Post: #1

I was talking to a close friend recently who gets world class mentor training through the company he works for. Someone who has already succeeded in his field guides and helps him through his own development. Unfortunately not all of us have such role models available to us.

I think this would be a great idea for the RVF to build each other up and help each other succeed.

How I see it would be someone asks for personal mentoring in one specific area. Someone else who has proven and successful experience in this area helps them out with advice and direction. Certain goals are made and people are expected to track and perform so they don't abuse the mentors time and efforts.

As such I am offering mentoring to someone who either is struggling in the oil sands (or moving here) or is looking to get in shape and/or quit drinking. I know excellent threads on both these subjects already exist but I think one-on-one personal advice can be invaluable. These are two areas I feel that I can offer some valuable advice in.

If they live in Edmonton I will meet them when I am around town to either hit the gym with them or help them with work - whichever their goal. If not I am happy to Skype. I will chose whoever shows the most promise and a commitment to improve themselves.

On the other side I was hoping for someone on here who is older and successful in business/personal development to take me under their wing for 6 months - 1 year. I would ask for specific advice that I don't want to post on the forum and we exchange monthly PMs that track progress based on the advice they give. I would highly respect their time and effort along with great appreciation.

If you wish to either offer or avail of either of these please contact me my PM and I will get back to you.

I was hoping that other people on here could follow suit and either offer help in an area they have proven success in or request help in an area that they are struggling with. I think this could greatly benefit both parties and help people on here to develop strong friendship and personal bonds with each other outside the forums.


If you are looking for me to mentor you please include some info on what you have done so far, where you are at at the moment and what you are hoping to achieve. I won't be judging past failures, the purpose is to see how who is best suited for me to help them.
A well thought out PM shows you respect my time as well as your own. Thanks.

Post: #2

Looking for:

A mentor experienced in the game, and willing to go out and sarge with me. I wouldn't mind flying to where you are in order to get guidance (if you're stateside).

What I can offer:

Expertise in the biotech field. I hold a master's degree in biotech from an Ivy League university, 3 years of experience in genetics research, 2 years of experience in molecular biology research. Currently in medical school, so I can give some knowledge about the field of medicine. Also, I'm willing to help anyone who wants advice on applying to grad/med school.

Post: #3

Whereabouts are ya based edtf so people know if they live near you?

Post: #4

Will trade engineering and game knowledge (Went out for 4-5+ years 2-4 times a week) for business advice. I suck at business and want to learn.

Post: #5

I'm based in the southwest US, please PM me if you're interested

Post: #6

This is great idea. In 2015 I made it a point to seek out more mentorship. Come February I'll be moving back out to the east coast, PA to be exact to get into the oil and gas industry. I'm an engineer looking to move up, but I'm looking for entry into the industry in any way whether that be operator post or starting engineering post. If any cats on here are working out in the Marcellus Shale and are willing to take on a mentee for career advice, I'm looking for someone.

Great threads recently Atlantic.

Post: #7

I could really use help with WordPress. I know there are tons of tutorials online, but I have trouble piecing it all together. If someone in Chicago would be willing to help a brother out it would be much appreciated. Although I work in a decidedly non-technical field, I could hopefully provide some value in return.

Post: #8

(12-12-2014 03:39 PM)jake1720 Wrote:  Will trade engineering and game knowledge (Went out for 4-5+ years 2-4 times a week) for business advice. I suck at business and want to learn.

Have you checked out my Accounting thread? I can help you with Accounting/Finance concepts as well (College work and real life work) Feel free to PM me.

I also can help anyone else that's thinking about joining the military (Navy especially).

And I could always use game advice.

Post: #9

I'd be keen for a mentor. I'm doing pretty okay at the moment would be good to get someone with some knowledge to give me some advice.

Post: #10

Firstly awesome idea OP.

@thirty-six - im not a pro but I could probably help you with wordpress if you are a complete beginner.

Im looking for a mentor in copywriting or css, also if anyone is a mobile app developer I could use some advice on something.

Pm me

Post: #11

This idea definitely appeals to me.

Is there anyone based in London who would be willing to consider mentoring?

Post: #12

I'm in my early 20s.
I've been around the forum forever.
Game, Travel, Money Ect.

