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Merit
p/merit-3Impactful career mentorship for tech workers
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Randy Brown

Merit - Tech mentorship for the under-networked

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Merit is tech mentorship for the under-networked. Our mission is to democratize the professional network. We connect first-year tech workers with mentors to grow their careers and network. Talk to 500+ product, design, and engineering leaders today!

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Luis Carlos Moyano Medina
Looks great except for one bit about mentors not getting anything in return for their work. I get it would be hard to create a monetization scheme for it, but it looks to me that a big part of the value this app has comes from them, which means their participation is a core component for you system to work and that can hardly be maintained on prestige alone. All the best!
Randy Brown
Maker
Hey! @luis_carlos_moyano_medina - thanks for the thoughts! This is actually a common misconception. The mentors get a lot of real experience and broaden their network in a way that directly improves their current jobs and future job prospects: - They use it to learn new skills by helping people with real problems and challenges - Diversify their own network beyond folks at their job and existing referrals - Learn about real people and problems beyond their own Many of our mentors are senior individual contributors, who are interested in exploring management in a lightweight manner, or early managers who are looking to meet more folks and learn about more real-world scenarios. The experience of mentoring others directly helps them learn these skills and apply them to their real life. Hope this answers your question!
James Turnbull
@luis_carlos_moyano_medina @randolphebrown I second this! Putting aside the "paying it forward", which also contributes to why I am on Merit, someone you mentor now might be an excellent hire in the future or might be a lead in a job search or a connection to solve a problem.
Randy Brown
Maker
Hey Product Hunt - excited to be here! My co-founder @kirk_fernandes and I started Merit because we believe that mentorship is the most effective way to build your network and career. I previously built a diversity recruiting platform and saw many people leave promising jobs and opportunities because they didn’t know where to go next and didn’t have the support system to help guide them. Kirk previously was a product manager and leader at big tech companies and startups. He saw that the most effective way to expand people’s careers was to broaden their network and horizons. We started working together because we thought that the best way to improve tech was give everyone—especially those in tech without an existing network—a way to grow their craft, career, and confidence. You can read more about how we got started on our blog: https://blog.get-merit.com/the-s... 🤝 We connect curious, eager members with mentors who want to impact the tech industry for the better. Our vision is a real meritocracy for the tech industry, and we’ll get there, one conversation at a time. 📹 For those looking to learn, Merit is an easy way to connect with senior mentors in the field for 1:1 video calls. In seconds, you can browse topics and mentors to: - Navigate a promotion - Job search - Career switch - Learn skills 🤲 And for mentors, Merit is an easy way to: - Hone your own skills by teaching others - Broaden and diversify your network - Give back to tech at large We make it easy to help relevant people while putting in place controls so your conversations remain focused. We feel we are are best positioned to help the careers of those working in product management, product design, or software engineering in the US and Canada. We’re looking to expand to additional markets in the future. Happy to answer any questions! Best, Randy
Ricky Yean
@kirk_fernandes @randolphebrown congrats on the launch!
Arjun Kannan
Congrats on the launch! For anyone who's new here, I've been on multiple mentorship platforms, and it's a hard problem to solve. Every platform has tried to solve this by paying mentors or passing on the cost to employers, and it's led to a cesspool of self-promotional platforms. Merit is different — their structure creates meaningful mentor/mentee relationships, and it's been the best way to pay it forward as a mentor, while getting to know other awesome folks in tech. It seems simple to say, but my interactions on Merit are purposeful, and I'm excited to see how they go.
Randy Brown
Maker
@arj_shiv thanks for all of the support and being a mentor! And yes, this is exactly what we're going for. The goal is to create purposeful professional conversations. By finding a way to align incentives for mentors and mentees we believe this is the best way to enable that for everyone.
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@arj_shiv thank you! Thanks for being a great mentor and example to others :)
Alexander Holman
I use this product and it's incredible the value I've gotten out of it as a mentor
Randy Brown
Maker
@alexander_holman thanks for all of the support!
