The Mentor Portal at a Glance
The Mentor Portal is where you set out what you are worth advising on, when you are free, and what it costs - and then run the sessions that come from it. This page explains how the pieces fit together before you touch any of them.
What you will learn
- What the portal does, and what it does not
- The three groups who can reach you
- The one setting that decides whether anybody can find you at all
- How a booking travels from a mentee's screen to your ledger
- Where to start on day one
What the portal is for#
The Mentor Portal turns advising into something you can run rather than improvise. You publish what you help with, list the kinds of session you offer and what each costs, mark the hours you are actually free, and the platform handles discovery, booking and payment around that. It is not a CRM and not a course platform - everything in it exists to get the right founder into the right conversation with you, and to make sure you are paid for it.
The three groups who can reach you#
Mentors are not booked from one place. Three different audiences can find you, and each arrives through its own door with its own commercial terms.
Individuals and founders
Anyone on the platform can browse the mentor marketplace, open your profile and book a session at your listed price. This is the default route and the one most of your bookings will come through.
Incubators
An incubator can invite you to mentor its cohorts. The terms are set in the invitation - who pays, at what rate, and whether the incubator subsidises part of it - and you accept or decline.
Investors
A fund can invite you to advise its portfolio companies. Same shape as an incubator association, different counterparty, and the payment model can put the cost on the investor, the startup, or split it.
Good to know
You do not have to accept every association. An invitation sits in your Incubators or Investors page until you act on it, and declining costs you nothing.
Verification decides everything#
This is the single most important thing to understand about the portal. Until an administrator marks your profile Verified, you are invisible: you do not appear in the marketplace, you cannot be booked, and incubators and investors cannot invite you. Every other feature is downstream of it.
A new profile starts at Pending
Creating a mentor profile does not make you bookable. It puts you in a review queue. See ‘Getting verified’ for what the states mean and what to do while you wait.
How a booking actually travels#
Understanding this sequence explains most of the questions people have about why something has not appeared yet.
- 1
A mentee finds you
They open the marketplace, filter by sector or expertise, and open your profile. Only verified mentors appear here.
- 2
They pick a session type and a slot
Your session types set the price and duration. Your availability decides which slots they can even see. A slot that is already booked is refused, so two people cannot take the same hour.
- 3
They pay
The booking is created immediately but sits unpaid until payment clears. An unpaid booking does not reach your queue.
- 4
You confirm or decline
Confirmed sessions move to your upcoming list. Declining releases the slot and returns the mentee's money.
- 5
The session happens, then settles
After you mark it complete, the fee becomes an earning, moves through the ledger, and eventually becomes withdrawable.
| Where you are | What you see | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Bookings | Pending | Waiting on you to confirm or decline |
| Bookings | Confirmed | Agreed and scheduled |
| Bookings | Completed | Happened, and eligible to become an earning |
| Bookings | Cancelled | Called off by either side; refund rules apply |
| Bookings | No show | The mentee never joined |
| Earnings | Pending | Earned but not yet withdrawable |
| Earnings | Available | Ready to withdraw |
Where to start#
In order, because each step depends on the one before it.
- 1
Add the Mentor role and create your profile
This is what puts you in the review queue.
- 2
Wait for verification
Nothing you publish is visible until this clears. Use the time to fill in the rest.
- 3
Create at least one session type
Without one there is nothing for a mentee to book, even once you are verified.
- 4
Set your weekly availability
Empty availability means an empty calendar for everyone looking at you.
- 5
Add a payout account
Do this before you have money waiting rather than after.
No, and you should not wait. Set them up while your profile is in review so that the moment verification clears you are immediately bookable rather than appearing in the marketplace with an empty calendar.
Yes. One account carries every role you hold, and you switch between portals from the header. Being a mentor does not restrict anything else.
Clear your availability rather than deleting anything. Existing confirmed sessions stay, but nobody can book new slots, and your profile and history remain intact for when you come back.
