by Macauley Kenney
Trust Center Entrepreneur in Residence

At the start of our annual t=0 The Time is Now! Celebration of Entrepreneurship that kicks off the school year we held an Ask Me Anything lunchtime event to give new and interested students the chance to grill us on anything related to entrepreneurship opportunities here at MIT. Below are some of the questions we received that day, which coincidentally are also some of the most common questions we regularly get asked. Enjoy!

What is the best way for students to get started?

Get involved! Start attending events, apply to programs like StartMIT, check out what courses are offered in the entrepreneurship space (like 15.390) or just start working on your idea with a group of friends. The key is to dive in early because time goes by so fast!

What resources does MIT provide to help students explore entrepreneurship?

There are so, so many and our Orbit platform is a great place to see all of them. The Trust Center offers programs like StartMIT and Fuse to give you space to explore, and there are a ton of classes as well (ex: Entrepreneurship 101). There are also great resources like the Sandbox Fund, $100K competition, and the Venture Mentoring Service.

What is the best way to meet potential co-founders or teammates at MIT?

We wish there was an easy answer to this, but the best way is to meet a lot of people and talk about what you’re interested in. Go to entrepreneurship events hosted at the Trust Center, pitch at Pitch2Match, walk through Stata, the Infinite Corridor, or the Student Center and look at what flyers grab your attention.

Getting onto mailing lists for topics you’re interested in is a great start (there’s a link for ours at the bottom of this very page), and a good way to do that is to see what events are being held and then reaching out to the organizing body to join their mailing list. The MIT events calendar is a great place to explore and see what events are happening on campus.

Finally, the more people who know what you’re working on or are passionate about, the greater the likelihood that you’ll find someone who shares your interests.

How can Entrepreneurs in Residence help students?

EIRs are here to offer guidance, feedback, and mentorship on your ideas, strategies, and challenges. Whether you’re refining your pitch or navigating a pivot, we’re a sounding board with real-world experience. We run workshops and programs for the Trust Center, but you can book us for office hours in Orbit to get 1:1 mentorship.

What should students prioritize?

Focus on validating your idea by talking to customers. Build something people actually want before worrying about scaling or raising money.

What resources can EIRs provide for existing founders?

We are the multi-purpose tools of the Trust Center! We can help with strategy, fundraising, networking, pitching, you name it. If you happen to bring us a problem we can’t solve, we will find someone in our network who should be able to help you. 

As a first step before meeting with an EIR, we recommend using the AI tools available on Orbit, both the DE Jetpack and ChatMTC. That way you can get the easy questions answered first, and then we can focus on the harder stuff! 

How can I validate if my business idea is viable?

Talk to potential customers! Information from real users will tell you if you’re onto something.

What are the first steps I should take to turn my idea into a startup?

Talk to your customers! (seeing a trend?)  We can’t emphasize that enough. Get to know them, their goals, their problems, and how you could help them. This is so, so critical. You can also check out the DE AI support in Orbit to give you a step-by-step support in this process.

How do I know when it’s time to seek outside funding or join an accelerator?

Outside funding is a means to an end, not the goal. Your goal is to build a business, and it might (not always) be beneficial or necessary to take on money to help you grow faster or develop products before you’re taking in revenue. The time to consider taking on funding is after you’ve validated your product with customers, built or planned out your minimum viable business product (MVBP), and the lack of funds is hindering your potential growth. Accelerators, like delta v, are great if you’re looking for mentorship, structure, and access to resources to accelerate your growth.

What common mistakes do new founders make?

Focusing on the product before the problem (you don’t need to build right away!), not talking to customers early enough, and trying to scale too fast are big ones. Validate, build, and then scale. 

What would make my team a compelling candidate for acceptance into delta v?

Show that you have a strong team, a validated idea, and have been working on this problem already. A strong team is one that has individuals committed to each other and to the venture, and ideally you’ve already spent a good chunk of time working together. Validation comes from customer interviews, and any traction on this front will be a really important piece of your application.

Thanks for these questions. We hope to see you in the Trust Center soon!
♥ the EIRs