Unified Startup Enablement & Growth Platform

The Right Expert at the Right Stage — On Demand

Mentor Marketplace is a curated directory of domain experts, fractional advisors, and industry mentors — matched to your company stage, sector, and strategic challenge. Unlike general mentorship networks, every expert on the platform is vetted for startup relevance: they've either built companies themselves, led functions at high-growth startups, or have deep domain expertise in areas founders most need help with.

The platform goes beyond a directory. Smart matching surfaces the 5 most relevant experts for your current challenge. Integrated scheduling lets you book sessions directly. And the engagement tracker captures outcomes, action items, and relationship history so your advisory network compounds over time.

Expert Directory: Browse by specialisation, industry, stage experience, and availability
Smart Matching: AI-powered matching based on your stage, sector, and current strategic challenge
Session Booking: Integrated calendar and payment — book, pay, and prepare in one flow
Engagement Tracker: Session notes, action items, outcomes, and relationship history in one place

Expert Categories on the Platform

Expert Type	What They Offer	Best For Stage	Typical Arrangement
Domain Expert Functional	Deep expertise in your specific industry — ex-CTO, CMO, CFO, or industry veteran with 15+ years in your domain. Process playbooks, domain-specific networks, vendor relationships.	Idea through Series A — building core domain competency	Advisory equity 0.1–0.5% over 2 years; some work pro bono for equity/impact
Investor-Mentor Capital + Guidance	Active angel investor or VC partner. Provides capital + credibility signal + warm investor introductions + fundraising strategy. Helps position for institutional rounds.	Pre-seed to Seed — when fundraising credibility matters most	Equity as part of investment round; typically CCPS at angel valuation
Operator-Mentor Builder	Founder or senior operator who scaled a similar business. Execution playbooks for hiring, product iteration, GTM, and ops. Introductions to their talent and customer networks.	Seed through Series A — scaling from 10 to 150 people	Advisory equity 0.1–0.3%; some operators give time free to pay it forward
Fractional Executive Part-time C-Suite	Experienced CFO, CTO, CMO, or CHRO available part-time. Fills a critical leadership gap without a full-time hire. Can transition to full-time if the relationship works.	Pre-Series A — when you need senior function leadership but can't afford full-time	Monthly retainer ₹50K–₹3L; small equity 0.1–0.5%; 2–3 days/week commitment
Technical Advisor Architecture & Infra	Ex-CTO or VP Engineering who scaled engineering from 5 to 50. Architecture reviews, hiring bar setting, DevOps and security posture, SOC 2 readiness guidance.	All stages — architecture decisions made early are expensive to reverse	Quarterly deep reviews; monthly check-ins; advisory equity 0.15–0.25%

Smart Matching — How It Works

What the Algorithm Considers

Your stage: Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, Series B — matching weights change at each stage (investor-mentors prioritised at pre-seed; operator-mentors at Series A)
Your sector: SaaS, D2C, FinTech, HealthTech, AgriTech, EdTech — matched to mentors who have built or operated in the same category
Your current challenge: Fundraising, product-market fit, team building, scaling GTM, compliance, M&A — matched to mentors with demonstrated track records on that specific challenge
Geographic relevance: India-based mentors with India-specific regulatory, distribution, and market knowledge prioritised; global mentors surfaced for international expansion challenges

Session Preparation Checklist

Send a 1-page brief to your mentor 48 hours before the session: company context, the specific challenge, and 3 questions you want answered
Include relevant data: MRR, churn, CAC — whatever metrics are relevant to the session topic
Come with your hypothesis, not a blank question — "I've considered A, B, and C. Here's my current thinking. Where am I wrong?" is 10× more productive than "what should I do?"
Define the one outcome you want: a framework, an introduction, a decision, or a perspective shift

                Advisory Equity Guidelines (India Market Standard)
                Idea Stage: 0.5–1.0% over 2 years, 3-month cliff — for advisors who shape the business model
Startup Stage (Seed): 0.25–0.5% over 2 years — for advisors actively making introductions and reviewing strategy
Growth Stage (Series A+): 0.1–0.25% over 2 years — for advisors providing specific domain expertise
Passive Advisors: 0.05–0.1% — for brand association with minimal active contribution
Always use a formal Advisory Agreement with IP assignment, NDA, and non-compete clauses — verbal equity agreements create cap table disputes

            

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Mentor Marketplace different from the Mentorship module? +

The Mentorship module gives you access to Corpfy's in-house advisory sessions and connects you with the general mentorship network. Mentor Marketplace is a full marketplace — a curated directory of vetted external domain experts, fractional executives, and investor-mentors with integrated booking, payment, and smart matching. Use Mentorship for general startup guidance. Use Mentor Marketplace when you need a specific expert with specific credentials for a specific challenge.