I know there are a bunch of other young guys on the forum.
If you have potential and are really putting in work.. I have no problem being a peer mentor to guys my age

Post: #13

(12-21-2014 12:16 PM)Cobra Wrote:  

(12-12-2014 03:39 PM)jake1720 Wrote:  Will trade engineering and game knowledge (Went out for 4-5+ years 2-4 times a week) for business advice. I suck at business and want to learn.

Have you checked out my Accounting thread? I can help you with Accounting/Finance concepts as well (College work and real life work) Feel free to PM me.

I also can help anyone else that's thinking about joining the military (Navy especially).

And I could always use game advice.

Shoot me a PM. Maybe you can help my brother with the Navy. I think he's going nuke or cryto if he can't get nuke.

I can shoot you game advice. I went out with a lot of extremely good RSD guys for a long time. Stopped going out because my finances started to take a hit.

Let me rephrase: I know everything about a lot of things, except money making. This I suck at.

Stuff I am good at:

-Engineering - this includes calc and all those other bullshit engineering classes
-Game
-Nootropics (This was a fun period of my life)
-College life. What to do and not to do. Fraternities (lived in a frat house for 2 years) and more.
-Health (had a fun/terrifying 2 1/2 year journey...)
-Travel

ALSO***: I'm studying petroleum engineering (5th year. Few internships in industry) with most of my friends in oil. So if anyone needs to know anything about the oil industry (or petro engineering) I can most likely help out.

Stuff I am terrible at: Business, sales, Marketing (Mostly copywriting) and the art of making money. Sadly you need money to survive.

Overall business and how to sell/make money. if anyone wants to discuss this I can talk about the above for hours.

Post: #14

Who are the best guys on here for advice on starting a website for a product (not game related).
YMG has given me some great advice before but I am wondering who else I can also talk to?
I am more looking to be pointed in the right direction rather than specific advice.

Post: #15

.......

Post: #16

How to design and subcontract the building of a website that offers a service connecting two parties for a percentage price of one parties service.

I have the concept but I want to know how to mold that and communicate it effectively to a design team.

Similar concepts would be Uber or AirBnb but this is in a completely unrelated niche.

I don't mind PMs either but if you feel comfortable post it up here.

Post: #17

.......

Post: #18

(04-20-2015 02:46 PM)Atlantic Wrote:  Who are the best guys on here for advice on starting a website for a product (not game related).
YMG has given me some great advice before but I am wondering who else I can also talk to?
I am more looking to be pointed in the right direction rather than specific advice.

(04-20-2015 02:46 PM)Atlantic Wrote:  How to design and subcontract the building of a website that offers a service connecting two parties for a percentage price of one parties service.

I have the concept but I want to know how to mold that and communicate it effectively to a design team.

Similar concepts would be Uber or AirBnb but this is in a completely unrelated niche.

I don't mind PMs either but if you feel comfortable post it up here.

I just found this thread, but Atlantic feel free to hit me up about this.

I have been doing exactly this type of work for a bit now. I've made every mistake that there is to make, so now I know what to do, what not to do, and most importantly how to execute these types of projects.

Happy to chat about this stuff whenever.

Post: #19

Your timing is perfect.

I will be in touch shortly with some details. Very much appreciated BlurredSevens.

Post: #20

Great idea.

A business minded mentor could help guide me into freelancing or starting a remote business.

Post: #21

(04-21-2015 05:28 PM)Atlantic Wrote:  How to design and subcontract the building of a website that offers a service connecting two parties for a percentage price of one parties service.

I have the concept but I want to know how to mold that and communicate it effectively to a design team.

Similar concepts would be Uber or AirBnb but this is in a completely unrelated niche.

I don't mind PMs either but if you feel comfortable post it up here.

This is an area I've done a lot in. Kind of go across the stack - idea, marketing, building the damn thing. Like to do the initial prototype myself, then bring in folks I trust for important parts, and parts I manage extremely well as contractors.

So, similar dealio.

# High level options

You basically have two main routes:
1) Contract out to highly skilled, super expensive, well known development firms (think $75k+). They handle everything.
2) Manage it yourself.

#2 is the thing that builds skills, and doesn't leave you playing cargo cult.

# Learning enough to manage/not get ripped off

Think the most important thing here is to just decide to get a little technical. Otherwise, you'll get continuously taken for a ride. If you don't have the capability to do a job yourself, it's super hard to contract that out to lower-wage workers. You won't know when an estimate is ridiculous, when you're handed bad work, or how to fix something in a pinch.

