Mentorkind: Social Impact Entrepreneurship - Diversity Mentorship Happy Hour

Are you looking for a mentor who will take your career or startup to the next level? Join us at Runway on April 5th for an exclusive evening mixer and become a mentor or a protégé in our pilot program. We will open with a fireside chat and Q & A with Angela Mason, former executive director of PINCC. Angela has over 20 years of experience in the non-profit space and will be speaking on the need for mentorship for diversity in social impact organizations. 15 mentors from our platform representing design, code, data science, and entrepreneurship will be there to meet you in person. 
If you are a woman or minority-identifying individual who would like to find a one-on-one career mentor or be a mentor yourself, we welcome you to apply to our formal program here: program application. Feel free to email any questions to [email protected]
About Mentorkind:
Mentorkind is a goal-oriented mentorship platform focused on bridging the career and knowledge gaps of professional women and minorities by connecting them with top mentors in the tech industry. We serve a group of diverse young women and minorities working in the bay area tech industry. 
Industry reports show that mentored employee gets promoted 5x faster than unmentored employees, and that women and minorities have diminished access to mentorship and miss the boat on better career opportunties. This is why our mission is to elevate 2 million careers in tech by 2020 by helping our protégés achieve career milestones under the guidance of mentors.
About Angela:


Angela has devoted her life to being an advocate for suffering people and has traveled the world on humanitarian missions. She has walked over land mines, been shot at, held babies orphaned by AIDS, met child soldiers and walked into prisons, brothels and sweat shops where children are abused and exploited.
She is an award-winning speaker. Through her compelling presentations, sprinkled with stories, humor and possibilities, Angela motivates audiences to make a difference in their world. She frequently talks about “Hope in Impossible Places.”
Angela was an actress in her native Great Britain before moving to San Francisco where she became a highly successful executive recruiter. Her life changed in an instant one Friday night in 1990. She was watching TV and was drawn to a segment on 20/20 that exposed horrific conditions in Romanian orphanages. Orphans were dying because no one was holding them. She soon swapped the corporate life for the nonprofit world and never looked back.
Since then she has poured herself into humanitarian work, started two highly successful non-profits, and spent 20 years with World Vision. She is particularly passionate about the lives of women and girls, interviewing midwives in Afghanistan, soap makers in Mali, seamstresses in Guatemala, and fruit pickers in Papua New Guinea.
Over the years, Angela has convinced TV news crews in the Bay Area to join her on many trips to make documentaries bringing attention to injustices such as the genocide in Rwanda, which won the coveted Edward R. Murrow Award for CBS.
Through Angela's cheerful determination, she has produced award-winning documentaries about Bosnia, Romania, the Asia Tsunami, the sexual exploitation of children in Thailand, child soldiers in Northern Uganda, the HIV and AIDS pandemic, maternal and infant mortality in Sierra Leone, and the crisis of clean water and environmental waste in Africa.
Angela received the Soroptimist International Award for “Women Helping Women,” the CBS/San Francisco Chronicle “Jefferson Award” and the ABC/Johnson & Johnson “Remarkable Woman Award” presented on the morning show The View.
She is an active Rotarian, Soroptimist, and serves on the Executive Committee of the United Nations Association, East Bay. Angela lives in Richmond, California, with her patient husband and cheerful little dog!

Attending Mentors:

Sysamone Phaphon is the founder CEO of FilmHero as well as the founder of the professional women empowerment group Women Supporting Women. Groupeezz is a social platform centered around Filmmakers movie screening events and focused on helping filmmakers monetize & license efficiently in a evolving digital economy. Her mission is to help filmmakers spark dialogue & call to action for social impact thru their film.  
Sysamone is also a natural leader and fluent in win-win negotiation. She has been featured in Inc, Girls in Tech, and as an Influencer with the Lao Entrepreneur Magazine for the Laotian American National Alliance.


Brandon Richardson is Cofounder and CTO of Aperia Technologies, which is a partner with Michelin and received series C funding last year. Aperia is currently hiring mechanical engineers with transportation experience.
Brandon is experienced in all phases of product development, from product strategy definition through production ramp. According to the man himself, he is energized by "impossible" challenges.


Gabriella Cook is the Founder of St. Gabe, a cutting-edge Business Strategy and Marketing Consultancy. She works with diverse startup founders and is an active member of the LatinX and women entrepreneur communities.
Her company Saint Gabe creates business strategies for startups, companies, and individuals. With a focus on marketing, operations, and sustainable growth, Saint Gabe develops cohesive strategies that optimize business performance, attracts customers, and most importantly; builds authentic marketplace communities. Saint Gabe also works with social enterprise "businaries" interested in the business as mission movement. BAM leverages for-profit business products and services in order to create meaningful impact for individuals, their families, and society.

More mentors to be Announced...Stay tuned!