Question 1

How does YourNextMentor actually work?

Accepted Answer

Tell us your goals and current role, or just describe your situation in your own words on Find my mentor. The matcher reads the live mentor directory — each mentor’s role, company, industry, skills, bio and rating — ranks who fits, and puts a short reason under each name. You browse, book a session, meet by video or audio call, and take it from there. Sessions are 15, 30 or 60 minutes, booked one at a time.

Question 2

Do I need to pay to sign up?

Accepted Answer

Creating an account is free, and you pay only for the sessions you book. Each mentor sets their own price for each session length; you see the exact amount on their profile and again at checkout before you pay. Mentors can also switch on a free intro call — the Free intro filter in search shows exactly who has one on right now, and it comes back empty when nobody does.

Question 3

How long does it take to find a mentor?

Accepted Answer

We do not measure that, so we are not going to quote you a figure. What we can tell you is the shape of it: describe your situation on Find my mentor and you get a short ranked list with a reason under each name, rather than a directory to wade through. If you would rather do it yourself, search by keyword and filter by industry, price, rating, availability and free intro.

Question 4

What if my first session does not click?

Accepted Answer

It happens — chemistry matters, and nothing here locks you in. Book someone else whenever you like: there is no plan, no minimum and nothing to cancel. On the money: the first paid session on your account is covered by the money-back guarantee, claimed from My Sessions within 14 days of that session, once per account. Sessions after that are not refunded for fit alone — a mentor no-show always is.

Question 5

How is the AI matching different from search?

Accepted Answer

Search asks “who is available?” Matching asks “who is right?” Describe your situation in your own words and the matcher ranks the live directory on what each profile actually contains — role, company, industry, skills, bio and rating — and returns a short list with a plain reason under each name. Separately, the recommendations on your dashboard are built from mentors you saved, mentors you have already met, and the goals in your journal. Neither uses a personality or learning-style model; we do not collect one.

Question 6

Can I choose my mentor manually?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Matching is a starting point, not a wall. Browse the whole roster, search by keyword, and filter by industry, price range, rating, availability and free intro — then book whoever you want.

Question 7

How long is a typical session?

Accepted Answer

The platform supports three lengths: 15, 30 and 60 minutes. Each mentor prices the ones they want to offer, so a profile shows only the lengths that mentor actually sells. Fifteen is usually enough to test fit; sixty suits deep dives, portfolio reviews and interview prep.

Question 8

Can I message a mentor before booking?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every mentor profile has a Message button that opens a direct conversation, so you can ask a question or check fit before you commit to a booking.

Question 9

What happens if I need to cancel?

Accepted Answer

Cancel at least 48 hours before the session starts and you get a full automatic refund of whatever you paid — if you booked with a session package, the credit goes back to your balance instead. Inside 48 hours there is no automatic refund, because the mentor has already held that time for you; you can open a refund request from the session and a real person reviews it. Emergencies happen — that is what the refund request is for.

Question 10

Who can become a mentor?

Accepted Answer

You apply, and a person reviews your profile. Before it can even be submitted it has to clear a published bar: a real profile photo, a headline, a bio of at least 150 words, at least three skills, a verified email or LinkedIn, and bookable weekly hours. A human then approves or rejects it. We do not publish an acceptance rate, we do not run background checks or verify employment, and titles, employers and tenure are self-reported.

Question 11

How much can I earn?

Accepted Answer

You set your own price for each session length you offer, and you can change it whenever you like. The platform fee is 20% of the session price; the rest is yours, and the exact split for every booking is shown in your earnings ledger. We are not going to quote you a typical income — the platform is early, and any figure would be invented.

Question 12

How is mentor payment handled?

Accepted Answer

Through Stripe, and you need a connected Stripe account before anything can move. If your Stripe account is ready when the mentee pays, the charge is routed to you at that moment and the platform keeps only its fee. If it is not, the money stays with the platform and a transfer to you is created automatically once the session has been completed for 48 hours. When it reaches your bank after that is whatever payout schedule you set up in Stripe.

Question 13

How much time do I need to commit?

Accepted Answer

As little as one hour a week. You publish a weekly schedule and bookings can only land inside it — nothing is ever booked outside the hours you set. There is no minimum number of sessions and no penalty for a quiet week. The one thing we do enforce is showing up: a confirmed no-show is refunded to the mentee, and three of them delist you pending review.

