Behind every successful startup leader are brilliant mentors who coached, opened doors and paved the way, often before anyone else believed. But it’s not easy to find a good mentor and build an impactful relationship, especially in the fast-moving startup world. Fast Track was designed to connect accomplished leaders looking to work side-by-side and share their hard-won wisdom with the next generation. Since launching in 2016, we’ve helped thousands of mentorship pairs forge impactful bonds through structured 1:1 discussions and a larger community experience.
Fast Track is a 90-day mentorship experience that pairs hundreds of tech leaders with high-potential operators. Mentees go through our powerful matching process to find the best Mentor for their career goals and maximize the Mentor’s impact. Once each pair is matched, we provide plenty of playbooks and best practices on how to make the most of the mentorship experience, including conversation guides and questions. Each pair then meets for one hour every other week, for six total 1:1 sessions, to discuss the Mentee’s professional goals, tips for cultivating leadership skills and advice for weathering the challenges of startup life. In addition to these 1:1 meetings, we host virtual professional development workshops, curated learning sessions, and more personalized community experiences.
Not at all. We believe in creating the most diverse community and are excited to open up our mentorship program to those outside our existing network.
Becoming a First Round Mentor or Mentee is by application only.
You should have significant experience as an operating leader, founder, or executive. We are seeking folks across a diverse range of industries and roles — design, engineering, customer success, sales, HR, product marketing, etc. Most of our Mentors have 8+ years of experience — but we make exceptions for people with an uncanny ability to coach and wisdom beyond their years.
We’re seeking the best founders and operators at both early- and late-stage tech companies looking to work side-by-side and share their experiences with their Mentee. We’re specifically seeking women, underrepresented minorities, and people who have had unconventional paths to tech.
Given the high demand for this program, when Fast Track began we reserved mentee spots for team members at First Round-backed companies. To continue building the strongest community of startup builders, we’re excited to expand access to Fast Track mentorship across all sorts of startups beyond our own community. Mentees can come from any functional background, whether it’s engineering, product, design, marketing, sales, people ops, and more. The common thread is that we’re seeking people who are looking to learn and level up in their careers, either as individual contributors or as team leaders.
This program runs from September 6th through November 23rd. We require mentorship pairs to meet six times over the course of three months. You are also required to attend a 1-hour training session during the week of August 29th.
