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Did you ever wish you had a mentor to guide you?

5 points by centipede ↗ HN
Dear fellow hackers and entrepreneurs,

Did you ever wish you had a mentor to guide you? I know I do. I do not want to make all my mistakes alone.

So instead of just finding me a mentor - I am working on this - I wonder how one could solve this problem in general and organize some kind of exchange or meeting point for would-be mentees and mentors.

The problems I see consist in keeping up a high signal to noise ratio and respecting the privacy of all parties involved. We will also have to work out the incentives for al participants.

If one could extract a viable business model out of such an exchange - that would be an added bonus. But that's not a requirement. In true P.G. style I try to figure out how to build something people want first.

Matthias.

P.S. Please point out any spelling mistakes - I am not a native speaker. Thank you.

12 comments

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DanielBMarkham
I've long thought that the mentor/mentee model was the way to go in this business. There are simply too many wrong doors to open and things to chase that don't amount to much. And I'm speaking only for the technology side -- I imagine the business side is just as bad.

Good luck with you idea. I don't have any concrete suggestions except finding a market will be tough: there are lots of things that "should" happen that never seem to work out.

centipede
Thanks. I know that will be tough.

I am not primarily interested in finding a market for this idea. Foremost I am looking for a mentor. (Or even a mentee - if someone believes she can learn a thing from me.)

DanielBMarkham
I've done technology mentoring for several years now on the side. I've found that you have to be co-located for it to work effectively. It's one thing to be a voice on the phone or an icon on IM, it's something else entirely to drop by for lunch, take a look at the build, and roll your sleeves up and pitch in. That's a face-to-face kind of thing. As another commenter pointed out, a lot of people don't feel like they need any help. Those that might entertain the idea want to see that you can walk the walk and not just talk the talk -- which is exactly as it should be.

So I'd look locally if you can.

yubrew
I am not sure if this is a service people need. The people that need mentors the most probably refuse to get them. People that know they need mentors and actively seek them out eventually find them.

Also, you're talking about a small segment of a small niche numbers-wise. Of all the people in the US, only a portion are entrepreneurs or business owners. Of that segment, only a portion are actually successful and will actually be good mentors. Also, how will you qualify the quality of the mentee? No one wants to waste their time, especially if you already have several mentees.

euccastro
He doesn't say his site will limit itself to mentoring about business.

As for evaluating mentees: that's a good question. I guess it's not very different from selecting any other type of associates (employees, cofounders), just the stakes are not so high: it's less traumatic to terminate a mentoring relationship if things go wrong. There is no money at stake, and any time investments have supposedly paid for themselves until not long before it became clear it was not working out.

The standard solution to hiring (written application, followed up with interview) should be a good start.

eru
I did not even say I want to solve this problem with a web site. But I saw the same problems you pointed out.

For example making the service expensive would weed out a lot of people who are not serious about it. But I do not believe high price this would actually be a solution.

Perhaps matching mentees and mentors is not that different from matchmaking in a romantical sense. We could learn some things from dating sites.

eusman
the advice of a mentor is essential to building a broader realization but ultimately you will have to follow your own instinct and make your own decisions.
DanielBMarkham
Agreed.

That's the trick -- a good mentor will show you the world and tell you about different places you might want to go. He can even help you book the ticket, but he can't make your decisions for you. A mentor is not a cofounder, is not a coder, and is not a partner.

It's like my father-in-law, the carpenter who lives out of town. I know nothing of wood-working, so if I need some work done, I use him as a mentor. He doesn't show up and do the work, but he guides me around the arena and shows me what to worry about and what not to worry about. Maybe I'll hire out contractors, or maybe I'll do it myself. In the modern world, you can't do everything yourself, so it's good to have somebody with that information.

Good mentors are priceless, and we use them all the time without thinking about it. But you have to be clear about roles and expectations.

euccastro
I think there is a genuine need for this, even in these times of faster, easier access to information.

(Since you asked for spelling corrections: "[...] to work out the incentives for al participants"; should be all. Also: "The problems I see consist in [...]". In this case, consist of would probably be more appropriate:

http://www.bartleby.com/68/65/1465.html )

eru
Thanks for the corrections - I should have been more careful. Too bad I can't edit the post any longer.