I was having an online discussion with a large consulting company a few days ago. Among a lot of other issues we discussed, the role our mentors play at Orange Grove came up. I have written about this before, so I will not repeat how grateful we are to all these people, who share their experience voluntarily with our startups. But what I did realise during this discussion, was, how more of our new mentors are people who started out as startups at Orange Grove a few years ago.  

More than once, I have been approached by former startups, who are doing well and who are now able and willing to give back to our new generations of startups. This makes us very happy at Orange Grove, first of all because we are happy to see our ‘older’ startups are doing well — even during these conora-times — but moreover, because people we have worked with intensively in the past, feel the need to return to us and share the expertise and knowledge they have acquired over the past years through their own companies. 

I will not go into specific names and examples, you can always take a look at our website and check out the mentor network we have built up over the years. Many old and new faces, but also more and more ex-OG startups! 

If you are a former startup of Orange Grove and you are reading this, do drop a line and get in touch with us. Any experience you have is useful for our new cohorts of startups in all areas and fields. Even though I fully understand we are all extremely busy, there is nothing more fulfilling than spending half an hour on the phone with people you can help by sharing your wisdom and experiences. Especially in these times of corona-pandemic and lockdown, we all need some more positivity and energizing in our lives! 

By Natasha Apostolidi, Senior Innovation Officer at NL Embassy & Orange Grove