Mentor Spaces

Mentor Spaces operates a structured mentorship platform that automates mentor-mentee matching, scheduling and outcome tracking, positioning itself as a way for program leaders to spend less time on program logistics. The company markets the product to three customer groups: nonprofits running youth or workforce mentorship programs, universities connecting students with alumni mentors, and companies operating skills-based volunteering programs. Stated outcomes for customers include unlocking funding, improving career outcomes and demonstrating measurable impact.

The company describes its mission as helping high-performing, underrepresented talent navigate careers through mentorship from experienced professionals, and its vision as unleashing the career potential of underrepresented professionals while making organizations more diverse, equitable and inclusive. Founder and CEO Chris Motley has framed the product around social capital — the advantage derived from who a person knows and how they are known — and the limited opportunities for serendipitous professional connection available to underrepresented communities, a gap he argued was widened by pandemic-era isolation.

Founding story

Founder and CEO Chris Motley, a first-generation college graduate from the South Side of Chicago raised by a single mother, worked at Goldman Sachs and later at global manufacturer 1888 Mills. He concluded that much of his career progress had been serendipitous and that technology could create similar "career serendipity" at scale for people from backgrounds like his, leading him to start Mentor Spaces as a virtual mentorship platform built on the premise that "a person can only be who they have seen."

Business model

Software-as-a-service sold to organizations that run mentorship programs, priced per participant per month across tiers, with no long-term contracts.

Subscription pricing by participant volume: a Launch tier at $8 per participant per month for up to 100 participants, a Grow tier at $6 per participant per month for up to 500 participants, and a custom-priced Thrive enterprise tier for programs above 500 participants.