How Mentorship Empowers Makers: Insights on Community, Growth, and Investment from Industry Leaders

November 27, 2024

At Mentors for Makers, we’re continuing the deep dive into our panel talk, held at Ideas Fest 2024, to provide you with even more insights for scale-up success. This month, we’re covering the importance of mentorship specifically for product-based businesses. Our insights come from powerhouse success stories Bird & Blend, Bio & Me and Fearne & Rosie.

 

 

We’re also highlighting mentoring and investment opportunities, relevant to aspirational makers.
In this article, Mentors for Makers look at how mentorship…

• Builds Community Amongst Makers
• Combats Founder Loneliness
• Brings Investment Opportunities
• Uplifts Underrepresented Makers

 

Mentors for Makers is a passion project of Adelphi Manufacturing, here to offer free advice on how to sustainably grow your business through semi-automatic filling. This allows you to up your production, take on new stockists and focus your energy on other areas of business.

 

We offer a free Ask-The-Expert-Hour for businesses looking to scale. Go through your production process step by step, find solutions, use your own product on our fillers, get a real sense of what scaling looks like and see what’s right for you.

Above: Adelphi Manufacturing expert Dean Willis giving a demonstration on the Response Benchtop Filler

 

Building Community Amongst Makers

If you’ve never experienced it before, the idea of mentorship can be a bit daunting. It can seem overly formal, even forced! That’s what friends and family are for, right? However at its most informal level, mentorship is just solidarity between makers in the same space. They can offer advice as someone who’s been through it. Jon of Bio & Me recalls the invaluable help he was given by another brand who were further along in their scaling journey.

“Everything they were doing was what we were just starting to think about. And they were so generous with their time. I could phone them up and ask them really basic questions.”

Above: Jon Walsh, founder of Bio & Me

 

Cultivating authentic business relationships are essential. The Practical Journal Blog puts it this way: “Strong connections that stand the test of time are built on reliability and trust. Consistently show up for your commitments and communications, even when you’re not asking for something. Regularly check in with key contacts to keep the relationship warm.”

With this in mind, you’ve probably already been someone’s mentor or mentee without even knowing! Since it’s free and easy, it’s always worth reaching out on social media to other makers who inspire you. Chances are if you’re in the same space, they like what you’re doing too! However, if you’re looking for an in-person opportunity to connect with likeminded maker, Bread & Jam are the UK collective who run the “Biggest Challenger Brand Festival” of the year. Although this is not one the cheapest offers, with tickets at £150, feedback is amazing and Eventbrite shows lots of repeat ticket sales year after year.

 

Above: Bread & Jam is a vibrant community of the UK’s most exciting challenger brands.

 

Combatting Founder Loneliness

While mentorship can happen by accident between peers, studies show that there a measurable benefits to having  experienced, professional mentors. Particularly, when it comes to start-up survival rates.

When you’re a founder, it’s pretty lonely”, admits Bird & Blend’s Mike and he’s by no means alone. A 2019 study found that every single founder surveyed used the word “lonely” to describe their experience. Mike experienced a lot of skepticism from friends and family prior to launching his tea business. When those close to us doubt our idea, it can leave us feeling deeply isolated. The best mentors will offer sound advice while remaining open emotionally.

Above: Mike Turner, co-founder of Bird & Blend

 

In 2022 the Mentors Matters Report actually found that, “mentors have a genuine desire to support other people and encourage their success, as well as have genuine empathy for them. It’s so helpful to be intuitively able to understand the pressures that  a mentee might be under and help them get a handle on the practical workings of their business.”

When choosing a mentoring platform it’s extremely important to do your research. GrowthMentor is a consistently well reviewed platform, connecting founders to “vigorously-vetted” mentors. Mentor abilities and expertise are praised on both LinkedIn and Trust Piolet. At a monthly rate of £100 a month, you receive three hours mentoring from per week as well as entry to the Slack community. This is also well reviewed, reportedly with members helping each other out and attending in-person networking events together.

Above: GrowthMentor is an on-demand platform connecting anyone who is doing business online with experienced growth marketing mentors.

 

Bringing Investment Opportunities

Mentorship has a proven ROI. Of 823 businesses across the UK, 66% of businesses that had received mentoring say it had helped them survive and three quarters (76%) say it had been key to business growth (Mentoring Matters Report 2022).

Mentoring pays in the long term (quite literally). Mentors often develop deep relationships with founders, gaining an inside view of their operations and potential. This means that when it comes to fundraising, they are more likely to invest. This is what Mike experienced when setting up Bird & Blend. Years before at university, Mike was had been set up with a mentor and the two stayed in touch. Not only was this mentor the first person to encourage Mike’s business plans but he backed it up when it came to fundraising, saying he “wanted to be involved”.

Inversely, Bio & Me’s Jon, has found several of his investors to be great mentors. Saying, “they’ve invested money into you and so they’re incredibly interested in talking about your company.” He added that out of the twenty or so investors, “four or five of them are just really good at being on the end of the phone.”

Above: Mike, of Bird & Blend and Jon, of Bio & Me discussing the mentor/investor binary

 

If you’re interested in early stage investment, the Small Business Research + Enterprise Centre recommends the UK Business Angels Association. Unlike traditional venture capitalists, angels offer smaller sizes of investment as well as a different approach. They are less concerned with rapid return and exit and are prepared to support the business through its path to growth and exit over a longer timescale.

 

Above: The Small Business Research and Enterprise & The UK Business Angels Association

 

Uplifting Under-Represented Makers

Women often benefit from mentorship from other female leaders and investors. This is what Rachel, of Fearne & Rosie found when she sought investment from Obu, a collective of angel investors looking to be connected with female founders driving change. Of her experience with Obu Rachel says,

“Sarah and Claire’s (Obu’s founders) belief in the business and belief in me, when we were really scrappy and tiny and didn’t have a clue. They held my hand through our first fundraise and our second fundraise. I wouldn’t have known what I was doing without them.”

 

Above: Rachel, of Fearne & Rosie and female-focused investor Sarah King

 

If you’re interested in help with a specific challenge, Obu offers a one-off, one hour coaching session. This is an opportunity to meet with Sarah and dig into what’s on your mind and to work out a practical, positive way forward. For in-depth, bespoke support, Sarah offers a three-month coaching package to help makers as they get ready to raise.

Since Rachel’s mentorship and subsequent investment, Fearne & Rosie has grown +400% in the past 12 months and on track to hit £5m turnover by 2025. Rachel has used her making powers to provide healthier jam alternatives to families across the UK. Each jar is made up of 70% fruit, and 40% less sugar than an average jar of jam.

 

Conclusion

It is clear, aspirational makers seek out mentorship not just a support system—but as a transformative tool that enables them to overcome challenges, scale their ventures, and foster sustainable success. A study by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in the UK reveals that 72% of entrepreneurs experience mental health struggles, with the “need to have all the answers” cited as a major stressor. By opening yourself up to mentoring and taking up mentorship opportunities, you not only make yourself more accountable to your own business but you open yourself up to new perspectives on how to arrive there.

 

Find out more: https://www.adelphi.uk.com/resources/mentors-for-makers/ 

 

 

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