Dallas Entrepreneurship Center's Fast Start Mentor Program

The Challenge - Entrepreneurs are struggling with how to operate and grow their businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In the Spring of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Amber and The DEC Network saw an opportunity to help struggling new business owners in the Dallas/Fort Worth area cope specifically with the pandemic. Amber saw an opportunity to create a virtual mentorship program using Qooper's Mentoring and Learning Platform. 

The Solution - Amber launched the Fast Start Mentor Program, which pairs struggling small business owners with tenured entrepreneurs who have been through a crisis. 

With the Qooper platform, Amber was able to customize the information gathered from the mentees and mentors to meet her needs. The algorithm matches new business owners with tenured entrepreneurs from the same industry, speciality, revenue, etc. Amber has shared resources, news articles, information on virtual conferences and events that would benefit the members of her program. 

The Results - Amber found Marketing, Business Strategy and Accounting/budgeting were areas that had the most activities. This tells us that these areas are were the mentees are struggling the most. 

• Entrepreneur Development - New business owners are able to set goals and milestones to help grow their businesses with more tenured business owners. 
• Learning Content - Amber created and shared business development resources and learners, such as a COVID Small Business Survival Guide. 
• Engagement - Mentees/mentors can keep up with trending and relevant information (i.e. virtual conferences and new articles on COVID-19) by Amber pushing out notifications about new articles and events.  
• Reporting - Amber can view results and adjust her program based on the measurements and skill gaps.