So apparently it’s National Mentoring Month and a new site called iMantri wants to celebrate by welcoming TechCrunch readers into its private beta.
iMantri seeks to match mentors up with mentees using a niche social network that focuses on “goals” and “competencies”. All those interested can go here and use invitation code “imaptc178″ to sign up.
The website is very text heavy and generally not very well designed, but the idea should gain traction if executed better over time. Members can list themselves as mentors and/or mentees for any needs imaginable. For example, you can become a mentor for someone who wants to develop better time management skills or you can seek help with project management. The service creates a space for people to match themselves up directly instead of going through services like Big Brothers Big Sisters. As such, I don’t really see it being used for the mentoring of young people, especially considering the dangers of the internet (and the public availability of iMantri profiles; you don’t even need to sign in to see them).
In addition to people profiles that display relevant needs and skills, the site also provides survey tools for the identification of competencies that a mentor could help you strengthen.
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Good concept. LinkedIn or Plaxo might consider implementing something along these lines.
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your review of iMantri.com and we sincerely hope the highly qualified and web 2.0 savvy readers of TechCrunch would provide us with valuable initial feedback.
The Invitation code for TechCrunch users is imaptc178.
iMantri’s mission is to harness the power of peer-to-peer mentoring - where each of one us can share our gifts and also seek help in other areas.
Best regards
Satya Iluri
satya- i am furious at your customer service. i have sent several emails to all your addresses listed on the website with no reply. i have searched for your phone number everywhere and cannot find it. i have called everyone from the better business bureau to the federal trade commission and no one has any record of you. to me you are a scam and so is your website. i want to cancel my membership, have my profile cleared and have nothing to do with you but i can’t as no one will get back to me!! i don’t remember my username and password and don’t know what to do.
A saying comes to mind, “the blind leading the blind” LOL Anyway, it’s hard to judge the quality of the folks that come to these sites, who knows how good they really are or if they are truly qualified to be a mentor.
@ Satya - You should consider tying up the loose ends before inviting Alpha/Beta users. Even the basic design is flawed right now - as an example, the side bar on the competencies page is misplaced. Did you notice how terrible it is looking!
It seems mentoring is the “Hot” topic lately…have you check out http://www.bestcoachfinder.com?
I agree with Ashesh (#4)…the site has a ton of design AND functionality flaws!
Decent site, however first off on the index page, those boxes are illegible and messy, “weknesses” is spelt wrong, after I submit my initial competency profiler form, the entire top of the page covering the logo is string/array code. Needs a good deal of work.
It’s a great idea, I know I would not be where I am at w/o a few solid mentors, I hope they can find a way to tie this into a social media scene or even Linked In.
Those who can, do. Those who cant, blog. Those who cant blog, mentor.
@everyone,
We have taken note of your thoughts, concerns and ideas. We are working on resolving any glitches and the key purpose of this invite only private beta is to get real user feedback - particularly tech savvy users and aficionados of Web 2.0 concepts. Regards
Interesting concept. I run a site that could provide a complimentary service to yours. I’d like to talk through a few ideas. If you’re interested let me know. info@trustedword.com . thanks.
Good concept