The Mara Foundation has launched a new platform, Mara Mentor that will seek to connect ambitious entrepreneurs from any country with successful and experienced business leaders for mentorship, an aspect of growth that has been missing in the business ecosystem.
The initiative is in conjuction with Mara Foundation, together with Mara One-on-One, Mara Women and Mara Ad-Venture Fund.
In an interview with HumanIPO, Mara Mentor’s East Africa regional director Nina Wernar said that the initiative which can be accessed via the web or mobile app will also provide for idea and knowledge sharing among Africa’s most promising young entrepreneurs, inspiring a collaborative approach to business start-up and growth.
“Entrepreneurship is viewed by many as an answer to a lot of problems (unemployment being the obvious one) but we are still quite new at figuring out how we will make it work, as in how to run a sustainable business with potential for growth. So we need to help each other out and not work in silos, each person in their own corner,” said Werner
The fact that there are no mentors for entrepreneurs is an open secret and Werner says that the stereotype of someone who’s starting a business is young, doesn’t have a track record of running his/her business, doesn’t have much experience is among the reason they might find it hard to gain the trust of a potential mentor and are likely to be shut down.
Another reason is that most encounters with a mentor happen serendipitously, you have to be at the right place at the right team and meet the right people and thirdly, not everyone is a good mentor. You need to find someone you “click” with and have a lot to learn from.
Mara mentor will be tackling this problem by helping entrepreneurs to easily build their network and have access to mentors at their fingertips.
While everyone is welcome to use the service as well, Mara Mentor mainly focuses on the youth as it’s the segment of the population most likely to face unemployment.
“As for the women, we acknowledge the fact that being an entrepreneur is very hard, being a women entrepreneur is even harder so we want to make sure women are not left out from our activities,” added Werner.
Accessing Mara mentors services is free of charge.
