One Year Since Spinning Out: The Lessons No Playbook Could Have Taught Me
My leadership team and me at our annual retreat in Mexico City.
By Anita Ramachandran, CEO, Micromentor
In just one year, we connected 24,604 entrepreneurs with nearly 6,000 new mentors from 185 countries on Micromentor.
We transitioned from a program nested inside an organization to standing on our own (under a fiscal sponsor).
One year later, this is what the journey has taught us.
We Leaped Because We Were As Ready As We Would Ever Be
When we made the decision to spin out, we were not fully funded. We did not have every resource we would have wanted: far from it. We made tough choices to keep the team lean. But we made the decision to leap because waiting for “perfect” would have meant closing the window of making a meaningful impact and being solvent as a social enterprise.
Frankly, there was a great deal of excitement in that moment, yet, there was also something more complex that was facing us.
For me, April 2nd 2025 was not just an organizational milestone. It was a moment of personal reckoning. I had to ask myself: Am I the right leader for Micromentor? Is this the right thing for me at this point in my career?
Both questions took real soul searching to answer. The process brought me to a place of knowing that allowed me to recommit to the mission and my role. Not out of obligation, but out of genuine belief that it was the right step all around. I was clear that I wanted to work with a technology-driven solution because it has capabilities to create sea change in social impact. I wanted to work at a global scale at the intersection of gender equality and climate change mitigation, contributing to solutions that make a tangible difference in people’s lives.
Most of all I wanted to do this with people I admired, respected, loved and can learn from! All roads led to me realizing I was exactly where I was meant to be. I was confident of the decision.
That said, I was most afraid of repeating lessons we had already learned the hard way. I wanted us to move forward with the wisdom of past experience, without losing the optimism and belief that what we are building actually matters and can change the arc of real people's lives. Mentorship is deeply impactful, and it was critical we did it better, faster, and more efficiently.
The Behind-the-Scenes Work
There is a version of this story I could tell you that is all vision and momentum. And that story is true.
But the fuller story is this: I am learning every day that being a good CEO is equally about the not-so-sexy parts. Building every system brick by brick, spreadsheet by spreadsheet, document by document, meeting by meeting. The big decisions, the relentless focus, the tough conversations, and the details that hold it all together, they’re all part of the territory.
This past year asked me to be two kinds of CEO at once. The external one, out in the world sharing our vision, connecting with funders and partners, elevating our story and our impact. And the internal one, making sure our house was built in such a way that our team, who is brilliant and committed, had all the right ingredients to do their best work.
It meant building a clear strategy, an operating system that works and resources that enable rather than constrain. And through all of it, keeping the entrepreneurial spirit alive, the scrappiness of getting a lot more done in a finite period of time, with fewer resources than we would want.
Why We Do It: Karim’s Story
Karim working on a patient at his dental clinic in Guinea.
Every person's story at Micromentor matters. Every mentor connection, every breakthrough conversation, and every entrepreneur who found the clarity or confidence to take the next step and saw one small (or big) moment of success, those are the reasons this organization exists.
But no impact stat or report truly captures the ripple effect of this work. And when we can see it all come to life in a full circle moment, it's worth sharing with the world. The story of Karim is one such moment.
About nine years ago, an entrepreneur named Karim joined Micromentor. He found his mentor, Brian, on our platform. And from that connection, he built the first nonprofit dental clinic in Guinea, outside Conakry, providing much-needed healthcare to a community that had never seen anything like it. He created a financially sustainable social enterprise model that was entirely new in his context. He hired community members. He built a practice that touched many lives. This work not only inspired him, but also compelled him to do more. He decided to add vision care, expand the medical offering, and eventually hopes to replicate the entire model across Africa.
When I say the impact of Micromentor or the role of mentoring is never truly seen in its full glory, I mean it. Here is a snapshot of how Karim and the clinic is making a difference in his community:
9,366
patients benefiting from free care just in 2025
23
new jobs created to operate the clinic
~400
children from orphanages receiving free care
The ripple effects on individual and family health, wellbeing, economic opportunity, and prosperity for Karim and his community—and the generational impact of all of it, are what make my decision to do this work feel like a no-brainer.
To bring this full circle, I was delighted when Karim invited me to join the board of directors of his organization that wants to expand care and replicate the model across Africa. It’s an honor I do not take for granted.
This is what Micromentor actually does. Our work is not just an outcome in an impact report. The long-term, sustained change in a person's life, in their family, in their community, and in the many lives that get touched when a meaningful human connection is made and nurtured over years.
This is the entire reason we exist.
What Is Actually Different Today
I want to give you the real ledger, not a glamorous narrative.
One year in, Micromentor has a clear, focused 10-year vision and strategy. We have one-year and three-year goalposts that the team is actually executing against, not just aspiring toward. We have a new operating system in place anchored by two North Star targets, quarterly priorities, and clear KPIs. And we have a team jazzed by this new rhythm of execution.
Our platform has a new back-end, and an iOS, Android and progressive web app (thank you, Google.org), with a product and engineering team capable of regular, quality releases (thank you, M.J. Murdock Trust). We have a B2B offering that meets the market where it is (our Mentorship-as-a-Service offering is resonating with many types of organizations working with entrepreneurs) . We have partners and customers who are happy (thank you, EBRD, Orange Corners, and Mastercard to name a few). We have a vision to increase revenue for the entrepreneurs we serve and we have results that back it up. And I give more heartfelt thanks to Allan and Gill Gray Philanthropies and eBay Foundation for their trust in our mission and team.
In 2025, 42.4% of mentored entrepreneurs reported revenue growth, double that of non-mentored entrepreneurs.
None of this happened by accident. It happened because a small team, dedicated supporters, made hard choices and stayed focused.
Here's What We Know for Sure
If I were having coffee with you or you were curious about Micromentor as a funder, partner, supporter, or someone who believes in what entrepreneurial ecosystems can do for the world, here’s what you won’t find in a pitch deck or impact report.
At Micromentor we use a breakthrough mindset. That means breakdowns are inevitable. We are not afraid to try and fail. And we fail often. That has been our best teacher.
We pick ourselves up. We don’t let ego get in the way. We adjust. We make the changes, and we move ahead. We have difficult conversations. We look at ourselves critically. And we hold ourselves to a standard that is higher than anyone else can hold us to.
I believe it’s the only way to build an organization that’s relevant for a rapidly changing world and one that creates meaningful, lasting impact in people’s lives.
One year in. Many more to come!
If you’re equally fired up, let's talk. We're looking for partners to help build sustainable livelihoods for hardworking people all over the world. Connect with me here: emailanita@micromentor.org.
