus and create, there are a few important elements to be aware of based on statistical analysis.

One of these is to be aware of the holistic nature of a “space.” Both visual and audible elements factor into an innovation-prone environment. Audibly, much research has been done to show the impact that sound can have on creativity. 

For example, studies have found that a reasonable degree of ambient noise, around 70 decibels, can encourage out-of-the-box ideas and stimulate abstract thinking. This is similar to the “buzz” of a coffee shop, although if you get into the louder environment of a restaurant or bar, it is less effective and more distracting. 

Visual elements are also key. Minimalism is an example of a visual approach to decor that has been shown to stimulate creativity by removing clutter from a space and, thus, also from the mind. Nature is also a commonly trumpeted way to encourage creativity, although, like ambient noise, it has limitations. One study found that viewing a natural environment stimulated curiosity, flexibility, and imagination. However, it also reported that “highly natural environments distract our minds from work.”

MIC’s Facility Design Philosophy

Missouri Innovation Center’s facility is designed with innovation in mind. The incubator’s 33,000-square-foot floor plan integrates architectural concepts that promote creativity, such as open spaces and natural lighting.

MIC also balances the need for private-focused work areas and collaborative spaces. Our cross-section of life science entrepreneurs provides complementary input and analysis that can find expression in shared workspaces. At the same time, our rentable spaces are designed for flexibility and adaptability to accommodate the unique, innovative needs of each client we serve.

How MIC Workspaces Reinforce the Science

Missouri Innovation Center’s workspaces reflect many of the innovative findings listed above. For example, we have thoughtful spaces that include cubicle offices with an open space floor plan to facilitate focus without creating a sense of isolation. Board rooms and meeting rooms with closed-off spaces are also available for privacy and selective interactions with targeted groups as needed.

Everything is well-lit with natural light, as well. Even labs have natural light along with artificial light fixtures. All of our spaces also maintain a clean and professional look that can appeal to all startup needs. This is important, as the inconsistencies of unconventional workspace designs do not necessarily improve innovation. 

The result is a business incubator that incorporates the impact of physical surroundings into a framework of solutions designed to help founders innovate, iterate, improve, and exercise effective problem-solving capabilities.

Key Facility Features That Drive Innovation

Let’s consider some of the most important elements of environmental design and how the Missouri Innovation Center integrates those key concepts into its spaces as a way to spark creativity and drive innovation.

Collaborative Spaces

The concept of offering collaborative spaces for entrepreneurs has already come up a couple of times in this resource — and with good reason. Spaces that encourage the intersection of founders as they each tend to their startups may not be a natural priority. However, finding like-minded individuals facing similar challenges in related business verticals can provide unique synergy and perspectives.

MIC’s large meeting rooms and breakout areas encourage entrepreneurs to engage in face-to-face interactions with others in similar stages of the business-building process. This helps the dozens of startups operating in our space to glean advice, hone ideas, and gain greater awareness from the insights and experiences of others.

Technological Resources

Apple may have famously started out of a garage, but many other startup models require more infrastructure right out of the gate. In a field as complex as the life sciences sector, it is particularly important for a founding team to have scientific equipment and resources available to experiment and iterate as they turn ideas into actionable business models. A dedicated space like the MIC’s facility provides access to important infrastructure and specialized tools, such as wet labs and related lab equipment.

Building an Innovation Community

Connections and support lines are an essential part of any successful startup. That’s why it is important for founders to think carefully about how they build their teams and choose their board of directors. Along with these internal influential pieces, many set up a board of advisors, seek out mentorships, and look for peers who can speak into their decisions as they vet ideas and look for the best path forward. 

Missouri Innovation Center’s facilities and structure are designed to accelerate the assembly of these external elements by bringing together like-minded innovators invested in related and complementary business sectors. 

The presence of mentors, for instance, can help with corporate decision-making and industry-specific application and ideation of business ideas. Peer-to-peer mentorship opportunities can also lead to mutually beneficial relationships that feature the exchange of up-to-date information.

The MIC incubator’s shared spaces make it easier for these groups to interact with founding teams. They also offer a high degree of nuance within these networking opportunities. While life sciences is an emphasis for the incubator, the clients it attracts come from a wide variety of niches within that sector, including:

• Radiopharma
• Animal health
• Biowaste
• Renewable energy
• Alternative energy
• Diagnostics
• Medical devices
• Drugs
• Nanotech.

