Donating my time to grow a VC-funded company: why I quit mentoring at Plato
Hey everyone! I’m Quang, co-founder, and CEO of Plato. I’d like to chime in as we had several discussions with Gergely and Plato definitely doesn’t fit his vision. Happy to have this debate with you in a public setting.This discussion is a good reminder that we probably need to update a bit the message and be even more transparent on the dynamic in play and the incentives for mentors, here are they:(1) Giving back to the community:
- People just feel really good about helping, seeing someone grow- In addition, to being a mentor in Plato, I'm helping every week people (for free) to prepare for YC interviews and I really feel good about helping as I've received so much help from others in the past(2) Learning
- I'm mentoring in Plato myself every week, 1h-2h every week, 1 call over two, I feel I'm saying the same thing, but 1 call over 2, I'm learning myself a lot. For example, I had a call with the head of engineering of a 50 Engineers Company from a startup in France last week, and their company had a really interesting way of functioning to do a performance review, it's not done by a manager, it's done by peers who are assigned to you every quarter. I learned a ton thanks to all my mentees
- It helps me to synthesize my thoughts and deliver my learnings with a simple and clear message
- It's also very intellectually stimulating to be challenged every week with a different challenge it's helping me sharpen my skills(3) Networking with other mentors: 
- Mentors get free access to Plato (it was in an experimental phase and we're deploying it to the broader community next month)
- we’re organizing regular happy hours between mentors and some are joining every week
- and plenty of other events we're organizing for mentors for free(4) Brand (we offer speaking opportunities to mentors who’ve been here for a while
- Many Mentors are proud to be a Plato mentor, and many of them are sharing their plate public profile and put that they're a Plato mentor on Linkedin 
- Also, the best mentors and those who have been in Plato for a while are regularly proposed to be speakers at our conference, for example, http://elevate.platohq.com/ and https://www.platohq.com/webinars(5) Charity We have no problem adding a 5th point about donating to a charity. But those 4 are already strong and that’s why we have 1000+ mentors and some of them are here for 3 years+. This is one of the initiatives we'd like to do in the next 6-12 months.Finally, I doubt that paying the mentors will move the needle. When we started to do that, we started to attract worse mentors who are doing that for the money. But giving away XX% of revenue to a charity of your choice (that is aligned with our mission to improve Eng Leadership) is a good idea (that we are already working on)If you think that is a completely new business model and dynamic, it's actually not. Plato’s model is no different than the business model of a conference:  Companies paying for attendees to learn from speakers. Speakers unpaid (most of the time) Incentives for speakers?(1) Giving back to the community, when you're a speaker at a conference, you're actually happy to help a community that you care about(2) Learn as synthesizing your thoughts and delivering a message (through a keynote or something) is helpful(3) Networking with other speakers(4) Brand (being a speaker is helping for your own brand or your company's brand)(5) Sometimes a speaker can choose a charity to donateAlthough I agree that we could be better organized and transparent with those 4 (or 5) incentives for mentors (maybe add a system of points or whatever), those are highly appreciated incentives for mentors and I do think it will scale.Also, our monthly subscription fees include:- Cost of customer success: we help our customers build programs around TAlents Development- Cost of Engineers: we pay our engineers who are building the platform that helps mentees and mentors schedule and reschedule their time, be matched, take notes, write action plan etc.- Cost of Talent Coaches:  a talent coach (someone who is a professional, paid by us, who is uncovering your challenges and needs and matching you with the right mentor and keep you accountable on your progress). More about it here: https://www.platohq.com/how-it-works-for-team- Cost of Mentors Community Managers: A team that are running all the initiatives aboveAgain, Happy to have this debate with y'all!