It all started over coffee with my old friend Kat Bury, the CEO of The Human Edge. We were at some conference or other – I can’t even remember which country we were in. Pollinate Impact had just launched (and, between you and me, we really didn’t know what we were doing quite yet!), working overtime to establish a network that would support our members and help shift the ecosystem so that incubators'Incubator' refers to any organization whose programs primarily focus on vetting and selecting, promising social enterprises, and providing them with a comprehensive range of support services aimed at building and growing them to achieve maximum sustainable impact. sat at the centre, rather than an afterthought as they were then, with a unified voice.
While the details like which conference and which country are hazy, our conversation was anything but! Kat and I dived into the challenges facing the impact incubation industry: talent gaps, high turnover, limited career growth…the list went on and over that cup of coffee—or wine (honestly, details get blurry!), Kat and I cooked up an idea for a mentoring programme built to lift up the real heroes of these incubators'Incubator' refers to any organization whose programs primarily focus on vetting and selecting, promising social enterprises, and providing them with a comprehensive range of support services aimed at building and growing them to achieve maximum sustainable impact.: the staff!
Never mind the entrepreneurs—if incubators'Incubator' refers to any organization whose programs primarily focus on vetting and selecting, promising social enterprises, and providing them with a comprehensive range of support services aimed at building and growing them to achieve maximum sustainable impact. can’t retain and develop their own people, how on earth can we expect them to work wonders with the founders they support?
What you need to know about Kat is that she has forever – or at least as long as I’ve known her – been passionate about mentoring. Kat always says, “You have to experience good mentoring to really understand it.”
And so I took her advice and jumped at the chance when I had the opportunity to join The Human Edge‘s mentor training programme.
I was hooked straight away.
It was such an eye-opener!
The aha moments were coming faster than I could keep up.
Suddenly, I understood why our incubator'Incubator' refers to any organization whose programs primarily focus on vetting and selecting, promising social enterprises, and providing them with a comprehensive range of support services aimed at building and growing them to achieve maximum sustainable impact. partners were struggling with things like giving constructive feedback, fostering psychological safety, and shifting from “advice-giver” to “facilitator”.
It wasn’t a skills gap – it was a mindset shift, and you can’t just tick that off in a training session—it takes real practice.
That’s when I knew!
We had to bring this game-changing peer mentoring to our entire incubator'Incubator' refers to any organization whose programs primarily focus on vetting and selecting, promising social enterprises, and providing them with a comprehensive range of support services aimed at building and growing them to achieve maximum sustainable impact. network.
Why? Because talent is the biggie in the impact incubation world—loads of turnover, not enough chances to step up, and a real need for things like giving feedback, building connections, and cheering people on.
And so the work began to launch Catalyst Circle, our peer-mentoring programme. This brainchild of ours was a slow-burn – nearly two years in the making!
We intentionally designed it to cultivate the next generation of incubation leaders. By bringing together a cohort of mid-level staff and equipping them with world-class mentoring capabilities, we’re not just improving individual performance.
We’re creating a multiplier effect that strengthens the entire ecosystem.
Sounds a bit hippy dippy, doesn’t it?
But honestly, these concrete soft skills (yep, an oxymoron!) that these folks are picking up are exactly what real leaders are made of!
And the results speak for themselves.
In a recent impact assessment, we saw mentor competencies skyrocket across the board – with the percentage of participants rating themselves as “Confident” or “Very Confident” nearly doubling from the start of the programme nine months ago.
‘Fluffy’ stuff like giving feedback, asking powerful questions, active listening, and building trust went from nervous afterthoughts to core superpowers.
And as these superpowers were strengthened, we witnessed the real magic in the spaces between the data points.
One participant shared, “I have started thinking of ways I can improve our mentoring programme, to make it less hierarchical and more supportive.”
That’s the kind of transformative, systemic change we’re after.
Because when you give incubator'Incubator' refers to any organization whose programs primarily focus on vetting and selecting, promising social enterprises, and providing them with a comprehensive range of support services aimed at building and growing them to achieve maximum sustainable impact. staff the tools and confidence to be exceptional mentors, it benefits not only their own professional development.
It enhances the quality of support they provide to the entrepreneurs in their programmes.
It strengthens the collaborative bonds between incubators'Incubator' refers to any organization whose programs primarily focus on vetting and selecting, promising social enterprises, and providing them with a comprehensive range of support services aimed at building and growing them to achieve maximum sustainable impact. across the Global South – because partnerships happen between people, not between organisations. We need to meet as humans, recognising that we often struggle with the same challenges.
It amplifies the impact of the entire ecosystem.
You see, when individual incubator'Incubator' refers to any organization whose programs primarily focus on vetting and selecting, promising social enterprises, and providing them with a comprehensive range of support services aimed at building and growing them to achieve maximum sustainable impact. staff develop world-class mentoring capabilities through our Catalyst Circle programme, the benefits reverberate far beyond just their own professional growth.
These skills don’t just stay with them – they get deployed to support hundreds of entrepreneurs every year. And when staff move to other organisations, they take all that mentoring magic with them, strengthening the industry as a whole.
And what’s even more exciting is that peer mentoring doesn’t just boost individual performance.
It is also catalysing organisational and ecosystem-level transformation.
When incubators'Incubator' refers to any organization whose programs primarily focus on vetting and selecting, promising social enterprises, and providing them with a comprehensive range of support services aimed at building and growing them to achieve maximum sustainable impact. have staff who are adept at giving feedback, fostering psychological safety, and shifting from “advice-giver” to “facilitator,” the quality of support they provide to entrepreneurs in their programmes improves.
And as incubators'Incubator' refers to any organization whose programs primarily focus on vetting and selecting, promising social enterprises, and providing them with a comprehensive range of support services aimed at building and growing them to achieve maximum sustainable impact. across a region build these mentoring muscles in parallel, it strengthens the collaborative bonds between them, amplifying the impact of the entire ecosystem.
Basically, Catalyst Circle is growing a new wave of incubation leaders—people who can inspire, empower, and spark impact that keeps on echoing through the whole system.
And honestly, that’s exactly what our theory of change is all about.
Are you an incubation professional ready to unlock your full potential as a mentor and collaborator? If you answered yes, then you belong in the Catalyst Circle programme.
So, take the next step – Apply for our next circle or learn more about our programme by attending our April 28th Information Session.
And for every incubator'Incubator' refers to any organization whose programs primarily focus on vetting and selecting, promising social enterprises, and providing them with a comprehensive range of support services aimed at building and growing them to achieve maximum sustainable impact. CEO out there: back your team’s growth with programmes like the Catalyst Circle. It’s the kind of investment that’ll pay off in ways you never even imagined.
Ready to suit up and make some impact? Let’s do this!
Arielle Molino
Arielle Molino is the Chief Convener of Pollinate Impact. She has 15 years of experience in impact investing, social entrepreneurship, and non-profit sectors in Africa, India, and the United States.