Through its thoughtful approach to spatial design, the incubator encourages its clients to cross paths in dedicated public spaces, such as our shared office suite, wet lab resource suites, break room, and the entire portion of our facility dedicated to maintaining an open office environment. 

Investing in Space as a Startup

Office space is a notoriously difficult thing to invest in as you launch a business. The high overhead makes an incubator an attractive option to reduce costs and gain access to a startup-friendly space, especially in the life sciences industry.

It is important for founders to think beyond the practicalities of equipment access and affordability, too. An optimized environment like the carefully cultivated suites and startup spaces at MIC encourages a greater sense of innovation that can play a critical role in accelerating and honing the creative process. It can lead to more informed and accurate results and speed up the time it takes to get a business idea up and running.Missouri Innovation Center remains committed to providing optimal conditions for the next generation of innovators. If you are looking for a positive space to house your startup, contact us to learn more about what it takes to apply to the incubator and become one of our client companies.

Securing that initial round of pre-seed funding is always exciting. Not only does your founding team feel they have a viable business idea on their hands, but you have convinced an outside funder to buy into your vision as well. 

While this is an important first step, what do you do next? Navigating the critical transition period after securing initial funding can be intimidating and overwhelming. You’re no longer talking in hypotheticals. Instead, you’re making very real-world decisions as you attempt to take actionable steps to turn your idea into reality, create a product or service, and then use that to generate sustainable growth.

Nothing is certain in the startup phase (23.2% of private sector businesses in the U.S. fail in the first year alone). It is important to invest in giving your fledgling business the best chance of long-term success. 

That is why mentors and coaches are such a critical part of the startup process. In this resource, we will look at the several challenges that startups face post-funding, consider key coaching advice and methodologies, and look at Missouri Innovation Center’s approach to startup coaching as a central part of our incubator’s offerings.

The Post-Funding Challenge

It’s tempting to see the other side of your first round of funding as a chance for some smooth sailing after that initial effort. But the truth is, once you have that money in your business’s shiny new bank account, you’re just exchanging a financial headache for a range of new challenges and hurdles that you need to clear.

Here are a few of the biggest pitfalls funded startups face after securing initial investment:

• Mismanaging funds: It’s one thing to see a product you want to create. It’s another to spend money in the pursuit of creating it. It’s easy to come up short when managing investment funding, and when that happens, it can quickly bring a good idea to a bad end.
• Shifting mindsets: Once you have your initial funding, you need to rapidly shift from fundraising mode to execution mode (at least until your next round of funding arrives). This means making the right hires and engaging in strategic planning that will move your idea forward — something that many founders fail to adjust to.
• Overcoming a lack of business experience: Technical founders often struggle with business operations that are out of the scope of their training and experience. From scaling too quickly to failing to achieve product-market fit, a lack of business acumen can plague a well-funded startup from the outset.

It is important to take this menagerie of challenges seriously. Don’t assume that limited experience or “gut instinct” will naturally elevate you above the average. The cold, hard truth is that the statistics are stacked against a pre-seed-funded business. Research shows that 60% of pre-series A-funded startups fail — not just in the long run. They never even make it to Series A funding.

It’s important to give yourself every advantage — including the wisdom, insights, and experience of a veteran business coach.

Key Areas Where Coaches Provide Guidance

A business coach or professional mentor can have a game-changing influence on transforming novice founders into effective CEOS and improving the trajectory of their startups in the process. This comes from a variety of areas where a mentor can positively impact a new company as it gets off the ground, particularly in a complex, competitive field like life sciences. Here are a few examples of different ways coaches can provide key tips and critical guidance for a pre-seed-funded startup trying to get to Series A.

Financial Management and Runway Extension

Proper management of the multi-faceted financial considerations of developing a new company is central to the long-term success of a new business. At this early stage, it’s important for founders to iterate and experiment with their business ideas and develop product prototypes that they can effectively bring to market. A coach can help with wise spending, avoiding unnecessary expenses, and looking for any and every way to extend runways while ideas are tested.

