Yesterday was my first Mentor Match-Up day at TechManchester. It’s a bit like speed dating, meeting six entrepreneurs in quick succession, all trying to choose from a range of mentors.
It’s a really well run programme, under the direction of Trish, supported by Nicola and Natasha. The structure of the programme is well thought out, and there’s lots of information resources.
The 200th mentor to volunteer was in the session, which is quite a milestone. Judging by the talent of the mentors I met, that is a huge variety and depth of knowledge and expertise that the mentees can draw on.
I decided to volunteer as a mentor with this TechManchester programme to ‘give something back’. I was expecting yesterday to be all young Manchester people in their first startups, but there was quite a range, from PhD students with just the beginnings of their ‘great idea’ to businesses that have been running for a while. They all need help, and I’m sure they’ll be able to find the right match-up with a mentor from the array of talent that was there.
Now I have to wait a little while to see who has chosen me as their mentor. Interesting times ahead…