10 Jun Janice Omadeke: It’s ‘bittersweet’ to join small club of Black female founders who’ve raised more than $1M
The Mentor Method has added several high-profile team members recently
What Janice Omadeke started a few years ago with a PDF and a dream has evolved into a business at the forefront of diversity in tech and one of fewer than 100 startups led by Black women to raise more than $1 million in venture capital funding.
The Mentor Method, which uses a proprietary algorithm to match corporate mentors and mentees, hit that milestone this week by raising a $1.4 million seed round led by several high-profile investors, including Tim Draper‘s Draper Associates, Elsewhere Partners founder Chris Pacitti and Backstage Capital, founded by Arlan Hamilton. Others in on the deal included Alumni Ventures Group, MATH Venture Partners and Sorenson Impact Fund.
“For us, we wanted not just the capital to deploy, but we wanted strategic partners with areas of expertise that filled in gaps on the team that would help us continue scaling at a faster rate,” Omadeke said….
“I really had to make sure that I was taking care of myself,” she said. “Mental health and wellbeing became my top priority so that when I would enter into investor pitches, I was bringing the best possible version of myself. I mean, I remember pitching with no power [during the winter storm and grid failures], and having to say ‘Hey, I’m going to be audio only for this meeting because I’m taking this while charging my phone in my car,’ and thinking about the fact that I haven’t had water in like three days. But you’ve got to do it. You take 10 minutes to get centered, and remind yourself of why and what this will do and why this meeting is important, and you knock it out. You have to do it.”