February 13, 2005 7:25 PM

Mentoring in perfect harmony
Posted by Colin Moorat 7:25 PM

Finding a mentor for most professionals is usually a serendipitous accident. However, Pepi Sappal, in her column in the CareerJournal, writes about a Cherokee Indian from the Bronx and a venture capitalist from the South who formed a mentoring relationship that produced a substantial ROI.

"I saw my mentor as my guiding light in business and finance," says Mountainbear, a Cherokee from the New York Bronx. Specifically, he was looking for someone who could show him the ropes in the venture-capital business.

Bill Lyman, general partner at Alliance Technology Ventures, an Atlanta venture-capital firm, fit the bill perfectly.

Lyman, 40, had once had a mentor himself, arranged through a Kauffman Fellowship from the Center for Venture Education in 1999. His mentor had helped him break into the venture-capital field, and so he had an appreciation of the value of mentors.