Mentoring for Pitch @ School

 

Mentorship is an important part of the Entrepreneurship Education experience.

Many successful entrepreneurs have shared that they owe their success to their mentors who have guided them through the ups and downs of starting a business. We seek to do the same, for the thousands of students from all over Asia, who are participating in the Pitch@School Entrepreneurship Education.

 

As an online business pitch development programme, students will be mostly meeting their mentors over online chat and video calls.

​

Students will get the opportunity to learn from mentors who are experienced in startups, entrepreneurship and a diverse range of industries. Mentors will be able to give back by sharing their knowledge and advice with young, aspiring and entrepreneurial students.

​

As an online programme, all students will log into Pitch@School online learning platform to learn and complete their challenges, leading up to Pitch Day. Similarly, mentors will be able to view their teams’ work, give feedback and chat in the online community on Discord.

​

Schools need a diverse group of mentors

We encourage schools to invite mentors from a variety of backgrounds: marketing, technical, design, product managers, operations, co-founders. Seek to balance diversity and gender with skill-sets in your mentors.

​

Every school to have at least 1 dedicated mentor

Each participating school will have 3 to 5 teams of students and an average of 5 students make up a team. At least one dedicated mentor should be paired up with their school and teams.

​

Mentors should commit a minimum of 2 hours of their time

We recommend that each mentor commit a minimum of 2 hours of their time across 4 weeks.

This includes time spent in a video call and reviewing and giving feedback on the team’s work.

We recommend:

• End of Week 2, on Friday

• End of Week 3, on Friday

​

Onboarding Mentors

When you’ve confirmed a mentor for a specific school, here's what you should do next:

 

1. Register as a Mentor

   1. Get the Mentor register as a Mentor.

   2. Once the Mentor is registered, in approximately 15min, s/he will receive an email with information on:

      • Mentoring for teams through the online Discord community.​

      • Providing feedback to teams using Feedback Forms

        • NOTE: Mentors, if you are unable to find the email, please check your Junk mailbox.

2. Assign Mentors to a Team

   1. Before assigning, please make sure that teams have formed a team by completing Week 1 Missions on the Pitch@School learning platform​.

   2. Once students have formed a team in the Pitch@School learning platform, assign Mentors to a team here. 

   3. Once assigned, in approximately 15min, the Mentor will receive an email with information on the Team's Folder, to view their work progress.

   4. ​​Mentors may reach out to the Pitch@School team for support:

      • Email: support@pitchatschool.org 

      • Via your School's Discord community

​

Organising Mentor Meetings

​Mentors should meet their teams over video calls in Discord. For more information on Discord, click here.

However, feel free to use other apps for the meetings, e.g. Zoom, LINE, WhatsApp etc.​

 

Mentoring Tips

Here are some best practices you should share with your mentors:

• Your teams are looking to you for advice and guidance. Do your best to make yourself available to help your teams and enjoy your time as a mentor.

• Your teams are interested to learn from your personal experiences, the highs, and the lows. We encourage you to share your personal entrepreneurial experience and journey candidly and openly. This is what makes you, a mentor, more authentic and relatable than a generic YouTube video or an online course.

• As a mentor, you will have access to all of your teams’ work. This includes their slides and any work-in-progress material. Make good use of this by adding comments directly in the documents, slides, or boards. We encourage you to do this before and during meetings.

• Focus the discussion on the teams’ obstacles and outcomes. Offer actionable steps they can take, to overcome these obstacles. 

 

Entrepreneurship is challenging and yet so fulfilling. Inspire them with your stories and encourage them to do their very best!