Strategic Planning and Milestone Setting

It’s easy to get bogged down in the details when developing a radiopharma solution or an agtech product. A coach can bring a sense of clarity as you build a strategy for the future. They can also help set SMART goals and achievable milestones that can keep a startup on track and make the most of every invested dollar.

Talent Acquisition and Team Building

Making the right hires at the right times is an ongoing challenge for a growing business. Leaning on the advice of a mentor can help a founding team avoid unnecessary or expensive hires. At the same time, it can also help them identify when new talent is needed to meet a skill gap or help delegate a growing list of responsibilities.

Product-Market Fit Refinement

An idea may sound good on paper, but fitting it to real-world needs is often more nuanced than expected. A coach can help founders navigate the process of turning theory into practicality through more accurate product development that genuinely meets consumer needs and has a clear market demand.

Operational Efficiency and Scalable Processes

It is important to use the early funding phases of a business to set the stage for the future. This starts with operational efficiency. For example, an experienced mentor can recommend utilizing affordable rental space at a targeted and well-equipped incubator like Missouri Innovation Center rather than squandering startup cash on a less efficient solution. They can also help put processes in place that can scale with a business as it grows its team and attains more funding.

Customer Acquisition Strategies

The real-world experience of a veteran coach, mentor, or board of advisors can help founders connect a relevant product with the people who need it. Experience is essential when developing acquisition strategies, and the input of a business mentor can streamline the process and avoid wasting resources while a founding team works to build out initial brand awareness.

The Coaching Methodology

Each coach works in their own unique way, so don’t expect the experience to be predictable. However, as you work with a mentor or advisor, you can expect a few common elements that tend to factor into most coaching methodologies:

• Assessing startup strengths and weaknesses: A coach will likely want to take the time to evaluate where your founding team is strong and where it needs work. The same will go for things like your financials, business processes, business plan, and even your product itself.
• Creating accountability frameworks: A good coach will not just set goals. They’ll look for ways to keep you accountable to them, from consistent check-ins to target dates and deadlines.
• Balancing founder vision with practical execution: A coach won’t be afraid to push back against idealistic vision casting if it doesn’t align with real-world market conditions or a practical way to turn that vision into reality.
• Connecting startups with mentor networks and resources: A good coach always thinks bigger than their own impact and will look for ways to help your startup collaborate with others, gain access to key resources, and establish a broader network of mentors.
• Pivoting versus persevering: A coach can provide insights during key moments, such as deciding when to continue pursuing a particular line of action and when to deviate or adjust — especially in the context of the relatively limited runway of most pre-seed scenarios.

Coaching for the Long Game

A quality coach, like those within the Missouri Innovation Center network, will help shepherd resources and make short-term decisions while maintaining the big picture. This includes building a scalable business model and preparing for future funding and growth phases.

Building a Sustainable Business Model

A coach will help an initially funded startup move from investor funding to a more sustainable business model. This includes exploring recurring revenue streams and developing customer retention strategies. As initial R&D efforts produce products, they can also help analyze profitability through unit economics and ensure that you have a path to profitability.

Preparing for the Next Growth Phase

The pre-seed funding phase often only lasts for a matter of months. This makes preparing for future funding a priority. A coach can help identify readiness indicators for Series A/B funding and define a path to scale operations while maintaining a fledgling and fragile company culture. They can also help develop a long-term vision and identify strategic partners and expansion opportunities that can play an integral part in that roadmap.

Using Coaching to Supercharge a Startup

Coaching, mentorship, advisory boards — call it what you like. It is difficult to underestimate the impact of tapping into the experienced advice of a business professional. Coaches can play an ongoing role throughout the startup lifecycle by helping to make key decisions in the present while simultaneously preparing for the future.This is why the Missouri Innovation Center’s mentorship program is a leading element of our core services. If you are part of a life sciences startup attracting early funding but lacking an actionable plan to move forward, we encourage you to reach out. Our team can help you gain access to our services to ensure that you can maintain affordable support as you navigate the complex and challenging process of moving from pre-seed through Series funding and on to scaling into a profitable company.

While stress is often a normal part of life, the intensity and frequency of today’s stressors are causing many people to experience frustrating (and even debilitating) levels of anxiety and depression. 