And, if it works, you'll be continuously dependent on other folks to keep the site up, if there's an issue.

So, I'd recommend just taking a few weeks and doing something like http://www.teamtreehouse.com or a competitor of theirs. They have awesome zero to one courses on learning to code a bit.

# Starting the project
Once you've completed a few of their courses, including the web design one, then sketch out what you want, and write out a spec for what you want (google "Product Management" and read up a bunch, happy to provide resources).

Elance is then your best bet. For both design and development, look for people ~$25-30/hour who are individuals, in Eastern Europe. You want someone who's skilled in a low wage country (they're charging a lot for where they are), not someone who's low skilled in a high wage country. Look for portfolios that are sound natural, who seem like they are REALLY into what they do.

From there, work with the designer on mockups, and then have the developer implement those. With your newfound baseline on tech/coding, ask questions of the developer on their decisions. Make sure you understand the code you're getting back, line by line. Don't put anything out there that's a block box, or it'll eat your face when you least expect it.

# Basically...

No silver bullets, but really taking time to do the basic "get your feet wet" is probably the most important thing you can do to make this work. After that, things will be a lot more fun, you'll learn a lot more, and it'll be way easier to manage your contractors.

Any more specific questions around it, here to answer them/help out. Figure this is one area I can totally be of help on the forum, and I'm happy to.

Post: #22

Can cosign ^ on Europeans having good work ethic and possibly you should use a freelancer from there or north america. After dealing with freelancers on odesk and elance, there's a few pieces of advice I have (and it probably applies to full time staff as well - just haven't gotten to that point yet.)

- Don't create a posting and wait to see who replies. Create the posting, make it private and then vet a smaller list of people that are your ideal freelancers.
- look at similar projects and try and come up with a fair price, nothing too low or high.
- Freelancers don't have to be THE MOST expensive... But I'd go at least in the top 10% of what the charge. You're paying for value and experience.

Figure out your minimum viable product. Maybe try approaching potential customers in the arena prior to development if possible to see if you can generate interest (or better yet prepaid clients to cover some Dev cost)

Post: #23

(05-29-2015 10:25 PM)BlurredSevens Wrote:  

(04-20-2015 02:46 PM)Atlantic Wrote:  Who are the best guys on here for advice on starting a website for a product (not game related).
YMG has given me some great advice before but I am wondering who else I can also talk to?
I am more looking to be pointed in the right direction rather than specific advice.

(04-20-2015 02:46 PM)Atlantic Wrote:  How to design and subcontract the building of a website that offers a service connecting two parties for a percentage price of one parties service.

I have the concept but I want to know how to mold that and communicate it effectively to a design team.

Similar concepts would be Uber or AirBnb but this is in a completely unrelated niche.

I don't mind PMs either but if you feel comfortable post it up here.

I just found this thread, but Atlantic feel free to hit me up about this.

I have been doing exactly this type of work for a bit now. I've made every mistake that there is to make, so now I know what to do, what not to do, and most importantly how to execute these types of projects.

Happy to chat about this stuff whenever.

This is timely, I've been prototyping an idea along these lines. I'll PM y'all.

Post: #24

Does anyone know the legality of 'add on' apps. An example would be 'tools for tinder' which does auto swiping.

How does this app get away with: 1) using Tinders name in their name and 2) also be allowed to automate certain features on tinder such as auto swiping through profiles?

Post: #25

(06-05-2015 12:42 PM)Atlantic Wrote:  Does anyone know the legality of 'add on' apps. An example would be 'tools for tinder' which does auto swiping.

How does this app get away with: 1) using Tinders name in their name and 2) also be allowed to automate certain features on tinder such as auto swiping through profiles?

Do you know who owns "tools for tinder"? It could be Tinder exposes APIs to allow auto swiping. Or they just hacked into the OS itself a bit. They could also have looked at how the Tinder app talks to the Tinder servers and it responds just like the Tinder app to the server. This would be the first place to look.

As for the use of the copyright, they may be using a fair-use argument. They would claim that "Tools for Tinder" cannot be confused with Tinder itself and that the name is so well known that "tools for tinder" is different. Like writing an app called "Tinder for Windows" when Windows is a Microsoft copyright.