KP

Meander - The mentorship platform for non-linear careers

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Meander helps tech professionals to change or advance their careers through mentorship. Via the platform, individuals work with industry experts who provide professional support and advice, assist in the development of new skills, and boost their careers.

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KP
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Hey PH fam, Super excited to bring Meander to the wider tech & startup community. A recurring theme in my career has been helping founders and builders (who're 3-4 steps behind me) through offering mentorship and actionable advice. Every successful professional (be it a marketer, creator, founder or investor) generally wants to help others. But they run into blockers like: → How do I find mentees who can benefit from my specific expertise? → How do I handle scheduling logistics with them? → How can I improve as a mentor?" Meander has answered all these questions for me. I recently got a chance to check out the demo and I was instantly impressed. The experience and product flow was seamless and easy to use. I loved it so much that I signed up as a Mentor, here's my profile: https://meander.so/m/thisiskp_ Mentors on Meander are carefully curated from top orgs and startups like Google, Canva, Meta and more. Huge respect for the team who're mission driven to match great mentors and mentees and help professionals navigate their careers through highs and lows. The Meander team is here today. Feel free to drop any comments, questions or suggestions! 😀
Anna Buldakova
@thisiskp_ thanks for the hunt ^_^ Hello Product Hunt community! I’m Anna, CEO and Co-Founder at Meander. In the last ten years I’ve switched careers from journalism to product management to entrepreneurship. Each time my first thought was: *oh God, I do not feel prepared for this monumental shift in my life.* Each time, I was fortunate to have a mentor to usher in my new normal and help me manage the career shift. At Meander, we believe careers aren’t linear anymore. So many of our customers report the same kind of journey I once had. We work, we learn, we discover a new interest, and we change direction. Our solution aims to build a bridge between where you are and where you want to go in your work life. Mentors really do make all the difference. Sign up, browse the mentors in your space, and book a session right away. We want this to be a fast, simple, powerful way to unlock the next stage in your career. Both the team and I will be here today for your questions and thoughts on the product. Please share your feedback and questions as well as your own stories about career meandering. Come Meander with us! P.S. If you are curious about product strategy or fundraising, feel free to book a session with me here https://meander.so/m/anna?tab=about
Gabe Moronta
@anna_buldakova1 congrats on the launch, I truly like this, believe that education for so long has limited people in certain careers because of "what they studied" or "what they started in" it tends to pigeon hole people, and if you don't have the connections or the means to get out of it, you were extremely limited, I hope this goes well for you past the PH launch, I'd like to see you succeed. Best of luck!
Anna Buldakova
@gabe_moronta I couldn't agree more! We want to democratise access to professional knowledge so that people would not be limited by their background, environment or network.
Kirill Malev
@anna_buldakova1 thank you for building this, I think such kind of tool had been long awaited for in the community
Daria Martynyuk
Hey, Product Hunt! I'm Daria, a designer at Meander. To me, mentorship is really personal. I've pivoted multiple times in my career and always struggled to find people and communities that could help me grow new skills. When it comes to knowledge and community, it's a big deal. It's almost impossible to find those who can help you with your challenges by sharing their expertise in the real world. Once, at the very beginning of my career, I reached out to more than 100 designers asking for advice about my professional progress, and only one responded. It was frustrating! So we're building Meander for all those who are ready to listen and those who want to share. Let's build our non-linear careers together!
Anna Buldakova
@dashamrt I felt the exact same way when I was transitioning from journalism to product management!
Sergei Terno
@dashamrt Hey Daria, and the entire Meander team, Congratulations! As someone who has experienced the challenges of navigating career growth without a mentor, I can truly appreciate the value that your platform brings to both mentors and mentees. It's amazing to see a solution that not only connects professionals with the right mentors but also simplifies the entire process. Keep up the great work, and I'm excited to see the impact Meander will have on the professional community. Cheers to your success! 🎉
Anna Buldakova
@terno thank you for your thoughtful comment and kind words!
Oh, it's wonderful to come across your launch here! I actually had an experience where I wanted to book a session with a mentor on your platform but couldn't find any pricing information. Upon revisiting the platform now, I noticed that some mentors offer their services for free. I'm curious about their motivation and if there's a difference between paid and free services🧐 Additionally, I'm interested to know if the platform has any obligations when it comes to paid mentorship. Can you shed some light on these aspects?