As of 2024, the American Psychiatric Association reported that 43% of adults in the United States felt as if their anxiousness was increasing, leading to negative impacts on both their sleep and mental wellness. And while there are over-the-counter and pharmaceutical drugs that can help those seeking relief from the symptoms of high stress, many people are interested in natural, non-drug solutions to help them better deal with stressors. 

Enter Healium, an innovative tech company incubated at the Missouri Innovation Center (MIC) and quickly gaining international recognition and success.

A new way of leveraging brainwave data

As noted by Sarah Hill, Healium’s founder and CEO, the company is best described as an immersive mental wellness solution uniquely powered by biometric data delivered to wearables. Through the interpretation of this data, Healium essentially allows users to interpret their real time physiological vectors so they can learn to self-regulate their physical and mental responses to stress and trauma. 

Validated in 10 peer-reviewed journals, Healium enables individuals to downshift their nervous systems through immersive relaxation practices. This ingenious approach leverages the latest neuroscience to induce calm. In fact, Healium has garnered so much public attention that it is trusted today by organizations including the Mayo Clinic, NFL teams, and major airlines.

How did Healium get to this point? Hill credits the MIC for providing a launching pad that allowed her vision to come to fruition — and her startup to gain traction.

More than a touchdown space

In 2016, Hill was looking for office space for her emerging company. During her search for the ideal workspace, she was introduced to the MIC. Feeling it would be the right fit, she set up shop and quickly discovered it was more than just a location.

“We got so much more,” Hill recalls. From mentorship, investment opportunities, and networking, she notes that the MIC proved to be a comprehensively supportive incubator in the early days before Healium was an actual product.

Over time, Hill was able to evolve her concept into a product, thanks to several key advantages that her company experienced by being part of the MIC. These crucial advantages highlight the supportive role the MIC played in Healium’s early development.

1. Regular mentoring

One of the biggest benefits of being part of the MIC for Hill was having access to mentors. They were the company’s first informal board of directors before she had a real board. She appreciated that they would take the time to sit down with her, enabling her to better define and refine her goals.

“The mentors at the MIC were incredibly helpful to us,” says Hill. They helped her reimagine her product and unit economics, as well as scale up after the pandemic. After all, Healium was well-suited to meet the societal needs of the stressful pandemic and post-pandemic world. Yet, Hill needed some guidance to determine how to navigate her company toward success.

For example, Healium started as a consumer product. But Hill says it became clear that selling just to consumers was not going to be as lucrative. Accordingly, she had to pivot her thinking to embrace the idea of selling to corporate entities as well.

“The unit economics for consumers are harder to attain than selling it [Healium] to the enterprise market,” notes Hill. “It costs a lot to acquire consumers in mass.” With the assistance of her MIC mentors, she discovered that she could boost her startup’s performance metrics (e.g., customer acquisition rates, customer lifetime value) if she worked on a package that would entice larger companies to purchase enterprise-level subscriptions. It was a helpful learning process for Hill as she crunched the numbers to understand where to best take her sales and marketing for maximum returns.

2. Protection of the product

Being at the MIC wasn’t just valuable from an economic standpoint for Healium. It also offered important protections, particularly concerning intellectual property.

Upon consulting a patent attorney, Hill was originally told by one firm that securing a patent for content that was powered by biometric inputs was “not patentable. ” Surprised but undaunted, Hill decided to get a second opinion with her MIC coaches.

The experts at MIC introduced her to Missouri Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic that worked exclusively with clients who were entrepreneurs in Missouri. It was the ideal match. Hill wound up being able to secure multiple patents for her technology and protect her company’s intellectual property, thanks to what she calls a “great strategic partnership.”

3. Investor introductions and feedback

To scale her product and hire a world-class team, Hill needed to find investors, as well as be able to engage them with her pitch, showcasing the value of her company as a compelling investment opportunity. The MIC gave her constant feedback on her pitch so she could attract potential sales channel partners and firms.

Hill’s investment pitch was effective, leading to the successful acquisition of seed funding that set her company on a strong trajectory. “We’ve generated millions in investment and millions in revenue.” And Healium isn’t finished growing yet.

