Vintro, a new digital, global marketplace of business decision makers, is opening its platform to entrepreneurs and innovators who are seeking mentorship, guidance or investment.
Aiming to simplify the business development process, Vintro’s decisionmakers, known as ‘reviewers,’ are compensated for their time to review new ideas, products or services from entrepreneurs or ventures, the community’s ‘creators,’ via a 90-second video. With 65% of reviewers available for between $25 and $300, creators are guaranteed constructive feedback, advice or next steps via a video or audio message. Vintro is also launching “Vintro for Volunteers,” allowing those without funds to access selected reviewers in return for volunteering hours.
The Vintro community already consists of hundreds of successful entrepreneurs, billionaire family offices, leading venture funds, industry experts, Nobel Prize winners and academics from across the globe. Many have joined the platform because they see enormous potential in democratizing access, discovering talent from previously untapped innovation sources and letting good ideas rise to the top due to merit and creativity.
Vintro’s Founder Noor Sugrue, currently a freshman at The University of Chicago, says: “Great ideas can come from anyone, anywhere in the world. But an idea dies without the right resources. Now everyone can have guaranteed, direct access and engagement from the world’s most important leaders. They always said it was about ‘who you know’ as much as ‘what you know’ – we didn’t think that was fair – so we fixed it.”
In development for over two years, Vintro is now in a position to fast track open access in response to the global business environment impacted by COVID-19. With travel to events and conferences on hold, Vintro offers a safe, cost-efficient and direct means of accessing the resources businesses need to succeed. Additionally, as was seen after the global financial crisis, it is expected that many new entrepreneurs will emerge needing support more than ever before.
One of the first Creators to benefit from Vintro, Noah Silverstein, an engineering student at Columbia University says: “We’re a group of 10 students who designed an affordable, open source ventilator for the COVID pandemic for under $600. None of us had connections to funders and the clock was ticking. Our idea may have gone nowhere. We connected to Art Collins, the former Chairman and CEO of Medtronic (America’s largest medical device manufacturer) via Vintro and he has opened up the support and guidance we needed to enable us to take VentCU to the next level.”
Alastair Lukies, CBE, a global FinTech leader based in London, and Co-Chairman of Vintro Global Advisory Board says: “Vintro is creating a much-needed movement of change. Every second of everyday entrepreneurs and innovators are looking for backers. And, every second of everyday, investors are looking for great ideas that will make the world a better place. We all need these innovations now more than ever before. In bringing efficiency into this process and empowering connections, Vintro will accelerate the evolutionary cycle for innovation globally.”
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About Vintro
Founded by Noor Sugrue in January 2018, Vintro is a platform where businesses and entrepreneurs can access guaranteed attention, feedback and opportunity from the most influential people in the world. Its mission is to strip away the traditional socio-economic and geographic barriers to accessing resources by providing a direct channel for Creators to get in front of decision makers.
Vintro operations are managed by teams based in Chicago and London, with representatives in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Beijing, Geneva, Milan, Moscow, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Toronto. Its Global Advisory Board includes: United States Sen. Mark Kirk (ret.), Kirk Global Advisors; Alastair Lukies, CBE, CEO of Pollinate; Veronica Grazer, Founder, The Curiosity Company; and Professor Peter Littlewood, Professor at The University of Chicago, Emeritus Director of the Argonne National Lab and Cavendish Lab at Cambridge University. Learn more at https://myvintro.com/.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005062/en/