An AI-Centered Program by Design
This page is designed to support mentors who are joining AIVA, the AI Ventures Accelerator brought to you by Technovation and Generation Unlimited.
AIVA is a leading, first-of-its-kind accelerator that leverages AI to help young women entrepreneurs move early ideas toward market-ready ventures. The program is multinational in scope and designed to operate at a fast pace.
Mentors play a critical role in this process. Your experience and perspective help teams focus on what matters most, especially when time is limited and stakes are real. Mentors are not expected to teach the curriculum, manage program logistics, or evaluate participants. Your role is to help teams think more clearly, move faster with intention, and make stronger decisions as they develop AI-powered venture concepts.
Getting Started
AIVA is a fully online accelerator designed to help teams develop AI-powered venture proposals that address real-world challenges. Common focus areas include health, education, agriculture, climate, and community wellbeing, though teams may approach these challenges from many different perspectives. The program is fast-paced and action-oriented, emphasizing learning through doing and the development of a founder’s mindset and decision-making skills.
The curriculum is organized into a sequence of modules that build toward a final venture concept and pitch. Teams progress from defining their problem and designing a solution to validating their ideas and presenting them through pitching, while exploring how AI contributes to their venture. Teams are explicitly encouraged to seek input from mentors at certain moments in the curriculum, and engagement can occur through live conversations, written feedback, or any other mutually agreed format. The goal is to help teams produce high-quality deliverables while ensuring that students remain the primary drivers of their work.
The Competitive Element
AIVA also includes a competitive component layered on top of the learning experience. Select teams will be invited to pitch live, in person, at demo day. These teams will compete for a shared prize pool of $100,000 ($10,000 per team), intended to be used as seed funding to support continued venture development. While competition provides motivation and recognition, it is secondary to the learning experience. All teams benefit from the program regardless of whether they advance to demo day.
By the end of the program (June 2026), participants produce a set of concrete deliverables that demonstrate the viability of their venture and their ability to communicate it effectively. These deliverables include:
- A pitch deck with detailed notes on the business aspects of their venture, explaining how it works and why it matters.
- A short demo video of their product or service in action, even if it is not a fully finalized version.
- A link to their published app or platform, where the product or service is accessible online.
Mentors play a critical role in helping teams reach these deliverables, offering guidance, perspective, and feedback that strengthen ideas, build confidence, and support participants’ growth as independent problem solvers.
The AIVA competition is open to teams of young women entrepreneurs. Participants are typically early college aged and older, generally 18 to 25, and are relatively new to both entrepreneurship and AI. Currently, the program is open to participants based in a UNICEF program country or the United States.
Teams are most often self-formed by students and may include up to four participants, though solo founders are also welcome. Many teams begin with early business concepts rather than fully defined ventures.
Participants bring varied levels of access to technology, resources, and local support. As a mentor, staying curious about context before offering advice is essential. Solutions do not need to be globally scalable or venture-backed to be meaningful at this stage.
Mentors in AIVA act as trusted guides and thought partners. You are here to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and help teams sharpen their thinking. You are not expected to take ownership of team ideas, rewrite their work, or push a solution based on your personal preference. A mentor’s role is to guide, question, and help students refine their own ideas.
The work must originate from the students. Mentors may share expertise, tools, and frameworks, or help participants access external guidance and resources that support their venture. This is appropriate as long as the students remain the primary drivers of their work and make the final decisions about how to use that input.
There are also explicit boundaries. Mentors must not take credit for student work, claim ownership over team work, or appropriate ideas, rewards, or outcomes that belong to the students. These boundaries are non-negotiable and are essential to maintaining trust and integrity across the program.
Mentors are invaluable partners for teams. Your role is to guide, ask questions, and help students think critically about their ideas, while allowing them to lead the work and make final decisions. Encourage teams to see failure and iteration as normal parts of learning, and demonstrate problem-solving, planning, and resilience through your own approach. By supporting students in this way, you help them gain confidence, develop independence, and strengthen their ability to tackle challenges on their own.
AIVA is a high-speed accelerator, and mentoring engagement is expected to reflect that pace. Typically, mentors can expect a minimum time commitment of approximately 6–10 hours over the duration of the course (ending on June 14th, 2026), primarily through written feedback and review. This commitment may be shared between co-mentors, as long as someone is consistently available to the team.
How this time is structured is flexible. While written communication is most common, mentoring may happen through live conversations, group sessions, or any format mutually agreed upon by the mentor and team. Communication is key: Mentors are expected to be upfront with teams about how much time they can realistically commit and how they prefer to engage.
There are moments in the curriculum where teams are explicitly prompted to seek mentor input, such as during feedback, review, or practice cycles. Mentors are encouraged to prioritize these moments when possible, while still maintaining autonomy over their overall level of involvement.
Important Milestones
- Program Runs in March-June 2026
- Funding decisions in August 2026
- Demo Day in October 2026
The AIVA Curriculum
AIVA students have exclusive access to a robust curriculum designed to guide them through the program. The slides below show a preview of what the curriculum offers.
Mentors who would like access should follow these instructions:
Resource Hub
Here you will find important documents and resources for AIVA mentors.
Mentor Enrichment
These are lessons designed for additional Mentor enrichment. They are optional but contain very helpful information!
Ready to Mentor? Start Here
Review the Code of Conduct to understand expectations and best practices.
Then, sign the Volunteer Agreement to confirm your commitment to upholding them.
You can always reach out to us at [email protected].