The SGWIT Mentorship Network is a yearlong program that formally launches at the Investment Summit and introduces international women tech entrepreneurs to the U.S. market with the support of SelectUSA’s traditional data and counseling services as well as community, learning, and networking opportunities.
The SGWIT Mentorship Network offers participants access to:
- An experienced mentor from the U.S. startup ecosystem as an informational resource on challenges in scaling, promoting, fundraising, and establishing a business in the United States
- An exclusive mentoring platform
- SelectUSA data and counseling services
- Educational content, webinars, workshops, and virtual events, and networking opportunities, including but not limited to the annual SelectUSA Investment Summit.
The 2025 cohort timeline is as follows:
- Kick-off: May 11–14 at the SelectUSA Investment Summit
- Preparing for Matching: May 15–June 30
- Matching: July 1–August 31 on the SGWIT mentoring platform
- Mentoring through May 31, 2026 (official program end date)
- Throughout the duration of the cohort, SelectUSA will host virtual events to share information and create space for connection between Mentorship Network participants.
Both mentors and mentees will benefit from the mentoring relationships as they build new skills, make new contacts, ignite new ideas, achieve their goals, and reinvigorate their own work.
To participate in the SGWIT Mentorship network, interested women must be approved to attend the 2025 Investment Summit as a SelectUSA Tech startup.
Eligible startups must be:
- Founded outside the United States, and
- Developing an innovative technology product or service (a new technology, and/or delivering an existing technology to a market in new ways), and
- Looking to the United States for market-entry or growth within the next 2-3 years.
SelectUSA Tech startups must also meet at least one of the following criteria:
- 0-10 years old (Founded on/after January 1, 2015)
- 0-40 employees
- $0-10M in annual revenue
SGWIT mentee candidates can indicate their interest in the SGWIT Mentorship Network on their 2025 Investment Summit application. Applications for mentees will be considered until Thursday, March 27, 2025.
SGWIT mentors are U.S.-based successful entrepreneurs, corporate executives, venture capitalists, angel investors, and attorneys interested in supporting international women entrepreneurs in tech in their efforts to achieve their U.S. expansion goals.
Mentors will be selected from across the U.S. startup ecosystem based on their interest in supporting women-run businesses and their expertise in supporting tech startups on their U.S. investment and expansion journeys. Prospective mentors will be evaluated based on their:
- Industry Knowledge
- Areas of Specialty
- International Expansion Skills/Experience
- Entrepreneurship Skills/Experience
- Women’s Empowerment Experience/Interest
U.S. and Foreign Government employees and Economic Development Organization officials may not serve as mentors but may support the network via educational content contributions or events. Interested mentors can apply until Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 12:00 pm EDT. All mentors will be vetted by SelectUSA before being confirmed. Accepted mentors will be notified by the end of April.
