Holekamp: a master mentor

The St. Louis Small Business Monthly features Cliff Holekamp as one of eight “Marvelous Mentors” in its February issue. Holekamp has mentored and inspired hundreds of students through The Hatchery business plan course and other classes he teaches in his role as Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Academic Director for Entrepreneurship at Olin. As a partner in the venture capital firm, Cultivation Capital, Holekamp has served as a mentor and investor for some of the region’s most successful startups.

I see mentoring as the elevation of teaching. Teaching students the knowledge and skills they will need in their business careers is just the start. The opportunity to mentor students as they apply these lessons to their own life decisions is what makes teaching rewarding.

—Cliff Holekamp, from the Small Business Journal

Holekamp was honored that one of his former MBA students, Ben Burke, now Director of Entrepreneurship at Arch Grants, nominated him for the recognition. Burke tells SBM that he was inspired by Holekamp to return to WashU to teach a social entrepreneurship class where he invites his former mentor and professor as a “guest speaker” in his class.