Idea of the day

Over the last several weeks, I've been twisting my brain around a start-up idea in the GPS-content space. Although I've hardly begun, already so many people have reached out a helping hand. Yes, some are friends, but at least half are only recent acquaintances. Today's entry is centered around my thoughts on why there seems to be this phenomenon of self-less helping, and a few ideas how this might be further propagated.

First, I believe many people have an inherent need to pass along knowledge in such a way that the passed-along information can take root and grow. Much like a parent might live vicariously through a child's accomplishments, so too an informal mentor takes a measure of satisfaction from seeing his efforts transformed into meaning via a mentee. This pattern is probably obvious to anyone who's thought about it. Often we hear about how teachers, from the elementary up to university level, derive inherent reward from transferring knowledge to others. This is interesting because there is no monetary reward involved, so such a behavior and it's associated incentives might not be so readily analyzed by classical economic theory.

In this relationship between the transfer-er and the transfer-ee (of information), there are set of conditions that must be maintained for the relationship to last. Here is my bullet-list:

• Consistent and regular communication (e.g., e-mails, visits every week, month, etc.)
• Aligned interests and goals (e.g., both are interested in clean tech start-ups)
• Common but time-shifted paths (i.e., one has taken a similar route, or has faced a similar junction in life)
• Enthusiasm from both sides
• Regular action and results based on the transferred knowledge
  

I also think that, except in certain situations, mentor-mentee relationships will not usually last long. Once the common path/crisis has passed (e.g., getting help on college apps), the shared experience that pulls two people together is no longer in play, and the strength of the relationship fades.

I believe that there is a deficit of productive (in the economic sense) and psychologically rewarding mentor-mentee relationships in the current social market. I also propose that having more of these relationships is a positive benefit to society in that people who seek (buy) should be matched with people who can provide (sell). In this case, the goods flow both ways. For the mentor, he or she provides knowledge, encouragement, and contacts, and in return receives a sense of giving, accomplishment, and maybe some ego-boost. The mentee receives valuable coaching, resources, and an expansion of social/professional network. He or she provides meaning and fresh content to the mentor.

As a solution, one might imagine an online service that can pair together people with similar goals, but at different stages of having achieved this goal. Let's call this service MentorNet. Similar services have been organized around smaller segments, and usually around professional or educational institutions. Why not expand this concept to cover the globe? After all, the more people who have access to such a network, the more likely there will be a match between any particular mentor and a mentee.

How does such a service make money? Given the somewhat altruistic nature of mentoring behavior, perhaps a purely market-based approach should be considered a last resort. Instead, perhaps MentorNet could be sustained via sponsorship from businesses and educational institutions, as well as via private donations. As another possible route, government funding might be potentially available to provide this service. In considering the nature of such a business idea, I think MentorNet would likely be considered more a project in social entrepreneurship rather than market entrepreneurship.