Cochin Chamber mulls setting up Mentor Pool

The Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industries today said it is planning to create a Mentor Pool from its members to support registered start-ups in Kerala.
The pool will consist of industry veterans, senior managers of its member companies and chamber promoters and the registered Startups can use this pool and link to an available Mentor who has hands on experience in their respective industry, it said.
The Chamber said its move to set up mentor pool came from its interactions with various startups in the state which are of the view that they are in need of Mentors and not money.

A chamber official said discussions with startups about setting up of mentor pool is on and "we hope to realise this by end of June, this year".
The Kochi Startup Village has been successful in generating 533 new startups that command a market valuation of Rs 292 crore.
Out of the total number of companies registered under Startup Village, 116 of them being campus startups, and the model was able to create a total of 2,889 jobs by the end of 2014.
The chamber said it is organising "Mentor on Road" programme at Startup Village on May 19 from 4pm to 7pm.

"Mentor on Road" is a not for profit initiative basically intended to reach out to MSME's including start-ups under the Micro category and provide them mentoring, knowledge in the form of practical experiences and networking support through a live database of 3500 plus contacts across the globe," it said.