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@alexander_holman thank you, and please keep being a mentor!
Nick Engmann
Amazing product that helped catapult my career after moving to NYC and going full-remote in 2019. The conversations that I had with @randolphbrown and @kirk_fernandes helped me cement what sort of engineer I wanted to be and the explorations I needed to continue in regarding my career path. Definitely recommend this platform to both prospective mentees as well as mentors who want to share their career insights!
Randy Brown
Maker
@randolphbrown @kirk_fernandes @nick_engmann1 thanks bud, love it so much that we were able to help. Appreciate all of the support!
Edlyn Yuen
Congrats Kirk and Randy! It’s a fantastic product for people looking to learn how to transition into different tech roles or to level up. Excited for your launch!
Randy Brown
Maker
@edlynyuen thanks! Really appreciate all of your support!
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@edlynyuen thank you and appreciate your support!
Leonardo Bertinelli
Hey @randolphebrown, congrats on making this a reality, I think it's a truly needed service for many people. However, it feels kinda strange that you only accept mentees from US and Canada, given that these mentorships will be conducted online regardless of location. I can't think of many practical reasons that explain this restriction, tech work is the same everywhere and any advice valid in north america would be valid in other places. I feel this creates an artificial (unnecessary?) barrier of entry which is strange for a service that wants to democratize something. Also, the wording of the explanation given doesn’t feel very inclusive: “We're focused on creating the best experience possible for everyone on the site. Right now that means we're focused on folks based in the US or Canada that work in software engineering, product design, or product management. This focus lets us ensure high quality career conversations on our site.” How excluding people from other parts of the world ensure high quality conversations? If anything it would create a more diverse community with all kinds of perspectives, stories and insights. I applaud the idea and I'm sure it's making an impact, but maybe you can give more attention to this specific aspect because at the moment it feels a bit off.
Randy Brown
Maker
@leonardobertinelli thanks for this question! We want to ensure our mentors and members can have great sessions that are meaningful and impactful. That requires context so currently, we support mentorship in US and Canada. We chose this set of roles and locations because we felt that this would create the most shared initial context. While we think - and want! - Merit to be used by anyone one day, we had to start somewhere. More specifically - how the job market functions and cultural norms differ considerably the wider the set of folks using it. In prior iterations, we avoided these types of barriers but found that it caused a worst experience at this stage, and at worst, could expose folks to harmful experiences. For the job market part, we found that mentors oftentimes felt they did not have relevant experience to help. As a personal example, while I know a lot about how tech hiring works in the US, I couldn't tell you the first thing about how it works in Europe, and I feel like I would actively cause harm to try to give advice on that matter given how little I know. For the cultural norms part, it's well documented that the way people communicate (even when using the same language) varies widely across different cultures. When creating a product that makes new connections, these differences can lead to misunderstandings, and at worst lead to people feeling insulted. Similar to the prior, we felt that opening it up too far left us causing more harm than good at our stage/size as a very small team working on a very hard problem. To summarize - while we want to open it up to more roles and locations one day, we have found so far that to do so will require a focused effort to ensure that we continue making a meaningful and enjoyable experience for everyone involved. We are working hard to get there!
Leonardo Bertinelli
@randolphebrown thank you for the insightful answer, everything is more clear now. I think you should make the wording and explanation on your website closer to this reasoning, to ensure that the right message comes across when explaining this issue!
Randy Brown
Maker
@leonardobertinelli good feedback, thanks!
Tanisha Shrivastava
Congratulations on the launch!
Randy Brown
Maker
@tanisha_shrivastava thanks! Appreciate it! 🙌🏾
Jev
Super excited to see this in action. Congrats on the launch!
Randy Brown
Maker
@jevta really appreciate the words - thanks!
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@jevta 🫡
Shushant Lakhyani
This is much needed for tech folks, especially in these times. Congratulations on the launch!
Randy Brown
Maker
@shushant_lakhyani thanks for the support!
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@shushant_lakhyani thank and yes, Merit is needed now more than ever!
