Douglas Sorocco is owner of Dunlap Codding in Oklahoma City, an intellectual property attorney, PHOSITA blogger, chemist, visionary, social entrepreneur and creator of DC on Film Row. He’s also one of the volunteer co-directors of the new Oklahoma Entrepreneurship Mentoring Program (OKEMP). Modeled after MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service (MIT VMS), OKEMP matches an entrepreneur with a team of unbiased, experienced mentors.

“This type of commitment is what’s been missing in Oklahoma,” he says. “OKEMP provides mentoring teams who follow entrepreneurs throughout their whole career. Because true entrepreneurs don’t stop with just one idea.”

“One of the beauties of the program is that no matter where the entrepreneurs are in their life cycle, they’re getting matched up with mentors who can offer unbiased, unconflicted advice.”

What mentors also offer is access to their experiences as successful entrepreneurs, delivered during regularly scheduled 90-minute meetings. “There is a curriculum,” explains Sorocco, “but it is driven by the entrepreneurs who are coming with questions and concerns.”

“For example, the first entrepreneur may already have a prototype without ever looking at markets. So it’s backward! So the mentor helps identify who’s going to buy the product. Whereas the second entrepreneur may be a programmer who’s never sold anything. So the mentoring team teaches how to develop relationships that don’t seem too transactional.”

“Most entrepreneurs are going to fail with their first or second company. What we need for them to do is learn along the way so that when they get to number three or four, they’re more likely to succeed.”

https://creativeoklahoma.org/okemp/

Interviewed by Dennis Spielman for The Golding Group.