Advice for fellow entrepreneurs

The collaborative atmosphere and assistance provided at the MIC made the difference for Hill and her company. Today, she is not just a proud founder but an advocate who recommends entrepreneurs seek out resources within their communities, particularly incubators like the MIC. “It’s not just office space they’re offering, but something far more valuable.”With Healium now enjoying a solid reputation and upward trajectory, Hill credits MIC with her company’s growth.. For startups or early-stage ventures in life sciences or biotech industries, the MIC offers the tools, connections, and guidance necessary to move from idea to successful product. Interested parties should contact the MIC to discuss how it can help their company become another success story like Healium.

There’s a somewhat romanticized ideal of the budding entrepreneur who spends every last bit of personal wealth to bootstrap a business. Yet for many early-stage founders and their families, risking it all isn’t a feasible or responsible decision. That’s where angel investors can help.

Angel investors are able to invest in alternative investments such as providing seed capital to young ventures. If you can effectively communicate to investors the vision of your venture and its future value, you can attract funding from these angel investors. That said, attracting angel investors isn’t a guaranteed process. To get their attention, you need to set your startup apart, as well as be prepared to show why your business is positioned for success.

Though that might sound challenging, it’s not impossible. The angel investment landscape is still booming, despite a small contraction after a post-Covid rush. In fact, across Missouri, the Midwest, and the nation, angel investor activity is strong.

According to statistics from the Center for Venture Research, more than $18 billion in angel investments flowed into 54,735 entrepreneurial ventures in 2023 alone. Two of the top five sectors that appealed to angel investors were healthcare services and biotech, which may be particularly meaningful if you’re one of the several life sciences startups at the Missouri Innovation Center (MIC).

Again, the numbers bode well if you’re bent on connecting with angel investors. Read on to further understand what angel investors are looking for — and how you can show them you’re exactly the right fit for their funds.

Are angel investors another name for venture capitalists?

It’s a common misconception that the terms “angel investors” and “venture capitalists” are interchangeable. They’re not.

Angel investors are individuals who risk their own wealth to invest in very early startups. Their goal is to get into a business at its initial inception. In contrast, venture capitalists typically wait to see if a company has gained momentum before spending organizational (not personal) funds on the company.

As you might presume, angel investors are willing to trade uncertainty for significant paybacks. In 2021, angel investors saw an average return rate of 2.7 times their investment when the startups they funded were sold, per the Angel Funders Report 2022. However, returns can be much higher for angel investors who have the tolerance and patience to wait for their startups to fully mature.

Angel investors don’t tend to invest as much as venture capitalists can and do. For instance, the average of all angel investments from 2022 was $339,390. That’s far less than the millions and billions associated with venture capitalist investments. Nevertheless, if your proof of concept is strong, you may be able to attract more than one angel investor to back your company mission and vision.

This isn’t to suggest that angel investors aren’t motivated by financials. They are, but they tend to be equally motivated by the challenge of helping a startup construct a runway and get off the ground. That’s why angel investors form relationships with incubators like the MIC. They’re looking for opportunities to “get in on the ground floor,” so to speak.

Angel investors typically aren’t satisfied with just sitting on the sidelines, either. They take a more proactive approach to investing. It’s not unusual for angel investors to provide mentorship or foster business connections. Yes, they expect equity for their money and energy. But they thrive on giving their investments personalized attention.

How can you catch the interest of an angel investor?

The world of angel investing is competitive. Therefore, if you’re an entrepreneur, you need to prepare conscientiously before attempting to get a deal with an angel investor.

First, make sure your startup’s product or service makes sense for your intended market. If you can’t demonstrate any growth potential, an angel investor will question whether you’re a calculated risk.

After you’ve determined that you have an attractive market, you need to form a solid foundation. The team you bring together should have complementary and diverse skills. In fact, having people from wide-ranging backgrounds can make your startup more attractive. An angel investor will see that you’re not just bringing one voice to the table; you’re bringing many eyes and experiences to every problem you encounter.

Next, design your business model to lead toward profitability. Angel investors may not expect a quick exit (like venture capitalists can), but they aren’t going to gamble on a startup without a logical roadmap to turning a profit. At the MIC, our team of experts can help you design your business model to show a clear pipeline to profitability and growth.

