How Startup Canada scaled mentoring for founders across the country with Mentorly

About the organization

Startup Canada is a national nonprofit, led by its CEO Kayla Isabelle, that connects entrepreneurs with the tools and community they need. Its programs on Mentorly include Startup Women, which connects women in business with industry leaders and subject matter experts, the Investment Readiness Program for social purpose organizations, Startup Yukon and Startup Global.

The challenge

When its events moved online during the pandemic, team members set up invitations by hand to connect each founder with a mentor, for hundreds of entrepreneurs at once during online events. The surveys sent after meetings left out the details the team needed to plan the next program, and a bilingual community needed a platform in both official languages.

How it uses Mentorly

On Mentorly, founders book a mentor themselves instead of staff sending invitations by hand. The platform runs in English and French, which let a wider pool of founders and experts join its programs. Session data shows which mentors founders liked and which skills they wanted to build, so the team adjusts each subject-specific program before it runs again.

Results

Startup Canada's programs have completed over 750 mentorship sessions, and the most active mentors held 33 sessions in one year. Sessions are rated 4.7 out of 5 on average, and every Startup Yukon session was rated 5 out of 5. Startup Women began as a short event and grew by 140% once it ran all year on the platform. The program manager reports that on many days the tool saves the team 3 to 4 hours.

What other programs can take from it

For a national organization running many programs at once, the lesson is to hand booking to the participants, offer the platform in every language the community speaks, and use session ratings to tune each program.

Questions