Randy Brown
Maker
@derstartupcfo thanks! Appreciate the support! 🙏🏾
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@derstartupcfo thank you!
Joshua Voydik
I love what Merit is doing. Nice work, keep it up!
Randy Brown
Maker
@joshvoydik thanks for your support, Joshua!
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@joshvoydik thank you for the kind words!
Sam DeBrule
Congrats on the launch!
Randy Brown
Maker
@samdebrule thanks for all of the support!
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@samdebrule thanks for being a day one supporter :)
Ellen Chisa
Congratulations @randolphebrown @kirk_fernandes !!!
Randy Brown
Maker
@kirk_fernandes @ellenchisa thanks! And appreciate all of the support!!
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@ellenchisa thank you for being an early supporter :)
Gary Chou
Love the focus on first-year tech workers, given how critical having a professional network can be to both their success and in navigating challenges!
Randy Brown
Maker
@garychou thanks for the support! And yes, making it easy for first-year tech workers is critical to helping accelerate their careers. It's especially hard if you're not sure or even afraid of how to network with folks in industry.
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@garychou totally, the earlier you seek help, the more impact it can have!
Emilie Hsieh
Congrats on the launch! As a longtime Merit mentor, I've loved seeing the evolution of the platform and product 🔥🔥 I've had some really incredible conversations with mentees and it's such a rewarding feeling to have meaningfully changed someone's career trajectory. Looking forward to seeing what's next ✨
Randy Brown
Maker
@emiliehsieh thank you so much for the support! And for being an early mentor on Merit - means a lot to us, but more importantly, the people you've been able to help 🙌🏾
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@emiliehsieh thank you 🫡
David Matheson
I've used Merit as both a mentor and mentee, and have gained a ton of value and insight that I otherwise wouldn't have. Using Merit, I have: 1. helped others getting their start in Tech 2. shown individual contributors the real pros/cons of going into engineering management 3. met a ton of inspiring people 4. learned more on being a founding engineer from another's experiences 5.gotten insight on being a bootstrapped founder 6.so. much. more. As someone in the industry, this is an excellent opportunity to grow from others in Tech in addition to giving back to those just starting out. As a newcomer, Merit is an insight goldmine. As always, big shoutout to Randy and Kirk for making it happen! 🙌 🤝✨
Randy Brown
Maker
@david_matheson thanks so much for the support and for being a mentor on Merit! Love that you've been able to get so much out of it already!! 🙌🏾
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@david_matheson love this list and THANK YOU so much for the support and being an early adopter
Jed Brown
Chiming in as I've been using Merit for the last month or so as a mentor. First off:Congrats on the launch. Merit is a much needed and timely innovation for today's world. Secondly: A very personal thank you, thank you, thank you! I've found that mentoring on Merit has been such a rewarding experience. In the past I typically mentored people from withing my network or through referrals. On merit it has extended to people I didn't even realize I could help, from wildly different paths compared to my more traditional network, which in turn has made me better in every aspect of my life. Truly a multiplier! I love products that combine utility with mutually helping people through a two-way/two-sided market. Congrats on a stellar launch 🎉👏
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@jedbro thank you and thank YOU for being a mentor!
Randy Brown
Maker
@jedbro thank you for the kind words, being a mentor on Merit, and all of the support!!
Brennan Robbins
I love that Merit is improving matches between employers and employees and helping people find direction in their careers. Their network of mentors is also very inspiring.
Randy Brown
Maker
@brennan_robbins thanks! Really appreciate all of the support!
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@brennan_robbins thank you for the support!
Thomas Antonio
The matching on Merit just works! Mentor/mentee relationships can take years to find and then develop. Merit makes establishing those connections, and then nurturing them, easy and enjoyable.
Randy Brown
Maker
@thomas_antonio thanks for the support! And yes - we believe that making it easy to know what people want to talk about is the best way to create meaningful professional connections!
Kirk Fernandes
Maker
@thomas_antonio you get it!