Finally, pay attention to securing any intellectual property. It’s one of your competitive advantages, after all. At that point, you should be able to start building your startup’s financial projections, which will indicate what kind of funding you need.

When you have all those elements in place, it’s time to craft a pitch deck that will answer an angel investor’s questions and get your startup noticed.

What does an angel investor want to see in a pitch deck?

You’ve probably heard the term “pitch deck” before. It’s essentially a short presentation that explains to a potential investor why your startup is worth funding.

There are a few key components of effective pitch decks, starting with slides that answer the “Why?” behind your company’s inception. These include a slide or two that points out the problem that exists, followed by a slide that lays out your specific solution to the problem. From that point, you can showcase the fruits of your research in future slides.

As you’re writing your pitch deck, remember to think like an angel investor. For example, spend more time on the hard facts, like the size of the market, any growth you’ve made thus far, your competitor analysis, the advantages of your team, and how you’ve used whatever money you have. 

Of course, you can’t only tell your story using data. Put on your narrator attitude and act like a storyteller. Angel investors may be more apt to consider investing in your startup if you have a compelling narrative. Certainly, your financial projections will always sway them. But if they’re waffling, they may be won over by your charisma and enthusiasm for what you’re doing.

That said, spend less time pitching and more time listening. One of the biggest pitfalls entrepreneurs make is talking too much during their pitches. Your pitch deck should be inviting on its own; you’re there to fill in the gaps, not to read from your slides or give a one-sided presentation.

At the MIC, we can help entrepreneurs master their business plans, which can be essential to forming pitch decks and pitch session narratives. Having insights and practice helps entrepreneurs position their emerging companies well when they’re in front of angel investors.

Where can you find and approach angel investors?

Before you can start using your newly minted pitch deck on angel investors, you need to find them. The MIC offers opportunities for its clients to meet Missouri angel investor networks, as well as attend exclusive events. 

Can you take the old sales tactic of cold calling an angel investor? Yes, but warm introductions make more sense. Again, that’s a value of being aligned with a known organization like the MIC that can serve as a connection and resource.

How can you maintain lasting relationships with potential angel investors?

Your first angel investor probably won’t set up a deal with you immediately. The process of developing a trusting relationship takes time. Consequently, treat the connection like a budding business partnership and keep communicating.

For instance, you could send out regular updates to angel investors in your network. These updates should demonstrate that your startup is making progress and meeting milestones. Be sure to be genuine, though. It’s fine to be transparent about the roadblocks you’ve encountered and the workarounds you’re using to navigate them.

What are best practices for getting an angel investment deal signed?

Congratulations — an angel investor is willing to trade funds for equity. It’s a big step, and one that you’ll need to navigate with professional assistance. That way, you can be sure that you have all your documents lined up and legal considerations handled.

It’s fair to say that the experience may have stops and starts. An angel investor may question you in the middle of your negotiations, slowing the process. Remain focused and address any questions or concerns proactively and accurately. Leaning on your advisors and mentors will help you reach the finish line and secure your investment.

Yet it’s not enough to just line up an angel investor. You need to set expectations and lay out how the angel investor will be a support to your company. Some angel investors want to be hands-on to the point of being involved at a very detailed level. Other angel investors may be happy to be available when you need them, as long as they’re getting the reporting they expect.

Ideally, you and your angel investor should have clear roles. This will assist you in maintaining a tighter, more meaningful, and trusting relationship.

Are you ready for an angel investor?

Having at least one angel investor supporting your startup can give you the traction you need to move to the next stage of your organization. If you’re in the mid-Missouri area and want to take the next step toward angel investment, contact the MIC.

Our central focus is the creation of a cluster of high-technology companies. We routinely coach entrepreneurs, incubate new technology companies, and attract ventures to the region. In addition, we have deep connections with existing and emerging angel investors who want to meet — and fund — the dreams and goals of the next generation of life science entrepreneurs.

The process of curing cancer involves multiple complex steps, but current research indicates positive progress. In fact, one Missouri Innovation Center (MIC) client, Endevica Bio, has made great advancements in the cancer treatment space. The company’s latest biotech drug addresses cachexia, a potentially life-threatening wasting disease that can make cancer recovery challenging — or even impossible — for patients.

