Our solution's stage of development:
EarlyOur solution:
MicroMentor addresses the global challenge of young entrepreneurs who face barriers to achieving economic self-reliance and job creation by shining light on the power of mentoring. MicroMentor is a free platform with a unique technology enabled intervention that provides a virtual marketplace for business mentoring.
Our pitch:
Guillermo in México, Maria in Guatemala and Hector in Venezuela, just like thousands of youth in Latin America found there were few opportunities to find employment that would permit them a dignified life. Entrepreneurship is a real option for these young people, who looked to develop a better life for themselves and offer opportunities for others. However, as we found in our most recent impact evaluation, young entrepreneurs are isolated and do not have access to business resources. MicroMentor is the only support that 70% of entrepreneurs in Latin America reported accessing in order to convert their ideas into reality and overcome their business challenges
MicroMentor LATAM is a standalone social enterprise, subsidiary of global NGO, Mercy Corps, offering a free online Spanish language mentoring platform that allows every youth entrepreneur in the region to access business experts in order to survive, increase their income and create jobs. Every month 250 new Spanish speaking entrepreneurs create a profile on MicroMentor, in search of a mentoring connection that will help guide their business development. We hope these young entrepreneurs will become agents of change and transform their communities. We have seen over 2,000 connections from 10+ Latin American countries take place over the past 3 years.
MicroMentor LATAM has the vantage point to move the needle on mobilizing social capital for underserved youth entrepreneurs, but as a new social business, we need support and clear guidance on how to innovate, pivot and evolve. We believe smart investment to enhance our product and an external acceleration process will guide us through the quantum leap we are looking to achieve. MicroMentor LATAM is seeking this opportunity to provide thousands more young entrepreneurs with access to mentoring that will improve their skills and business strengths, leading to the creation and maintenance of 20,000 jobs.
The problem:
MicroMentor seeks to addresss the following inter-related problems among youth in Latin America (LATAM):
(1) youth are unemployed at more than twice the rate of the overall population; (2) many aspire toward entrepreneurship but more than 70% surveyed report having no access to business development resources; (3) only 20% of LATAM new businesses survive more than two years; (4) the few available business development resources tend to focus on subsistence entrepreneurship and jobs that empower entrepreneurs and others to break out of poverty; and (5) youth entrepreneurs in Latin America (and worldwide) lack access to social capital/mentoring.
Why our solution will solve the problem:
IF young entrepreneurs have a viable business concept and easy access to business mentoring, AND these individuals build a relationship with a qualified business mentor, AND these individuals make better decisions about starting up and growing their businesses, THEN they are more likely to achieve measurable, enduring success in surviving and sustaining through the critical early stage of enterprise, grow a profitable business and create jobs.
Mentored businesses create on average 4 times more jobs than non-mentored businesses, in Latin America, with entrepreneurs’ revenues increasing by as much as 86%, post-mentoring.
Our target outcomes:
By the end of 2020, MicroMentor will have mentored and supported youth entrepreneurs to sustain and/or grow their businesses to create 20,000 jobs in Latin America, including self-employment.
Objectives (by end of 2020):
- 50,000 youth entrepreneurs are part of the MicroMentor community.
- 25,000 mentors are part of the MicroMentor community.
- 25,000 mentor/mentee satisfactory matches have been made.
- 20,000 new jobs created in Latin America, including self-employment.
- 60% of youth who received mentoring developed new technical skills and knowledge
How we will measure our progress:
The populations we will benefit initially:
The regions we will benefit initially:
The technologies we employ:
Why our solution is unique:
Impact/Cost Efficiency - users connect with mentors around the world for free.
Scalability - The platform currently has over 20,000 matches and is available in 140 countries in English, Spanish and French. The licensing model allows replicating instances of this technology at low cost.
Easy Access - low barriers to entry for users and a frictionless process in connecting with expertise and critical business knowledge and know-how.
Democratized Access - ALL level entrepreneurs to have a chance to experience mentoring.
Strengthening the Local Ecosystems - partnered with 30 organizations in LATAM allowing them to offer mentoring programs to their beneficiaries.
Why our solution is human-centered:
MicroMentor focuses on users who engages in a human relationship where it is important that an affinity and common interests exist in order to produce best results. For this reason, our model supports any entrepreneur who might be able to access mentoring resources through a simple online process and experience as little ‘friction’ as possible in getting to a mentor. Also, the experience of the mentoring pair occurs at a frequency and in a way that works for them. Lastly, In LATAM it has been important to incorporate live and virtual orientations that provide education around the impact that mentoring.
How people will access our solution:
MicroMentor LATAM is currently free to all users and is mobile friendly.
Our technology can be enhanced by strategic partnerships on the ground with support and resources to assist new users on how to create and navigate through the platform.
With a strong digital marketing strategy we are able to reach out to users around the region using social media and Google Ads to promote user sign ups.
Offline events are also key channels to invite youth and mentors to connect physically and experience the mentoring first hand.
Technology-Readiness Level:
9 (Commercial)Our organization:
For-ProfitHow we will sustain our team financially:
MicroMentor LATAM engages the niche markets of socially responsible corporations, government economic development initiatives, and business incubators/accelerators. We provide a unique technology that facilitates connections between corporate volunteers (as mentors) and young entrepreneurs. This model promotes the social responsibility objectives of the paying corporate and government clients, while delivering the social good of qualified mentoring to entrepreneurs.
MicroMentor solicits grants from donors that focus on entrepreneurship, employment, and strengthening local ecosystems and global economics. We do this especially for program inception in new regions and for product innovation, to fuel growth and quality mentoring network connections.
The factors limiting our success:
Not having consistent funding to enhance the technology in accordance to the evolving user needs.
Lack of access to connectivity and communication devices in certain parts of countries in LATAM.
Not having enough mentors willing to engage with MicroMentor and young entrepreneurs.
Mentoring is still a new concept in LATAM countries, especially when it comes to support young entrepreneurs.
How long we have been working on our solution:
3 yearsHow long it will take to develop a pilot:
6-12 monthsHow long it will take to scale beyond our pilot:
12-18 monthsOur expected annual budget:
$235000
How much of our budget we've secured to date:
$67000
We're looking for partners in these fields:
Why we're applying to Solve:
MicroMentor LATAM has the unique opportunity to democratize access to mentoring for entrepreneurs where none such program exists. Our solution is sound but requires us to cross a chasm from idea and early results to a successful business and social model to sustain and grow. Smart investment and external incubation/acceleration support can guide us through a strategic growth for the region. We want to achieve a quantum leap by enhancing and adapting our technology for youth in this regional market. We believe this will allow us to have a breakthrough, scalable solution for young entrepreneurs to succeed and create jobs.
Our current partners:
Professional networks and organizations (incubators and accelerators) that support entrepreneurs such as IMEF (an association of finance executives in Mexico whose charter includes mentoring), 10,000 Mujeres por México, Posible, Impact Hub and Mercy Corps (global headquarters and country offices in Guatemala and Colombia).
Solution Team
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Tatiana Pérez MicroMentor LATAM Executive Director , MicroMentor
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Our Solution
20,000 LATAM Jobs Initiative