Steve Karmeinsky (Direct, Placeholder Ltd) shares his experiences of being a mentor on the Geovation Mentorship Programme.

---

What have you liked about the Mentorship Programme?

There are always interesting companies and people and sometimes you get both an interesting company and person in that company.

Going into the program, what did you hope to get out of it?

Help someone moving forward, I tend to ask the difficult questions about why they are doing something (or not) or why they’re using some technology (or not) and then help them solve problem before they become issues. Early-stage founders often make the same mistakes.

What do you think the ‘secret’ is to a good mentoring relationship?

Being honest and not just being a “yes that’s a good idea” person.

What benefit do you think it brings to the community/members?

Personally, I believe everyone should pay something forward to the community, companies gain a huge amount with friendly cooperation (i.e. competition while co-operating) – that’s what got Silicon Valley to the state it’s in today and London and hubs have the same ability and do it better.

What tips or advice would you like to share with those new to mentoring?

You are a mentor not a consultant, be honest, warts and all and help the company succeed. If it leads to further business for you, all well and good, if it doesn’t, you’ve helped someone and that’s good too.

Geovation Mentorship Programme

We intend to begin our next cycle of mentoring in September 2022. If you are interested to sign up either as a mentor or a mentee, please register your interest here and Geovation will contact you nearer the time.

To find out more about mentoring, listen to some great podcasts on mentoring hosted by Mentorloop whenever you enjoy listening to your podcasts, whether on a walk or long car journey!