Anna Buldakova
@kate_bovkunova of course, happy to help! Initially all mentors on the platform were free but, as we grew, we realised that the paid model had its own benefits. Many amazing mentors provide free mentorship to help those in need, to pay it forward, or to simply try sharing their expertise. You can easily access these mentors, however, you should be prepared to take the lead and be the owner of the learning process. Invest time in building a proper connection with your mentor and respect the time they give you for free. Many amazing mentors do paid sessions because they understand where they can help people and want to ensure that they only talk to people they can support and who actually have a problem to be solved. You should go for this kind of relationship if you want to have more clarity, predictability and control over your mentoring experience. You can also expect to share the ownership of these sessions' success with this mentor. As a platform, we want to ensure that in any of these scenarios mentees have the best experience so we have a 7-day money back guarantee if the session didn't meet your expectations. Let me know if you have any further questions!
@anna_buldakova1 Thanks for the quick response! Honestly, I have mixed feelings and thoughts about having a mentor. On one hand, as you mentioned, it's beneficial to seek guidance in finding direction at the beginning of the entrepreneurial journey. On the other hand, I'm uncertain about how to choose the right mentor. I believe it's important to find a mentor who has relevant experience but isn't too far ahead in their journey, perhaps just 1-2 levels higher than where I currently am. For example, if I know how to manage a team of 6 people and I've been promoted to lead a team of 20, it would be more beneficial for me to connect with someone who has managed teams of 20-30 rather than 150. However, it's worth noting that a specialist who knows how to manage teams of 20-30 may not be aware of the challenges that come with scaling to 150, as they haven't experienced it yet. I might be rambling a bit, but I'm curious to speculate on this topic and hear your opinion. As a relatively new startup founder, I can relate to feeling scared and confused during the early stages. However, as I experience some initial successes and make progress, my confidence grows. It's important for me to find a mentor who can recognize my strengths and provide guidance based on them, rather than simply sharing their own experiences. I believe there are multiple paths to reach my goals, and I want to find the one that aligns with my personal growth and values. I understand this is a pressing question for me, especially considering my co-founder's skepticism about mentoring. I'm trying to figure out for myself whether I truly need a mentor, how to find one, and how to determine if it's the right fit for me. Sorry for the long post, but this question has been bugging me🤔
Victor Buldakov
@kate_bovkunova that's very fair concerns and this is exactly what are we working on at Meander. We would like to provide people a way to find a mentor 1-2 levels above their current level. Anyway if you're stuck and don't know where to start we have a career coach @najim_zaytoun who can help you to start and find an ideal mentor https://meander.so/m/najim 🙌
Hai Ta
Interesting approach to the problem KP! It's true that advices need to be context specific. The same advice could help one but hurt another if they are in different stages in their e.g. startup journey. Congrats on the launch!
Anna Buldakova
@hai_ta1 thank you! One of our objectives is to make mentorship as outcome-oriented and context-specific as possible - especially now when mentees come from diverse backgrounds and industries. 100% agree with your point!
Daria Martynyuk
Thanks, @hai_ta1 ! You’re right, context is king when it comes to advices. To genuinely help someone, you need a deep understanding of their issue. Interestingly, during our user interviews, we discovered that great mentor+learner match benefits not only the learners but also the mentors. The outcome of this interaction is essentially new knowledge that benefits both parties!
Dzianis Yatsenka
Hey! Congratulations on the launch! Do you have ex-startup founder mentors who already have experience in rising money?
Dzianis Yatsenka
And the second question: is it completely free?
Anna Buldakova
@dzianis_yatsenka thank you! Yes, we do - you can take a look here https://meander.so/ in the founders section, review these two lists https://meander.so/case/founders... and https://meander.so/case/founders... - or register to view the full list of mentors
Anna Buldakova
@dzianis_yatsenka it's free for you to use the platform. Some mentors are sharing their knowledge for free, others can ask for a fee - you can see it upfront on their page.
