Cupertino, California, March 28^th, 2024 - StartupWind, Inc. provider of the the leading AI-powered innovation & mentoring platform has been recognized for the prestigious award of AI Mentoring Platform, of the Year 2024 in the USA by Acquisition International.

StartupWind is the leading Unified Innovation & Mentoring Platform that helps universities and State Economic Development Agencies, build a powerful innovation ecosystem to foster startup and small business growth in their regions.

This recognition demonstrates StartupWind's dedication to excellence and innovation in mentoring of startups.

The key capabilities of StartupWind’s AI-powered Speed Mentoring are :

• Speed Mentoring Events for Rapid Engagement & Results : The ability to create speed mentoring events to seamlessly facilitate multiple, high-quality meetings for both entrepreneurs and mentors without having to worry about scheduling.
• Mentor-Mentee Matching : Advanced mentor and mentee matching that increases the relevance and quality of the matches, as well as, overall engagement between startups and mentors.
• Video-based Mentoring : Built-in, video-based mentoring with screen sharing capability to avoid logistical nightmares and eliminate the friction for engagement.
• Simple Scheduling Tools & Calendar Integration : Simple scheduling tools to reduce friction and make meetings easier. Additionally, StartupWind provides integration to the mentor’s Google or Outlook calendars to make the experience seamless.
• Dashboards and Reports to Measure Engagement : The dashboards make it easier for program managers to track the effectiveness of the mentoring program and showcase the progress to their donors, grantees, and leadership.

The Key Benefits of StartupWind Speed Mentoring :

• Speedy Engagement : The Speed Mentoring events that are designed by the stage, industry, or demographics of the mentees increase the relevance, ensure guaranteed rapid-fire meetings in a short period (Example: 2-hour speed mentoring events), and drive significantly greater engagement than traditional tools.
• Access to a Larger Mentor Pool : University and statewide mentoring programs can engage their alumni and affiliates who are spread across not just the state but across the globe to increase their mentor pool dramatically to help the startups and small businesses efficiently.
• Reduced Friction : The seamless scheduling tools, calendar integration, and built-in video calls reduce the friction so that the mentor-mentees can then focus on the meetings and the business outcomes.

Dr. Dirk Brown, Director of the McNair Institute for Entrepreneurism and Free Enterprise at the University of South Carolina. said:
"Our mentoring programs at the McNair Institute leverages StartupWind’s AI-powered speed mentoring. Our one or two hour Speed Mentoring events power us to successfully complete 20 to 40 mentoring sessions while engaging business leaders with our student entrepreneurs. StartupWind makes the matching, connections and built-in video calling frictionless for both mentors and mentees. At McNair Institute, using StartupWind, we have seamlessly engaged hundreds of entrepreneurs and mentors with each others. I would strongly recommend StartupWind Speed Mentoring!”.

Naren Patil, CEO of StartupWind, Inc. said:
"We are deeply honored to receive this award and recognition from Acquisition International. We are committed to empowering startup and small business entrepreneurs with AI-powered speed mentoring, so that they get the help they need from experienced mentors. The experiential knowhow of running and growing a business successfully is locked inside the brains of people who have been there. Unlocking that knowledge and making it seamlessly available for the startup entrepreneurs is critical to their success or failure. StartupWind’s award-winning speed mentoring does just that.".

About StartupWind, Inc.

Headquartered in Cupertino, California, StartupWind is the provider of AI-powered Marketing, Innovation, and Mentoring platforms that are designed to power up 30 million small businesses (SMBs) and startups in the US.

StartupWind unveils a new way to incubate, mentor, market and scale startups and SMBs.

With its new Marketing-as-a-Service, powered by Generative AI, StartupWind is powering up startups and SMBs in driving demand, 10 times faster and at up to 75% lower cost than conventional marketing agencies.

StartupWind also works with University, State, and SBDC programs to help them build a powerful digital innovation engine for their regions and enables them to assist in scaling a large number of startups and small businesses.

StartupWind has been delivering impact to about 25,000 innovators & mentors affiliated to over 100 universities and 100 countries in the world.

Please visit www.startupwind.com for more information.