Engagement is the key to our long term success
Recent improvements in machine learning technology have made it possible to process large amounts of data and make high quality matches automatically. For this reason, there have been a lot of new mentorship platforms come to market over the last 2 years.
If you are considering investing in OneUpOneDown, you will no doubt be asking the questions - what makes OneUpOneDown different from these platforms and how will OneUpOneDown grow and maintain market share over the long-term?
The answer lies in engagement. Specifically, how to keep mentors and mentees engaged as users for long periods of time, participating as mentors and mentees.
They key to this is the experience each user has within the match, and how to keep them engaged between matches. Ongoing engagement is what will determine the long term success of the type of product we are building.
The challenge is that we (and all other companies offering this type of product) can't directly control the interaction between the mentor and mentee. But we do control the design of the system, and set the intentions of all participants in it.
How OneUpOneDown does this is what sets us apart.
Here's why OneUpOneDown is positioned come out on top:
Our niche
Match quality
We create lines, not dots
We are serving a market where the need is greatest, with a common and unique set of challenges
We focus on serving the needs of professional women as our niche. This focus improves our ability to collect data and make matches that are highly relevant to the needs of our users, and serves an unmet need.
Secondly, we have designed our matching method in a way that is more relationship focused and less transactional. Our matches are not one-time meetings, as is the case with every other mentorship-focused technology platform currently in the market.
Mentees are also not required to choose their mentor. Instead, OneUpOneDown proposes the most suitable match within the network. The mentor and mentee can then accept the proposed match, or decline if they don't think it's a good fit. They only get proposed one mentor or mentee at a time.
This system is simple and genius. Here's why:
We create stories, not one-time events
Three months is long enough for the mentor and mentee to build a story together, rather than just having one touch point. This changes the nature of the relationship, for the better. With one-off meetings there is not enough time to really understand someone, to ask enough questions and to listen to understand the mentees perspectives and needs. One-off meetings are useful for providing expert advice and opinions. How to do x,y,z and directions to resources with relevant details. But we've found that this isn't what our target market are looking for. They are not seeking specific advice, they want someone who they can trust to share their experiences with and to guide them through a challenge or towards an outcome.
Three months is the sweet spot for creating trusted relationships, but not so long that the mentor and mentee run out of things to talk about. Three months is also the perfect amout of time for focused efforts. It's why accelerator programmes are usually three months. Skills can be mastered within three months, things move and priorities change.
So after three months, a match will end and mentors and mentees will enter back into the network to be rematched, based on their up-to-date needs and experiences.
We remove self-selection biases and decision making friction
and to provide them with the guidance the need to take action. In one off meetings, mentors
Them mentors goal is to firstly understand the mentee and how they can work together over the period,
Ins
But ongoing engagement of mentors and mentees in mentorship programmes and other matching platforms is still an issue.
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