Daria Martynyuk
@dzianis_yatsenka We've actually got a mix of both paid and unpaid mentors, so you can pick one that suits your preferences! 😊
James Stirrat
Im a fan! (As someone who switched from architecture, to engineering, to tech)
Anna Buldakova
@jamesstirrat oh wow - such a journey!
Daria Martynyuk
@jamesstirrat you're my hero! Switching from non-tech to tech is one of the most challenging transitions. I hope you've enjoyed the journey along the way!:)
Victor Buldakov
@jamesstirrat That's an amazing journey! I think that being experienced in more than one engineering speciality is a competitive advantage. You can take best from the both virtual and real worlds!
Najim Zaytoun
Careers used to be linear like a lane in a swimming pool where all you needed to do is swim forward. Now it's a lot more like being dropped in the middle of the ocean, at the center of an endless sea of options, and you don't know where to go. 😵‍💫 I have coached more than 1000+ people that experienced the lack of clarity that comes with today's non-linear careers. Nothing has helped them more than talking to somebody who's been in their shoes before and who could be their lighthouse in helping them find their way. 💪 It exhilarates me to finally have a platform that understands why building a fulfilling career is a challenge and that supports you in finding the best suitable mentorship for your situation. 🔥 Come meander with us! ❤️ P.S. Find me here: https://meander.so/m/najim
Victor Buldakov
@najim_zaytoun is amazing! Take a closer look at his profile if you're don't know where to start 🚀
Anna Buldakova
@najim_zaytoun no one would like to be stuck in the middle of the ocean like Robinson Crusoe! Love the analogy ^_^
Stan Minasov
Hey PH gang! I'm a big believer in people and sharing expertise among them. For me, it was always a simple and reliable way to make the world around better. And to help others, in the end of the day :) That's why I've been teaching and mentoring for more than 10 years. Going from a school math teacher (ah these good old days when my main concern was to help kids fulfil their dreams) to product mentor, helping young enthusiasts build their career in the industry. Guiding, sharing experience and making their professional path more exciting and less painful. And that's one of the reasons I'm so excited about Meander! I've been following the product from the early stages, and boy oh boy we need a good mentoring platform nowadays. A great list of mentors, insightful content and solutions connected right to the users' problem. Unlike some 'we imagined a problem and designed a solution for it' startups, that one is built with people and their pain points in mind. And that is something we all need in the world of razzle dazzle 'hollow' products, don't you think? Big kudos to Anna and her team for that! Really wishing all the best and looking forward to Meander shining bright :)
Daria Martynyuk
@stan_minasov Thank you for being with us every step of the way! 😊 I completely agree with your thoughts on making the world a little better through mentorship; I feel the same way each time too!
Victor Buldakov
@stan_minasov Thank you so such an amazing feedback! ❤️
Anna Buldakova
@stan_minasov such a thoughtful comment! Thank you for sharing your experience, Stan - it's stories like this one that inspire us to build products 😊
Becky Stephens
Totally resonate with this! There's a certain point in your career where you can no longer 'Google' the answer. I remember being a founder and spending so much time trying to find people within and outside of my network to ask core questions and distil my thinking. I still have those trackers on Google sheets where I would note down people I could speak to with UX, product or engineering questions. Love that I can meet people outside of my network. Now further down the line, it's tricky to pay it forward to new founders. My email and LinkedIn inbox are already crazy and I lose track of people who have reached out - good to see how I can keep everything in one place.
Anna Buldakova
@becky_stephens that is so true! I used to loose my mentoring notes all the time as these conversations were happening across email, Linkedin, whatsapp and many other tools. I'm so happy that I can now centralise everything in one place ^_^
Victor Buldakov
Hey Product Hunt 🖐 I'm Victor, co-founder and CTO at Meander. It has been an amazing year, and our team has delivered a lot of new experiences to all of our users! As pointed out by other commenters here, mentorship is also a personal journey. My entire journey in the tech industry was boosted by the support of mentors. Their help allowed me to grow from a junior individual contributor in a small company to a senior engineer at Meta, then to a team lead role, and finally to being a CTO in a startup. I hope that our platform can help more people to grow in the careers they are passionate about! I'm thrilled to introduce you to Meander! ♥️ P.S. feel free to reach out https://meander.so/m/victor 🚀
Anna Buldakova
@handspringer actively dogfooding the product :)
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