SVBig | Silicon Valley Boilermaker Innovation Group

ABOUT

SVBIG is an organization focused on mentoring student, faculty & recent grad entrepreneurs at Purdue University to advance their start-up idea/company. Engagement includes early ideas in the classroom through company formation and start-up to company liquidity event.

SVBIG comprises professionals with proven experience in entrepreneurship, and with diverse expertise in areas such as venture capital, angel investing, startup leadership, venture finance, and early go-to-market experience in product and channels.

SVBIG = 'SV' for the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial thinking origin and 'BIG' for alignment with Purdue, the 'Boilermaker Innovation Group'. 'BIG' is the way we think.

SVBIG Mentoring Applications

We open our application period twice a year. The current application window is now closed.

If you're a Purdue-affiliated startup founder or CEO, watch for our next application period opening in the fall — and apply then to be considered.

When open, we invite qualified founders to submit an executive summary of their business using our application form. The SVBIG team reviews all submissions and selects a group of companies to participate in a “Pitch-for-Mentors” video session. From there, selected startups are matched with mentors for a 6–12 month engagement.

What kind of startups does SVBIG seek for mentoring?

SVBIG primarily focuses on companies that are technology-based and which aspire to achieve "Venture scale," meaning they have potential for rapid, leveraged growth once product market fit is established, followed eventually by substantial market penetration and revenue.

As for the team, we seek founders with the ability to describe their business mission with clarity, along with dedication, conviction, and ideally a diversity of skills. There should be substantial, sustainable differentiation from existing and emerging competitors, e

Note that our "Pitch-for-Mentors" sessions are not a competition, and we don't claim to pick the "best" startup teams. Rather, we strive engage start up teams who can best tap our skills and our network, and in which several of our members express an interest in helping.

You can see our list of potential mentors, here. We consider any technology startup founded by Purdue undergraduates, grad students, faculty, alumni, or any combination of these.