The Mentra Co-operative, a new initiative dedicated to developing a network of mentors throughout Atlantic Canada, has launched in New Brunswick and is looking for members from other provinces.

In early June, The Mentra hired as Executive Director Janna Hare, a coach, management consultant and training expert. And the organization is now building an online platform that will serve as a dating service between mentors and mentees.

Mentra was created by a group of organizations in New Brunswick that identified the need for a broader and deeper pool of mentors to help entrepreneurs develop their business. As it’s the home of the Launch36 accelerator, New Brunswick already has the best pool of business mentors in the region and now they want to improve it.

“There are a lot of organizations that are keenly excited about this,” said Hare in a phone interview on Friday. “The vision for the Mentra is to become a centre of excellence for mentoring, and we’re going to partner that with several organizations and develop these relationships to make it happen.”

Hare’s mission now is to train not only more mentors but more mentees as well. One of the curious aspects of mentorships is that the parties receiving lessons have to be prepped as thoroughly as the teachers themselves, otherwise the advice falls on deaf ears.

Hare is a certified coach and she plans to build coaching skills into the fabric of the program to encourage the development of both mentors and mentees.

She said the online platform for the group is now in development and the full service should be launched by the end of the year.  The beauty of the platform, said Hare, is that it allows the co-operative to link mentors and mentees in different locations. Entrepreneurs participating in the program will be asked how important it is to them to meet face-to-face with their mentors. If it’s not important, the network could allow founders to work with mentors in other locations.

One of the priorities now is to attract member organizations from other provinces for two reasons: first, it will allow more companies to benefit from the project; and second it will broaden the pool of mentors, in terms of numbers and expertise.  

“I have had a couple of conversations with Innovacorp in Halifax,” said Hare. “They’re keenly interested in the training program. Entrepreneur’s Forum will be in the list. I’m reaching out to people to see … how to have a strong mentoring network in all four provinces in Atlantic Canada.”

The development of the Mentra began last year when the New Brunswick Government put out a request for proposals for an organization to mentor entrepreneurs, and seven organizations came together with a single proposal, which won.

The Mentra will operate out of the Venn Centre (formerly Tech Southeast) on Main Street in Moncton. The founding members are: The Wallace McCain Institute; BioNB; the New Brunswick Business Council; Planet Hatch; the Pond-Deshpande Centre; the Venn Centre ; and the New Brunswick Social Policy Research Network.

They have held discussions with other members who may become members, including: Propel ICT; the New Brunswick Information Technology Council; the University of New Brunswick's Dr. J. Herbert Smith Centre for Technology Management & Entrepreneurship; the New Brunswick Community College; 21inc., and Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick.