Natasha Friis Saxberg

We launched Mentory almost a year ago. A lot of interesting profiles have joined as protégés, mentors and even as both. All sorts of skills are represented, but the majority of users are tech and entrepreneurial oriented.

While people have been supporting the idea and the need of an online mentorship, the ideal online transformation still needs to be developed. We must find the way to motivate for participation for all parties, so conversations will flow. Some has mentioned the mentor/protégé relation as a barrier – they do not see them selves as either. The need of access to global skills has been expressed, but not necessary only between two people. Some believe the mentors should be paid, or as in real life get something in return from the protégé i.e. time.

Our thoughts is to strengthen online conversations, and global connection between people. One way is to emphasis the “advisory board”, so one person is connected with a board of people representing different skills. The initiator/protégé can post questions to the board, and the best suited will answer and thereby also share their knowledge with the other members of the board. We are also inclined to turn the focus towards Tech Entrepreneurship, so Mentory will become more focused as a community within this area.

Our objective is to support our users needs, any ideas and feedback to our thoughts are more than welcome – so please throw a comment.

When a jazz band gather for a jam session it is all about improvising based on experience, skills and creativity. They are focused on the opportunities that arises from the chord chart (the frame that defines the rhythm and harmonic). They sense, they listen, they collaborate while creating unique unpredictable art.

Based on the same principles we create jam session startups, meaning that we set a course and we gather the perfect team of highly skilled people. We do not create an agenda or agreements, but we focus, do our best, sense and listen to our users. We collaborate on creating unique, unpredictable and user driven startups.

What happens when we skip the business plan, the agreements and the technical specifications? It is simple – we execute, learn and improve. Instead of a business plan, we set an overall strategy i.e. our course, set up milestones and deadlines, and we take these very seriously. Our deadlines makes us prioritize and fight the perfectionist part of us, that want´s to launch a perfect service, which will never happen.

I have tried both ways of running a startup, but somehow the more effort I put into planning, structure and great business plans, the less I achieve. The reason is that I miss out on spontaneity, which in many cases are the best source for innovation.

When we build Mentory, we knew that we should launch a basic version i.e. no Rolls Royce to start with, but instead sense the adaption while listening to our users. In the past three months since we launched, we have learned lessons and gotten ideas that couldn´t have been predicted up front. The journey is also much more exciting, we know our course but we do not know where it will take us a long the way, and in the end – it is all about Jazz.

Being a woman in tech, men will outnumber you at most occasion, and the big question is why are there so few women in tech? I attended Geek´n Rolla on April 21, where there was a panel discussion on the matter, and it really engaged the audience.

Some of the reasons mentioned for the lack of women were:

• Women that work in the tech industry identify themselves with their niche, ex. working with PR instead of working in tech with PR.
• It starts in the early stage of girls education, they are not encouraged to work within tech.
• Startups are driven by developers, and since there are so few female developers, it affects the imbalance.
• Women choose family over 70 hour work weeks.
• Women are not risk willing.
• Women do not have flair for tech.

Apart from physical abilities, we are capable of the same, so do we find the answers within society, culture, education and social (unconscious) behavior?

The tech industry reflects society, also in this matter. Besides tech, it is also within management, the percentage of board members, the level of wages etc. Some countries have implemented gender quotes to focus on equality, while most countries are just talking about the challenge. As some guys stated – is positive discrimination the way to create balance? Shouldn´t the criteria be a persons skills rather than gender, race, age or appearance? And why do we necessarily want more women in tech. These opinions helped warm up the following discussion.

The word, “balance” indicates an optimal state, and don´t we want to achieve that in our industry? It is not just a matter of equality for women in tech, it is equality in every sense, and the loss of innovation based on multiplicity. Balance also improves a working environment, and a manifold perspective is important in the work we create. Some research even states that having female leaders positively affects the financial results in a company.

But are there any upside to the lack of equality?
Well for one you are not lightly to be caught wearing the same dress, but besides that if you are good (and of course you are) and have the ability to present your project, you will have the benefit of standing out. But in my opinion the upside for the individual does not equal the downside for the industry, so we still have to rely on change.

In Denmark we experience that women are becoming the majority on higher educations, they are focused on their studies and take equality for granted. Based on that development I am optimistic about a future balance. But until we reach the point where it is an absolutely matter of course meeting a female CEO, board chairman or President, we must start with our own self-image and stand out as role models for the future generation.

When we are online it is all about sharing and participating. This is not our natural offline behavior, but we change attitude in the digital sphere – most of us anyway. And the amazing thing is that it is contagious. We trust, we share, we participate and so does everyone else, meaning that you can [...]

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In the analogue world mentorship relations are often initiated by a physical meeting and if continued it is a quite anti-social and confidential conversation between the protégé and mentor. 
Creating Mentory made us question if the analogue process is the best way to run your mentorship. As a believer in sharing, participating and being open, I [...]

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What make users spend so much time on social sites? What do we get in return and why are we so much more open online? I am probably not the only one asking these questions. 
My observation is that 3 elements motivate us:
Curiosity. Have you ever spent time exploring profiles of strangers? It is somehow a core instinct [...]

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We launched Mentory on February 2. 2009. It was a really exciting day, and the positive response and help from our fellow tweeters was astonishing – thank you all!
But launching also means full steam on bug fixing, improvements and further development based on all the user feedback.We decided to take a day out and work on the [...]

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Making a Mentorship site I better throw in my opinion of the difference between mentoring and coaching. Scientific research has not come up with a precise answer, so should I? The clear difference from my point of view is that coaches base their conversation on questions intended for the coachee to answer. Mentors will most likely ask good questions to, but [...]

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Do our users understand this feature, does it look cool, how do you translate Dashboard to Danish, have you solved the bugs – This is just a part of the conversation Jacob and I had Sunday night i.e. launch night. You never ever get finished – and if you do, your service is probably obsolete. [...]

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While most of the world is focusing on the recession, fortunately bloggers are drawing attention to world poverty with blog action day. But one thing is fighting poverty in the countries that are affected, witch I believe in (and I would recommend the danish NGO Børnefonden). 
But I truly believe we are letting the victims down that reside in [...]

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