Question 14

Can YourNextMentor be used by entire teams?

Accepted Answer

Not as a product yet. There is no team plan, no seat billing, no admin console and no single sign-on today — anyone at your company can create an ordinary account and book mentors individually. If you want to run something structured for a team, write to teams@yournextmentor.com and you will get a person rather than a signup flow.

Question 15

How does pricing work for organizations?

Accepted Answer

There is no published org pricing, because there is no org plan yet. Sessions are bought one at a time, at whatever price each mentor sets. If your finance team needs an invoice with company details, a VAT number or a purchase order reference rather than a card receipt, the Expense It page explains how to ask for one.

Question 16

Can we run our own internal mentorship program on the platform?

Accepted Answer

Not today. There is no tooling for a private internal programme — no org accounts, no internal-only mentor pool, no programme reporting. The closest thing that exists is communities: a mentor can run a public or request-to-join group with posts, events and resources. Anything beyond that would be a conversation with us, not a feature you can switch on.

Question 17

Is the platform secure for enterprise use?

Accepted Answer

Here is what we can actually point at. Traffic is served over HTTPS; a login is an httpOnly cookie whose token is stored only as a SHA-256 hash, and logging out or resetting your password revokes it; admin functions are role-based; and you can export or erase your own data yourself from the Privacy page. The only thing that ever reaches an AI provider is the free-text situation you type into the matcher, plus public mentor-profile fields — private messages, journal entries and session content are never sent. There is no SAML single sign-on in the product today. For anything a procurement review needs in writing, ask us before you plan around it.

Question 18

What payment methods do you accept?

Accepted Answer

Payments run through Stripe, using Stripe’s own payment form, charged in US dollars. Which methods appear there — cards, and any wallet Stripe has enabled for your country — is decided by Stripe at checkout, so we do not publish a list. There is no bank-transfer or invoice checkout; if you need an invoice for expenses rather than a card receipt, see the Expense It page.

Question 19

Where is my data stored?

Accepted Answer

Account, profile and session data live in the platform’s own database, and you can export all of it or erase it yourself from the Privacy page. Video and audio calls run on Daily where a Daily key is configured and on Jitsi Meet otherwise — neither is end-to-end encrypted, so treat a call as private but not E2E — and nothing is recorded unless recording is explicitly switched on. If the hosting region is a requirement for you, ask us in writing before you plan around it; we would rather answer that than publish a line you cannot check.

Question 20

How do I delete my account?

Accepted Answer

Open the Privacy page (mentors also have it in Settings), find Your data, and use Delete my account. Your profile is anonymised immediately: name, email, bio, photo, video, company, role and username are cleared, every login session is revoked, and your journal entries, sent messages and notifications are deleted. Session and payment rows are kept for accounting with the names anonymised. Cancel any upcoming sessions yourself first — deleting your account does not cancel or refund them.

Question 21

Do you offer refunds?

Accepted Answer

Three separate things. A mentor no-show, reported from My Sessions, is refunded in full every time, with no limit. The first paid session on your account is covered by the money-back guarantee: claim it from My Sessions within 14 days of the session, once per account. And cancelling 48 or more hours before the start is refunded automatically — inside 48 hours nothing refunds automatically, so you open a refund request and a person reviews it.

Question 22

What is the ambassador program?

Accepted Answer

A way to earn on the people you bring in. When someone who signed up through your link completes a paid session, you earn commission on that session’s price at your tier rate — 2.5% at Bronze, 5% at Silver, 10% at Gold. It is per session rather than one-off, and the attribution does not expire. If both the mentee and the mentor on a session came through you, the combined commission is capped at 10% of the price.

Question 23

How do I qualify?

Accepted Answer

Anyone can apply. Your tier is set by verified points over the trailing twelve months: Bronze from zero, Silver at 25 points, Gold at 100. The only thing a tier changes is your commission rate — 2.5%, 5%, 10%. There is no separate perks catalogue behind the tiers.

Question 24

Are referral payouts immediate?

Accepted Answer

No. A commission is created when the referred person’s paid session completes, and it is held for 30 days before it becomes available — that hold is what lets us reverse it if the session is refunded. Once your available balance reaches $25 you request a payout from your ambassador dashboard, and a person approves and sends it. There is no automatic monthly run.

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