Welcome to Union!

1. Union: A Guide for Mentors
Welcome to Union

2. What is Union?
Union is a digital platform that catalyzes innovation by connecting startup
ecosystems together around the world.
Created by 1776, the platform has grown to include communities in over 30
cities for a network of over 4,000 startups and 1,000 mentors globally. Learn
more about the story of Union in this post by our 1776 CTO.
This deck will help you get started – we’re excited to have you aboard!

3. What You Can Do through Union
Setup your profile
Onboarding into Union
Mentor startups
Host Office Hours
Leave feedback for staff
Leave feedback for startups
Connect with interesting startups
Messaging on Union

4. Getting Started
The Union Onboarding Process

5. Onboarding into Union
As a mentor on Union, each of you will receive a
unique email invitation to join the platform from
your program staff.
After you click the ‘Go to Union’ link, you can
sign up with your AngelList or LinkedIn account
and proceed to create your profile.

6. Login & User Information

7. Personal Information
From the onboarding screen, enter for
personal information – from phone,
gender, and biography, to social
handles and home region. This
information is used in your profile to
curate your feed and helps prospective
mentees learn more about you.

8. Personal Information

9. Expertise & Office Hours
Next, you’ll need to select your preferences and expertise on Union. This is to
create a smooth, curated experience, exposing you to startups and content you’ll
find interesting.
As a mentor, you can even sync Union to your calendar feed to ensure you always
know which meetings you have coming up. More on office hour scheduling later -
let’s configure your mentor settings first!

10. Campus
We see huge value in onsite, in-person
mentorship, but it’s not always possible.
Configure your in-person / virtual settings:
1. All mentors are virtual-friendly by
default on Union. If you wish to be a
virtual-only mentor, simply leave this
section blank. Mentors can connect via
Skype or cell phone for office hours
(and we keep your info private!).
2. If you plan to host in-person office
hours at a physical location, select the
location you visit for mentor sessions.
Expertise & Office Hours

11. Global Community
Union is a global community – if you’d
like to be available to mentor startups
outside of your home “hub” or “network,”
check the box to be globally
discoverable by startups from all over -
top startups from other incubators,
accelerators, university programs and
more.
Expertise & Office Hours

12. Skills & Habits
Now, time to highlight your expertise – select
the hard and soft skills you know best. Check
all that apply - these tags will flag you for
startups in need of your help!
Expertise & Office Hours

13. Industries
Here, you’ll select the fields you know best – put
that industry knowledge to work! If your expertise
isn’t specific to an industry, you can leave this
section blank.
Expertise & Office Hours

14. Your First Office Hour
Union makes it easy for you and the staff of your
program to manage your availability. Select the
date, time, summary, frequency & your preferred
RSVP questions here. Be sure to select your top
areas of expertise too!
If you’d like to start hosting office hours right
away, be sure to click the box next to “Create
your first office hours now.”
Expertise & Office Hours

15. Your First Office Hour
The “preview” section will let you see how your office hours
session will appear for startups in Union’s homepage feed.
Expertise & Office Hours

16. Excellent! Now you are ready to use Union.
Next up, hosting office hours!

17. Share your expertise
Hosting Office Hours

18. What are Office Hours?
Office hours are the most formal way to connect to startups on Union. While every
program may vary slightly, here’s how it works on Union:
Preferences: Union matches you with relevant startups. You can edit these anytime!
Scheduling: While you can schedule your first session during onboarding, your
program staff will help ensure you have a regular schedule and interesting
startups booking your slots. Union will automate the connection process!
Feedback: Union requires you to give feedback after your sessions – you can share
thoughts back to staff as well as back to the startup.
Policy: You & the startup can decide what the most appropriate working relationship
looks like. If a startup approaches you about forming a business relationship,
great! However, we ask that mentors and experts do not solicit during their office
hour sessions.

19. Scheduling Office Hours
Office hours are the most formal way to connect
to startups on Union. While you can schedule
your first session during onboarding, your
program staff will help ensure you have a
regular schedule and interesting startups
booking your slots. We’re working to give
mentors even more tools to manage their
schedules.
When signing up, startups see a sign-up prompt
like the image to the left. Staff may also make
your sessions visible to only a subset of users
or reserve approval for your RSVPs to ensure
they are the right fit.

20. Reminder Emails
Union automates a lot of the work when it comes to connecting startups and
mentors. This helps your program staff scale up their support and expand their
offerings.
While you can check your upcoming signups anytime, you’ll receive two emails
as your session approaches...

21. 72-Hour Reminder
Don’t forget your office hours! This email
will remind you of your upcoming session
and confirm that you have the time
blocked off. Startups can sign up for slots
up until 24 hours before your session.
Reminder Emails

22. 24-Hours “Rundown”
The rundown email gives you everything you need
to prepare for office hours.
This includes logistical details (like in-person or
virtual instructions), startup descriptions, and the
mentees’ answers to your RSVP questions. This will
save time and ensure a productive session for both
parties.
Remember – for privacy reasons, it’s your
responsibility to reach out using the contact info
(phone number or Skype ID) included in this email if
you’re connecting virtually!
Reminder Emails

23. Feedback Collection
Union and the programs using it place great
value on your feedback. After each session,
you’ll be prompted to tell us how your meeting
went.
The standard Net Promoter Score is a 1-10
ranking and the baseline for all feedback. This
information is confidential and visible only to
staff.
If you’d like to go deeper or share thoughts back
to the startup, enter more info on the second
page…

24. Feedback Collection
Mentors can also share more detailed feedback on
idea, product/market fit, team & more! These are
also on a 1-10 scale.
Here you can offer advice directly back to the
startup as well.
Feel free to add your thoughts for staff as well.
Please try to be thorough so we can best support
these startups!

25. Feedback Collection
Not all meetings are planned...
Mentors can even leave ad hoc feedback on a
startup anytime, so you can still share even if you
had a meeting outside of formal office hours.
Just go to any company page a click “Leave
Feedback” to trigger the form anytime!

26. Thanks for hosting office hours!
As mentors, you can connect with startups more informally as well.
Next up, messaging!

27. Connect to startups anytime
Messaging on Union

28. Messaging on Union
Union enables mentors and startups to connect globally anytime.
We’ve built an in-app messaging function that allows mentors to start conversations with
startups they may find interesting. For your privacy, this doesn’t work the other way
around – so please check it out!

29. Messaging on Union
To discover companies on Union, check
your homepage feed or the “Community”
tab.
Feel free to explore the various filters
and learn more about each startup and
the founders behind them.
From a company page, simply select
“Message” to start a conversation.

30. Messaging on Union
Messaging is easy!
Once in the messaging prompt, select a
reason to connect and write an intro note
to get the conversation started.

31. Messaging on Union
Once you’ve begun the
conversation, you can
track all of your
messages from the in-
app interface.
Messaging is securely
linked to your email, so
feel free to reply directly
from the messaging or
your inbox!

32. Message away!

33. Union: A Guide for Mentors
Do you have questions or feedback?
Send an email to your lead program staff or reach out to our team!