NETWORK BUILDING | NETWORKING

Mentor Check-in

60 Min

Mentor Check-Ins enable program participants to receive input from industry professionals who have faced similar challenges or have specific skills and insight. Mentors can help guide participants on diverse aspects such as business strategy, product-market fit, marketing, scaling, etc.

USE CASES

Connect innovators to experts that can help define challenges and opportunities.
Connect innovators to experts that can help create and implement solutions.

LIMITATIONS

Participants draw value from mentorship when mentors have relevant experiences and knowledge to share. The quality of mentor recruitment, and the access teams have to mentors are critical factors to consider.

UNDERSTANDING THE TOOL

The template provided is only meant to be a representative agenda for a mentor-participant discussion. Reasonable time must be allocated to each part of the conversation.
It is important that at least in the first conversation, participants introduce themselves and their role in the organisation they are representing. A script for this can be noted in the ‘Introduce yourself’ section.
The ‘Present your product or service’ is the core of mentor-participant conversation. This could be done using a pitch deck or a business plan document, at least for the first time.
‘Collect feedback’ is the part of the conversation in which participants can share points they'd like feedback on. Based on the theme of the conversation, mentors are likely to have their own questions and inputs at this stage.

STEP BY STEP

Do your research: Before choosing a mentor to reach out to, consider which ones are most likely to have relevant inputs. Check availability and commitment as you establish contact.
Meet with mentor: Make sure the mentor has all the information they need about you before the meeting. On your end, prepare a few key questions you'd like to discuss, and try and send these over to the mentor before the meeting.
Keep in touch: If a valuable relationship starts, make sure to keep them in the loop about your progress.

HOW TO FOR FACILITATORS

Prior to the session: Help make the mentor-participant connect. If happening offline at a workshop, this should be easier. However, if the mentors and participants are coordinating online, ensure that each participant has found at least one relevant mentor to speak to.
During the check-in: If this is part of a workshop, and participants and mentors are networking, ensure that participants get to speak to relevant mentors, and get enough time with mentors.
At the close: Have mentors and participants share their feedback on the experience.

FACILITATORS QUESTION BANK

Are we all prepared with documents (pitch decks or plans) that we want to receive mentor feedback on?
Have you identified mentors that you think are critical for you to speak to?
What do you want to focus on in your conversations with mentors?
Do you want to receive dedicated feedback from one mentor or quick feedback from multiple mentors?
Can we all please stick to the time-slots? Does anyone have an issue with the slots?
How did the feedback differ across mentors? What was the best piece of advice you received today?
Will you be speaking to the mentors again sometime?
Do you have any feedback for the mentors?

The FinLab Toolkit