Your Name: Brit Fitzpatrick
Business Name: Mentor Me, a platform built for mentoring programs
Type of Business: High Tech
Business Location: Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Website http://www.getmentorme.com
Twitter @heymentorme
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/heymentorme
Reason for starting
Every 26 seconds, a student in the U.S. drops out of high school. The dropout rate of students from low-income families is about 4.5 times greater than those from higher-income families. Only 50 percent of kids born into low-income families will graduate high school. Only 10 of those kids will graduate college. Mentoring is proven to increase the likelihood of kids pursuing higher education.Unfortunately, research has shown that about 50 percent of matches between mentors and youth end within the first few months. This does more harm than no mentoring at all. There are 3M kids in the United States who are benefitting from a relationship with a positive adult role model. There are also 15M more kids in need of mentors. I founded Mentor Me to provide a better way of matching and managing mentoring relationships. Mentor Me is technology built to help mentoring programs build great futures.
How do you define success?
We all have a purpose. If you find yours and begin each day pursuing it wholeheartedly, while remembering that ultimately, it’s bigger than you, then that’s success.
Biggest Success
My biggest professional success has been investing in myself by leaving my job to go all-in on my startup. It was a huge leap of faith, and I’ve grown so much as a result.
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it?
My top challenge is my perfectionism. I keep myself in check my recognizing those habits when they arise and setting goals for each day. It keeps me moving forward and on track.
Who is your most important role model?
My greatest blessing and most important role model is absolutely my first mentor Monica Fitzpatrick – my mom.