About Us

Venture Well has been developed by the National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance, a 15 year old non-profit that is a leader in promoting collegiate entrepreneurship.

The NCIIA provides grant funding to students for their inventions and to faculty for course and program development. It also runs several national programs: Sustainable Vision, a program providing grant funding for faculty to develop breakthrough technologies for people living in poverty; BMEIdea, a competition for biomedical innovation; and Invention to Venture, the acclaimed national series of entrepreneurship workshops delivered in partnership with universities around the country.

Venture Well is intended to provide further support to the best of the early stage ventures coming out of NCIIA's programs through our Venture Well Forum, advisory services, and through direct equity investments.

Management

Joseph Steig is NCIIA's Manager of Venture Development and leads the Venture Well program. He has a background in technology entrepreneurship for multiple venture backed, early stage companies. Joseph is the founder of the angel group, River Valley Investors (LINK) and also serves as CFO of Long River Ventures (LINK). Joseph has a B.A. from Hampshire College. LinkedIn profile: LINK and

Judy Giordan is Senior Advisor to NCIIA. She has held senior executive positions in R&D with Henkel Chemical, IFF and Pepsi-Cola and has been an advisor to many entrepreneurial and venture-backed companies.

Phil Weilerstein has led NCIIA since its inception as its Executive Director. Prior to NCIIA, he was a founder of a university-based biotech spinout that became publically traded.

Location

NCIIA is headquartered at 100 Venture Way, Hadley, Massachusetts, about 90 miles west of Boston (Map LINK).