Mentorship Program for
Ethnically Diverse Entrepreneurs

(2025-6 Cohort)

Join our community of entrepreneurs

Foundation for Shared Impact’s annual mentorship program for ethnically diverse entrepreneurs is calls for mentees, mentors, and coaches from diverse backgrounds in Hong Kong.

Through a series of high-quality mentoring and coaching, training, and workshops, FSI will assist budding and growing entrepreneurs to build their capacity, develop personal and professional skills, and to scale their businesses.

Click here to read about our 2024-5 cohort!

Application Currently Closed

Application for 2025-6 cohort of the program has closed for both mentees and mentors.
For any questions, please contact Vivian Seo at vivian@shared-impact.com.

Become a mentee

This program is for you if you are:
  • An aspiring or budding entrepreneur new in your journey (0-3 years) in growing your business
  • Feeling quite lost or lonely in your journey, looking for mentors and coaches who can provide you with guidance and practical advice
  • Looking for a supportive community of like-minded entrepreneurs from multicultural backgrounds
  • Committed, driven, and serious in your entrepreneurial journey
  • Interested in making a positive contribution to the society through your business
  • Interested in learning about diverse business areas such as strategy, funding, marketing, and storytelling

Priorities are given to self-employed individuals, solopreneurs, and other under-resourced entrepreneurs from ethnically diverse backgrounds.

As a mentee you will gain access to:
  • 1:1 mentorship (no less than 10 hours) from an FSI-trained mentor with the relevant skills and experience that match your needs
  • 4 professional coaching sessions from ICF-certified coach
  • Business consultations and direct business support from the FSI team
  • 8 cohort sessions to gain entrepreneurial knowledge and to build your network
  • Access to a platform to seek pro-bono legal support for your business
  • A robust community of like-minded entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds
  • A certificate of completion for the mentorship journey

HK$ 1,500 deposit is required to join the program. The deposit can be paid in installments, and the entire amount is fully refundable upon 80% completion of the program.

Become a mentor

This program is for you if you are:
  • A seasoned entrepreneur with at least 3 years of experience in running your own business (for-profit and/or non-profit)
  • Interested in nurturing and supporting aspiring and budding entrepreneurs
  • Skilled in diverse practical business areas
  • Strong in interpersonal and communications skills
  • Looking to connect with like-minded entrepreneurs
  • Looking to further build your leadership and mentoring skills

Please note that FSI matches the mentors and mentees based on the assessment of match of skills, experience, and background.

As a mentor you will gain access to:
  • Workshops and cohort sessions to build leadership and mentoring skills
  • A long-lasting community of peer entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds
  • Opportunities to elevate your social profile as a leader, mentor, and a role model
  • FSI’s resources and wide networks
  • A certificate of completion along with a stipend for your contribution

Important Dates

The Mentorship Program will commence in September 2025 and end in March 2026. See below the schedule of sessions.
All sessions will be held at the Hive Poho (5-13 G/F, New St, Sai Ying Pun), our venue partner.

Application window closes on 25 July, but early applications will be prioritized for review as interviews will be conducted on a rolling basis. If you are interested, please apply sooner than later!

Each mentee joining the program will be matched with a mentor and a coach, which will take a couple of weeks after the mentee application closes. By 22 August 2025, we would have finalized all the matches including a chemistry call process.

[Not for the mentees] All the mentors and coaches will gather for a briefing, training, and onboarding session to build the personal and technical skills essential to becoming a good mentor and a coach to the mentees of this cohort. This meet-up is mandatory for all mentors and coaches.

Mandatory Attendees: Mentors, Coaches [NOT for the mentees]
10am-12pm
The Hive Poho

Program launch event for the entire cohort of mentors, mentees, coaches, and other supporters of the program to meet and greet.

Mandatory Attendees: Mentees, Mentors, Coaches
10am-12pm
The Hive Poho

Ideation, brainstorming, and goal-setting workshop for the mentees to set SMART goals for the Mentorship Program period and beyond, under the guidance of the mentors.

Mandatory Attendees: Mentees, Mentors
10am-12pm
The Hive Poho

A workshop focused on branding, marketing, and storytelling to gain and practise skills to enhance the visibility of the participant’s business/project.

Mandatory Attendees: Mentees
10am-1pm
The Hive Poho

A workshop focused on building resilience and leadership skills for personal and professional development.

Mandatory Attendees: Mentees
10am-1pm
The Hive Poho

A workshop focused on accessing available resources, toolkits, and templates to tackle diverse bottlenecks faced by the mentees. This is also a mid-point sharing session for the cohort participants to update each other on their progress.

Mandatory Attendees: Mentees, Mentors
10am-12pm
The Hive Poho

A workshop to demystify ways of financing and funding for your business.

Mandatory Attendee: Mentees
10am-12pm 
The Hive Poho

A workshop to learn how to nail elevator pitches and presentations to communicate your business ideas to your stakeholders in any public setting.

Mandatory Attendee: Mentees
10am-12pm 
The Hive Poho

A wrap-up event for the cohort to come together to share their achievements, exchange feedback, and network with other entrepreneurs and supporters interested in further contributing to the community.

