It's 8:30 AM in Palo Alto and I'm skyping with the CEO of Lean On, Chedva Kleinhandler, who is telling me about her new mobile mentoring app for women. On the screen appears an elegant, well-spoken, dark-haired woman dressed for business even though it's already nighttime at her home near Tel Aviv. Fully bilingual in English and Hebrew, with a background as a translator and social media marketer, Ms. Kleinhandler is ready to connect.
The Lean On demo she shows me is impressive. With a crisp, easy-to-use interface, you can search the app to find women mentors to advise you at work. Choose to either search for a topic (like "speaking up" or "work-life balance") and get community-curated tips, or - write your own question and get a list of mentors who are both available right now and relevant to your specific question. After you pick one of them, you'll jump into a 1:1 chat conversation with her - immediately and privately.
When I try my questions about assembling a team, working on pitches, and asking for raises, I find there are a dozen mentors in my timezone who would be available to chat with me immediately and in real time.
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