With the introduction of new skill sets in the ever-evolving and expanding industries, everyone is anxious to upgrade their range of skills to stand a chance to succeed. Upgrading skills require seeking advice and mentorship where one needs to actively engage with a mentor who can provide proper guidance to flourish in his/her career. However, searching for a mentor who has already achieved success and is willing to help others is quite a task.
Similarly, searching for an apprentice is also not a piece of cake. Whether searching for a qualified and experienced mentor or a well-deserving mentee, the bar is already set exceptionally high. This challenge opens a new opportunity for entrepreneurs to connect the two sides efficiently. And what could be a better way than going online and launching a mentoring platform?
Types of Online Mentoring
There are three types of online mentoring each having its benefits. Let’s discuss all three of them:
Individual Mentoring
It is the most widespread and considered the most effective way of online mentoring as one mentor is paired with one mentee. It allows both of them to develop a good relationship and the mentor can provide individual guidance and support to the mentee. All the problems and solutions are discussed privately.
Group Mentoring
This type of mentoring involves one mentor interacting with a group of mentees who have the same mentorship goals. It proves to be extremely efficient among individuals who seek extra motivation and inspiration along their journey. However, as often is the case with groups, it proves rather difficult to schedule mentoring sessions that can accommodate everybody.
Collective Mentoring
In this type of mentoring, users find apprentices with similar business problems but different industries to support each other.
Market Scope of Online Mentoring Platforms
With the growing use of technology, the market scope of the online mentoring industry is huge. People are drastically adopting this new trend opening a huge number of opportunities for the business owners of this industry. Let’s have a look at popular platforms and their achievements.
Codementor
This is a platform to connect vetted developers to novice ones via one-on-one live mentorship. The platform has received a total funding of $3.4 million to grow its online education business into a marketplace. Funded by a total of 12 investors, the platform is becoming increasingly popular for online mentorship.
Clarity
With the help of a community of passionate experts and thought-leaders, the platform offers startup advice from world-class experts. The company has raised a total of $17 million of funding for the expansion of the business.
GrowthMentor
It is a premium network of professionals that connects founders and marketers with experienced mentors to help hack your learning curve. An emerging name in the online mentoring industry, it offers founders and marketers an easy and affordable way to get connected with the right people to help them grow professionally.
MentorCruise
The platform helps individuals to work with leading tech mentors and gain access to personalized guidance to reach their potential. The growing popularity of this platform also depicts the reach of online mentoring in the current market.
Above mentioned platforms are good examples to see how fast the industry is growing and the potential of this industry. Market trends such as the use of the internet and apps are likely to emerge as one of the primary drivers of the market.
Key Features of an Online Mentoring Platform
Collaboration Tools
Mentors and mentees should be able to communicate in real-time to have an efficient mentoring session. In addition to that, collaboration via text messages, screen sharing/recording, sharing documents, online whiteboards, etc. is also considered essential for online mentoring.
Language Translation
To support global participants, an online mentoring platform should be integrated with a multi-language translator. The phenomenal functionality of this tool helps the platform to be accessed across the world eliminating the language barriers.
Search Functionality
The search bar with categories and filters within the platform allows mentees to filter out all the irrelevant and non-matching mentors, saving their time and efforts.
Matching Algorithm
A well-organized mentoring platform should have an algorithm to help match mentors and mentees specific to their requirements. The platform should leverage the information provided by both the users and suggest recommendations to the mentors as well as mentees.
Progress Tracking Reports
The tools to measure the progress and performance of the mentees allow mentors to evaluate their performance over a course of time. This helps mentors identify the level of accountability and related measures required for every unique mentee.
Ratings/Reviews
The system of ratings and reviews helps to improve the transparency of the mentoring platform. Mentees can share their detailed feedback about a mentor which helps other mentees to decide whether to hire this mentor or not.
How Much Does It Cost to Build an Online Mentoring Platform
The cost of an online mentoring platform depends on several factors. If the platform is to be developed from scratch, the cost of the platform will be high as compared to building from a readymade solution. The startups, as well as middle-sized businesses, cannot afford to go for scratch development due to time and budget constraints, and therefore, can go for off-the-shelf software.
Yo! Coach, a readymade and white label solution can become the ideal solution to launch an online mentoring platform. With all the basic and advanced features packed in the software, it minimizes the time-to-market and helps you to cater to the needs of entrepreneurs. Key components of the software include live video interaction, geo-location, multicurrency, secure payment gateway, and GDPR compliance. Bringing the mentors and mentees on a common platform, Yo! Coach is a hyper-focused software to build a constructive mentoring environment.
I am a Digital Marketing Expert and E-commerce business consultant. I ensure that your business gets the best results and helped numerous brands in establishing an influencing online presence.