Statistics from the Cleveland Clinic indicate that 40% to 70% of cancer patients experience cachexia, a condition causing rapid weight loss that weakens the body’s ability to fight disease and reduces treatment effectiveness. As a result, patients experience the same longevity they could achieve if they maintained a healthier weight throughout their cancer journeys.

To provide possible relief from cachexia, Endevica Bio is working on a peptide therapeutic drug designed to combat cachexia. Currently called TCMCB07, the drug is entering a Phase 2 clinical trial in 2025. Per a 2024 press release, the trial will test the efficacy of TCMCB07 on 100 individuals with stage 4 colorectal cancer. 

In the release discussing the upcoming trial, Russell Potterfield, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chair of Endevica Bio, exhibited great confidence and enthusiasm around the promise of the drug. In expressing his optimism, Potterfield said, “We are excited to offer hope to patients and their families to address a condition for which there are no effective treatments available. We believe that B07 could be the breakthrough solution and are excited to begin enrolling patients in our trial.”

Indeed, Endevica Bio is a rising star in the biopharmaceutical world, as evidenced by a $10 million Series B funding deal in 2023. However, like all emerging companies, Endevica Bio began as an unknown startup looking to make its mark. And the MIC was there to provide a path for it to grow, innovate, and impact the life sciences market.

More Than a Mere Workspace

Looking back on the early years of Endevica Bio, Potterfield agrees that MIC was pivotal to the company’s development. “Endevica Bio would not exist but for MIC,” said Potterfield. “We needed access to lab animals and oversight as well as institutional care and use.” He noted that the original founder required a lab capable of running high-pressure liquid chromatography equipment and individuals with technical expertise, both of which the MIC provided, along with the guidance and support to build a successful company and team.

The original founding team of Endevica Bio benefited from comprehensive support from the outset, encompassing resources within the incubator and expertise from the business school. Potterfield noted that understanding the business aspect of being a startup is particularly critical in the biotech industry. As he explained, there’s a “collision between science and business” that often needs to be ironed out in startup biotechs. “Trying to teach a senior scientist how to think in a business way requires that level of mentorship that MIC’s been able to provide.”

Endevica Bio spent the first six years at the MIC, taking full advantage of the benefits inherent in the incubator’s ecosystem. Potterfield credits MIC for helping the company garner early financial support from Centennial Investor Angel Network, which leveraged additional funding from the Missouri Technology Corporation. The MIC also proved to be a valuable resource for talent acquisition. “I know that we were able to pick up a really fantastic MBA graduate,” recalled Potterfield.

Success at the MIC and Beyond

Eventually, Endevica Bio began to expand beyond the MIC, which Potterfield views as a natural progression for startups that gain momentum. As he points out, entrepreneurs establish a set of outcomes they want to see, and then move toward those outcomes — in the case of Endevica Bio, the advancement was steady.

Endevica Bio’s headquarters eventually moved to the Chicago area, a decision its leadership made after the business had established itself as a late-stage startup. Though the company still maintains a presence within the incubator. “The business evolved to become a full-blown company taking a pharmaceutical to market,” said Potterfield. “We still have a small space [at the MIC], but we no longer do any technical work ourselves. We outsource.”

Regarding the company’s future, Potterfield anticipates bringing its products to pharmacies and hospitals. “I think that we are going to commercialize the molecules that came out of MIC and follow [the same process] from there.”

To be sure, Endevica Bio is capitalizing on its initial innovations and findings. Thanks to the company’s cachexia research, its team has been able to start looking at a new drug that can help patients with obesity. The weight management drug, 710GO, is currently in an experimental phase, undergoing studies on animal populations to assess its potential.

A legacy of startup support

From providing life science startup founders a place to launch their dreams to introducing them to angel investing opportunities, the MIC enables companies like Endevica Bio to make a difference. While not every startup aims to develop solutions for conditions like cancer, the opportunity for startups to test their viability is essential. And the MIC is the right partner for many of them.

Potterfield calls the MIC’s work “just fantastic” and intends to have an ongoing relationship with the incubator. “It’s a great ecosystem to launch businesses in,” he concluded.