Mandatory Attendee: Mentees, Mentors, Coaches
10am-1pm 
The Hive Poho

Hear from our past participants

“Starting from level zero, I had a lot to learn about what businesses are and how I can run my own. What started as ideas in the end turned to business plans to set to execute. The entrepreneurial community is essential for knowledge & resource sharing, as well as moral support ... Thank you to FSI Team for this wonderful opportunity to connect with industry leaders and a community of start-up founders! As a novice this was an instrumental experience in my journey to becoming an entrepreneur.”
Ayeisha Shafana (2024 Mentee)CreativiT
“A big thank you to the FSI community, Vivian, Dani, and all the interns who supported me during this amazing journey! Your efforts and the positive influence you've had on Blooms Forever's growth mean a lot to me. I really hope that a few years later I can be part of this program as a mentor and also help and share my knowledge with new FSI members."
Yulia Kim (2024 Mentee)Blooms Forever
"What’s great about FSI’s program is that while entrepreneurs in the growing stage can find tips and resources here, entrepreneurs who are hesitant about starting their own business can find encouragement and support from a group of people who believe in them- not just from their mentors and coaches, but also from other entrepreneurs."
Maryam Khan (2023 Mentee)Founder of Foodie Explorerz
"Coming from an ethnic minority community, you'd want to give up. It's very overwhelming, and everybody's like, 'You shouldn't be doing this, you're never going to make it. So having someone say, 'Come on, you've got this. Just try your best.' That's what this program is."
Jhanvi Panjabi (2023 Mentor)CEO and Founder of Anvi Candles and Eternity Jewels HK
"I joined the program (as a mentor) because I had a lot of help along the way. Coming from an ethnically diverse community, also being a woman and a minority in my community, I know there are a lot of hiccups and battles we face along the way. So I was eager to share my experiences and try and guide people through these obstacles. Vivian and Dani constantly supported us (mentors) with tools. Their support is unparalleled to anything I've experienced."
Jhanvi Panjabi (2023 Mentor)CEO and Founder of Anvi Candles and Eternity Jewels HK
"FSI's Mentorship Program for Ethnically Diverse Entrepreneurs has been such a great experience for me as an ethnically diverse entrepreneur myself. Six months ago, I came in knowing nothing. It's been such a wonderful experience not just networking and meeting different people but also growing your own business."
Dhiresh Buxani (2023 Mentee)Founder of One Project
"Connecting a mentee with a mentor is the best favor you can do to an aspiring entrepreneur, because in the early stages of entrepreneurship, all an aspiring entrepreneur needs is a helping hand, and FSI is able to provide that. Congratulations to FSI for being enablers of entrepreneurship in many ways."
Naman Tekriwal (2022, 2023 Mentor)COO and Co-founder of Breer
"As a mentor, I was able to relive that adrenaline rush of bringing the company from zero to one. As a mentee, you get access to the people who have gone through the struggles of building a company in Hong Kong and who can guide their mentee to their best ability. It's a mutually beneficial relationship. I would recommend students, aspiring entrepreneurs, everyone to be part of this program."
Naman Tekriwal (2022, 2023 Mentor)COO and Co-founder of Breer
"I just want to contribute my knowledge to the community, and this program gives me a really good platform and opportunity to do so. Entrepreneurship is about bouncing ideas off others and learning from each other. This program also offers opportunities to network with other entrepreneurs and support from the FSI team. It's been a fantastic journey with FSI."
Wilson Tai (2023 Mentor)Co-founder and COO of FundFluent
“It is really the community that we were searching for. I feel much more connected now, and it’s very helpful to have people to sound off your ideas.”
Luisa Tan Castro (2022 Mentee)Co-founder of Institute of Leadership and Management
“The experience has been nothing but supportive... this community that has been formed by FSI is helping a lot of entrepreneurs get different perspectives and how to go about, especially newbies like me.”
Shilpa Pednekar (2022 Mentee)Founder of Shilpa’s Masala Mills
"For ethnically diverse people, this is the first and only place where we can talk in English as well as in our own language, so this is something very unique."
Nimisha Vandan (2022 Mentor)Founder of OkayMinds
"It was nice learning from other mentees and mentors ... how everybody is using the same technique that we learn from the FSI workshops and executing them and applying them differently in their own organizations."
Aiman Nadeem (2022 Mentee)Vice President of Project Ethnic Minority Empowerment

Looking to Join a Diverse Community?

Join our WhatsApp Community

You don’t need to wait until the Mentorship Program starts to join our WhatsApp Community where likeminded entrepreneurs and supporters are already exchanging knowledge and experience! 

Program Supporters & Partners

This program is funded by the Hong Kong Club Foundation and the Drs Richard Charles and Esther Yewpick Lee Charitable Foundation. We are truly grateful for all our supporters and partners who make this program possible with their generous contributions of resources, skills, time, and connections. 

HKCF logo

Drs Richard Charles and Esther Yewpick Lee Charitable Foundation

ICF HK CC
FundFluent-logo

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What did you find helpful, or how can we improve? What other kinds of resources do you think we should be providing?
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