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Launch HN: PlatoHQ (YC W16) – Mentorship for Engineers

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: PlatoHQ (YC W16) – Mentorship for Engineers

#11

Post by qhoang09 »

arikr wrote: post #8
_m8fo wrote: post #2

I'm curious to how this is priced. For less than $200 you could buy a coffee for yourself and someone else and meet with them in person every day . I do see how a small start-up could benefit from this, though. However, unlike most things this probably would become worse as more people use it as there's a fixed amount of good mentors and a fixed amount of time with them. Unlimited time with them means waiting, which…

> I'm curious to how this is priced. For less than $200 you could buy a coffee for yourself and someone else and meet with them in person every day. Seems worth it as a perk for a company to offer to their employees - would be much more work for them to have to reach out and find mentors for their employees manually. For an individual, probably doesn't make sense. For a company as an employee perk, seems to make a lo…

Agreed! We have a bunch of CTOs/cofounders and small startups, but we have also Lyft, TuneIn, Betterment, Scality, Telmate as customers.

Some individual paying from their own pocket to invest in their career, but it's more rare ;)

Re: Launch HN: PlatoHQ (YC W16) – Mentorship for Engineers

#13

Post by qhoang09 »

tln wrote: post #12

I used Plato at a previous gig (now I'm back to a small startup). My (previous) company was happy to invest in training for managers. Given the unique challenges of managing sw engineers, getting such specific mentorship was very valuable.

I think I know who you are, T. :)

Any feedback about the product? Did you have some actionable and good advice from the mentors?

Re: Launch HN: PlatoHQ (YC W16) – Mentorship for Engineers

#15

Post by Grustaf »

_m8fo wrote: post #2

I'm curious to how this is priced. For less than $200 you could buy a coffee for yourself and someone else and meet with them in person every day . I do see how a small start-up could benefit from this, though. However, unlike most things this probably would become worse as more people use it as there's a fixed amount of good mentors and a fixed amount of time with them. Unlimited time with them means waiting, which…

> you could buy a coffee for yourself and someone else and meet with them in person every day

The idea of this service seems to be to very easily connect you with high calibre people that are willing to spend time helping you. If you have access to such people on a daily basis already then you probably don't need this service.

Re: Launch HN: PlatoHQ (YC W16) – Mentorship for Engineers

#16

Post by HenriNext »

The idea seems extremely useful for the mentees.

However, i'm curious how you convinced YC, as this seems to be against what YC normally wants:

- Your market seems very small: only software engineers, and only at specific career stage.

- Your mentor side doesn't seem scaleble: top mentors won't be willing to handle unlimited number of calls as the number of mentees grows, the number potential high caliber mentors is very limited, and if you get lower caliber mentors then the service won't be that valuable.

Re: Launch HN: PlatoHQ (YC W16) – Mentorship for Engineers

#17

Post by HenriNext »

rficcaglia wrote: post #6
daxorid wrote: post #3

Mentors do this for other incentives Can you please elaborate on this? It seems like your list of mentors is rather vast, and I'm curious what you've offered them.

Perhaps it is simply access to a curated pipeline of motivated and introspective potential candidates. Hiring (good people) is a dev manager's/director's biggest pain.

Though, if the mentors poach mentees, then the company of the mentee won't be happy paying for the service.
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