Everything wrong with OpenMentor

Tl;dr: Please leave their platform / telegram groups ASAP. If you’re part of their platform, you’re contributing to the very problem they claim to be solving.

A couple of weeks ago, a group of students started out with an ambitious goal: to build the largest network of mentors in Singapore.

In their own words:

I’m going to try and explain why I think they have ulterior motives and why you should stay as far away from this as possible.

Here’s what they’ve been doing for the past couple of weeks:

1. They were giving away hundreds of dollars worth of prizes (e.g. concert tickets) if you signed up on their platform / shared their LinkedIn post / whatever. The typical growth hacks used by “hot” companies to get users (and money). (Importantly, this is supposed to be a mentorship community, not a startup. They have not openly declared any intent to monetize it — instead they pretend to be doing this for the greater good!)
2. They say “it’s not about the numbers” but then the founder goes on to create 2-3 profiles of himself as a mentor (presumably to boost the number of mentor profiles on the platform)

Their pitch to mentors is (verbatim):

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"Hi! We’d love to invite you to join as a mentor on OpenMentor.ai — a student platform connecting mentees and mentors.

What we ask from you:

- Just 10 seconds to sign up OpenMentor.ai (no most updated resume required)

- 10 minutes a week to answer student questions (flexible)

- Accept or decline mentee requests via email — no obligation

What you get:

- get exclusive job opportunities from top recruiters

- recognized for your impact

- direct network with other mentors"

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If all this does not ring loud, bright-red alarm bells in your head, something’s wrong.

Maybe I’m just naive, but I thought a mentorship community was supposed to benefit the mentees the most, not the mentors? But no, clearly, the focus of this platform is on getting as many people to join their platform as possible (which is why the emphasis is on “flexible” commitments, “no obligation” and the promise of job opportunities, recognition and networking benefits). [1]

Why are mentors being given (or even promised) “exclusive job opportunities from top recruiters”?? Does this help to “uncook” the job market or “cook” it even more??

He claims that it’s hard to get internship without networking and referrals. But rather than trying to change this, he is building a platform that promotes such exclusivity. His goal is not to stop gatekeeping, but to try to funnel it through his platform.

Creating a new platform for people to ask for referrals and network just encourages more people to do this, making it more important for other people to do this, and reinforces the problem instead of solving it. Shouldn’t this be obvious??

Let me be clear: their community is not about genuine relationships, growth, or support; it’s about assembling a database of ambitious individuals (mostly mentors), branding it as “curated,” and eventually flipping it for profit by selling access to recruiters.

But what’s most insidious to me is how they’re sullying what mentorship really means. 

Mentorship is not, and has never been, about handing someone a referral. It’s about guidance, honesty, and real investment in someone’s growth. It requires time and trust. Reducing mentorship to a transactional stepping stone for job access is not just shallow — it’s a betrayal of the very concept.

Referrals without real relationships are worse than meaningless — they're scams dressed up as networking. When someone vouches for a person they barely know, they aren't offering a genuine endorsement — they're outsourcing trust without accountability! This undermines the very purpose of a referral, which is supposed to be based on firsthand knowledge and credibility. [2]

What you can do instead

First of all: please don’t enable them. The only way they can make this dystopian scheme of “referrals and recruitment under the guise of mentorship” come true is if enough people believe it.

If you already signed up as a mentor / mentee, delete your profile and ask them to delete your resume and all personal data from their database immediately (they are obligated to do this else they’re in violation of PDPA rules and liable to be sued).

And don’t stay in their telegram group either! Every member they retain becomes another number in their pitch deck, another justification for monetization. Don’t let your good intentions be co-opted for someone else’s gain.

No, I’m serious. Go and do this before continuing the rest of this post.

Building a community takes time. Growing a community takes time. Maintaining the culture you want within a community takes time. Good things take time! 

NUS Hackers has been running a career mentorship program over the summer for the past few years now. It’s completely free. Neither the organisers nor the mentors get anything out of it, other than the warm, fuzzy feeling of having helped someone else. Mentees get feedback on their resume, career advice, and mock interview practice.

“but then why would anyone sign up as a mentor?

They want mentors who genuinely care about helping others through this program, not themselves. That’s precisely why they don’t give mentors any benefits! It’s a feature of a self-selective process, not a bug.

Final thoughts

I respect ambition. I respect entrepreneurship. But what I don’t respect — in fact, what I actively reject — is ambition that hides behind a mask of community-building. There’s a dangerous trend where people market themselves as builders of collective good, when in reality, they’re cultivating personal brands, influence, or capital under the guise of inclusivity and togetherness. It’s disingenuous at best, manipulative at worst.

These are not community leaders — they’re opportunists in sheep’s clothing, leveraging the language of solidarity to cloak their self-serving motives. And when incentives reward this kind of behaviour, we shouldn't be surprised when the outcomes are hollow, extractive, and unsustainable.

And the funniest thing about all of this is that they started off with this idea as part of a “Build for Good” hackathon. LOL.

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[1] I think giving your mentors a token of appreciation to thank them for helping is one thing, but it needs to be proportional to their work (actually, slightly less than proportional, so the primary motivation remains “helping others” and not “getting a token of appreciation”).

[2] Companies should also play their part in making sure their employees submit high-quality referrals by tracking statistics on past referred candidates and seeing if they were actually good. (right now, many companies pay employees a fixed amount per referred candidate who joins the company — it’s no surprise then that employees just give referrals to every tom, dick and harry to maximize their earnings, at the cost of their integrity.)