How are experts vetted before joining the platform? +

Every expert goes through a 3-step vetting process: (1) Background verification — LinkedIn, company history, and references checked against claimed credentials; (2) Domain assessment — a structured interview with Corpfy's advisory board to validate depth of expertise; (3) Trial session — new experts complete a trial session with a Corpfy test founder before being listed publicly. Experts maintain a minimum 4.2/5 session rating to remain on the platform.

What should I do if a mentor asks for equity before providing any value? +

This is a significant red flag. Legitimate advisors earn equity over time through demonstrated value — introductions made, decisions improved, problems solved. Any advisor asking for equity in the first conversation before providing any guidance should not be engaged. Standard practice: propose a 3-month paid trial (₹10,000–₹25,000/session) before any equity discussion. If they decline, they value the equity more than helping you. Mentor Marketplace advisors are contractually prohibited from requesting upfront equity before a minimum 2-session engagement.

How does the engagement tracker help beyond individual sessions? +

The Engagement Tracker converts one-off sessions into compounding relationships. It stores session notes, action items with due dates, outcomes (what you did with the advice), and relationship history across all your advisors. This creates three benefits: (1) You always have context before a session so you never repeat background; (2) You can show advisors the impact of their previous advice — this keeps them engaged; (3) In due diligence, you can demonstrate structured, disciplined use of external expertise — investors value founders who seek and act on good counsel.

Key Takeaways for Mentor Marketplace

Build a board of advisors that covers your three biggest blind spots — not your strengths:

The most common advisory board mistake is recruiting people who validate what you already believe. A founder strong in product and engineering who recruits a product advisor and a tech advisor gets expensive confirmation bias. Map your 3 biggest capability gaps (usually: enterprise sales, regulatory compliance, and international expansion at Series A) and recruit advisors with demonstrated track records in exactly those areas. Limit your advisory board to 5–6 people to maintain accountability — more than 6 dilutes the relationship quality.

Warm introductions from advisors are worth more than cold outreach — structure for them explicitly:

The single highest-value output of an advisor relationship is a warm introduction — to an investor, an enterprise customer, a key hire, or a strategic partner. Research consistently shows warm introductions convert at 10–20× the rate of cold outreach. When structuring your advisory relationship, make introductions an explicit deliverable: "I'd like 3 warm introductions to Series A investors in your network over the next 6 months." Advisors who won't commit to introductions should receive proportionally less equity.

The 30/60/90 day follow-up ritual is what separates active from passive advisors:

At day 30: send a brief update showing what you implemented from their advice and the early results. At day 60: share a milestone achieved and ask one follow-up question. At day 90: request the next formal session with a new 1-page brief on where you are now. This ritual does three things: it proves you value their time, it gives them an emotional stake in your success (because they can see their advice working), and it creates the natural cadence for long-term engagement. Advisors who don't receive this follow-up typically disengage within 3 months.

Inside Corpfy Mentor Marketplace

Existing mentorship platforms — GrowthMentor, MentorCruise, Clarity.fm — connect founders to advisors well but have no context about your actual company situation. You book a session and spend the first 20 minutes giving the mentor context that Corpfy already has. Corpfy's Mentor Marketplace changes this: your KPI signals, active challenges, and compliance status are visible to the mentor before the call begins.

Industry tools and what Corpfy does differently

Capability	Industry standard	Corpfy advantage
Mentor Discovery	GrowthMentor — filter by topic, geography	Mentor Match Score — algorithm matches your current KPI signals and active challenges to mentors with demonstrated track records on exactly that problem
Session Notes	Notion / personal notes — no structure, no accountability	Structured session template (challenge → advice → actions → follow-up) stored in Corpfy Knowledge Base — searchable across all sessions
Action Accountability	MentorCruise — self-reported check-ins	Actions committed in session auto-appear in your Corpfy OKR tracker — completion tracked without a separate workflow
Compliance Experts	Not available on any existing mentorship platform	CERT-In empanelled VAPT vendors, CA firms, CS firms, and legal counsels bookable directly from Corpfy's audit and compliance pages — same platform, no context switch
India Expert Network	iSPIRT — community-based, not structured for booking	Verified mentors from IIT/IIM alumni, YC India, SaaSBoomi — with India-specific expertise flags for DPDPA, RBI, GST, and SEBI domains