Xconomy Boston

Massachusetts CEOs, VCs Launch “12×12″ Mentoring Program

Wade Roush4/30/10Comments (1)Follow @wroush

Prominent Massachusetts venture firms and CEOs have formally rolled out a mentoring program aimed at supporting “a new generation of technology entrepreneurs” in the state, in the words of an announcement this morning. Called 12×12, the initiative is supported by 12 local CEOs and 12 venture capital partners, and will match entrepreneurs with advisors for hands-on help launching 12 new companies. Michael Greeley, founder and general partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, debuted the idea (which was originally called “12 by 12 by 12 by 12 by 12″) in post for us in June 2009.

According to today’s announcement, which was issued at the Nantucket Conference on Nantucket Island, the participating executives are Colin Angle of iRobot, Jim Baum of Netezza, Jeff Bennett of NameMedia, Joe Chung of Allurent, Helen Greiner of CyPhy Works, Brian Halligan of HubSpot, Tim Healy of EnerNOC, Diane Hessan of Communispace, Scott Savitz of ShoeBuy.com, Brian Shin of Visible Measures, Ram Sudireddy of CHiL Semiconductor, and Michael Weintraub of Humedica.

The venture partners involved are Jon Auerbach, general partner at Charles River Ventures; Liam Donohue, general partner at .406 Ventures; Scott Friend, managing director at Bain Capital Ventures; Jamie Goldstein, general partner at North Bridge Venture Partners; Felda Hardymon, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners; Matt Harris, managing general partner at Village Ventures; Mike Hirshland, general partner at Polaris Venture Partners; Eric Hjerpe, partner at Kepha Partners; Bob Hower, general partner at Advanced Technology Ventures; Paul Maeder, general partner at Highland Capital Partners; Eric Paley, managing partner at Founder Collective; and Carl Stjernfeldt, general partner at Castile Ventures.

Wade Roush is Xconomy's chief correspondent and editor of Xconomy San Francisco. You can e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/wroush.