Make it Official: Serving as a Mentor

My experience as a mentor in First Round’s Fast Track Mentorship Program

Mentorship is one thing professionals need for career growth but becomes elusive when one tries to obtain a mentor. Majority of the mentors who helped shape my career development came from formal programs such as the Nehemiah Emerging Leadership and AdWeek CMO Executive Mentorship. Recently, I was able to participate as a mentor for First Round Fast Track, a formal mentorship program for startup employees.

I was particularly interested in Fast Track this year because of the commitment to provide mentorship to Black and Latinx founders and operators outside of the First Round portfolio. As a black woman who has worked at both large-tech organizations and startups and who struggled to find mentorship early on in my tech career, I understand the importance of removing barriers by making securing a mentor less elusive.

Highlights of the Fast Track Program

Components of the program that made an impression on me:

• The perfect match: I was matched with a B2B marketer from one of First Round’s portfolio companies. The matching of my mentee was ideal, because many of the topics areas we discussed, I had practical experience in and could help her plot out next steps to take. But we were also able to connect on a personal level often exchanging stories of our WFH lifestyles. It made the connection feel genuine.
• Time commitment: As a mentor you are required to meet with your mentee bi-weekly for one hour over the course of three months. This a commitment you agree to before joining as an official mentor. Your mentee should come to the meeting with specific topic areas to cover during the meeting to make it efficient. Remember you are volunteering your time to make this program valuable to your mentee and to First Round.
• Direct impact on shaping your mentee’s career: For example, my mentee decided to make a career pivot after our conversations about her career path and assessing her current role.
• Make connections: Ability to meet other mentors within the program to help expand your network. One highlight was using Icebreaker as a fun “speed dating” way to meet other Fast Track mentors.
• Develop as a mentor: While mentors are given a guide and training at the beginning of the program, there are a number of optional trainings and webinars to supplement your development. One of the webinars I took was “How to be a Great Mentor”, but other topic areas included “Building Blocks for Customer Success”, “Angel Investing” and “Structuring Analytics at Your Organization”.
• Real-time feedback: After each event or check-in, I would receive a brief survey to gather my feedback about my experience in order for the program leads to make improvements.

There are clear benefits of becoming a mentor. Serving as a mentor in the Fast Track program allowed me to contribute learnings from my success and failures to provide applicable advice for my mentee. But mentorship is not about you, and while your mentee likes to hear antidotal stories, your role is to listen, ask questions, probe, coach, and provide accountability.

I applaud the the First Round team for creating an efficient and well-organized program and I plan to continue to serve as mentor for the next cohort of future tech leaders.

If you are interested in joining the next cohort of the First Round Fast Track program either as mentor or a mentee, applications are now open for Spring 2021: apply here.