Seeking Mentorship to Accelerate My Learning Journey

[reaper]

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for a mentor or even just a few people who are genuinely passionate about building things and learning together.

I’m in college right now, but I honestly haven’t found the environment I’m looking for. There aren’t many people around me who are interested in AI, research, startups, or building real projects outside of coursework, so it’s been difficult to find guidance and meaningful discussions.

My goals are pretty simple:

• Build useful products consistently.

• Improve my skills every day.

• Contribute to research and eventually publish more papers.

• Start a company.

• Create sustainable passive income through products or businesses.

• Learn from people who are far ahead of me.

I’m not looking for someone to do the work for me I just want guidance, honest feedback, and people who challenge my thinking.

If you’re a researcher, founder, engineer, or someone who’s been down this path, I’d love to connect. Even if you just have advice on where to find good mentors or communities, I’d really appreciate it.

Thanks!

[Jenna]

reaper — you don’t need to find a mentor. You need to walk into the rooms mentors already live in.
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The people ahead of you already teach — for free, in public, all day. You just aren’t in the room yet.
Book a free 1:1 today (ADPList = 20k+ mentors). Then get funded + connected by a young-builder fellowship.
One mentor is a bottleneck. Build in public + join a research collective = a swarm of mentors, 24/7.

🎓 Free 1:1 mentors, booked today — no local scene needed

Real engineers/researchers/founders giving free video calls. Filter by AI, pick someone ahead of you, book.

▸ ADPList (20k+ mentors, free) → https://adplist.org/
▸ AI mentors → https://adplist.org/mentors/expertise/ai
▸ MentorCruise (long-term) → https://mentorcruise.com/
▸ MicroMentor (free, founders) → https://www.micromentor.org/

🚀 Young-builder fellowships that fund + connect you (Emergent Ventures, Z Fellows, Neo)

These exist to find ambitious young people, hand them money, and plug them into a network of people way ahead. Low friction, apply directly.

▸ Emergent Ventures (Tyler Cowen grant) → https://www.mercatus.org/emergent-ventures
▸ Z Fellows (1 week, $10k) → https://www.zfellows.com/
▸ Neo (scholars + accelerator) → https://neo.com/
▸ Interact (tech + humanity fellows) → https://joininteract.com/
▸ South Park Commons → https://www.southparkcommons.com/

🔬 Join real AI research + publish (you don't need a PhD or a fancy lab)

Open research collectives that mentor independents to co-author papers. This is your “publish more papers” path.

▸ ML Collective (mentors independent researchers) → https://mlcollective.org/
▸ EleutherAI (open AI research, join the Discord) → https://www.eleuther.ai/get-involved
▸ Cohere For AI — open science → https://cohere.com/research/open-science
▸ Fatima Fellowship (mentored ML research) → https://www.fatimafellowship.com/

✉️ Cold-email a lab/mentor the RIGHT way (templates that get replies)

Not “will you mentor me?” — send a specific, useful, short ask tied to their work. These are the exact templates.

▸ MIT UROP email templates → https://urop.mit.edu/students/resources/approaching-faculty/email-templates/
▸ Princeton: cold emails that work → https://pcur.princeton.edu/2025/04/cracking-cold-emails-reaching-out-to-professors-in-a-way-that-works/
▸ Break into ML research, no PhD → https://davidfan.io/blog/2022/02/breaking-into-industry-ml-ai-research-without-a-phd/

🛠️ Learn from strangers by building in public (feedback flows TO you)

Ship where the ahead-of-you can see it → they critique for free. This is mentorship without asking. Read swyx’s playbook, then start.

▸ Learn in Public (swyx) → https://www.swyx.io/learn-in-public/
▸ Indie Hackers (build + income) → https://www.indiehackers.com/
▸ WIP (ship daily, public) → https://wip.co/

🧑‍💻 Mentored open-source — get paid/stipended while a senior dev reviews you

Structured programs pair you with maintainers who review your work. Skill + network + résumé in one.

▸ Google Summer of Code → https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/
▸ Outreachy (paid, remote) → https://www.outreachy.org/
▸ MLH Fellowship → https://fellowship.mlh.com/
▸ Linux Foundation LFX → https://mentorship.lfx.linuxfoundation.org/

🏠 Rooms full of your kind of people (retreats, hacker houses, communities)

If you want the peer group that challenges you — these are dense clusters of builders/researchers.

▸ Recurse Center (free retreat) → https://www.recurse.com/
▸ awesome dev/AI Discords → https://github.com/mhxion/awesome-discord-communities
▸ YC Startup School (free, co-founder match) → https://www.startupschool.org/

💡 5 ways to turn 'no one around me' into a mentor swarm this week

1. Book 2 free ADPList calls with AI engineers → ask for a brutal review of one thing you built.
2. Post one project publicly on Indie Hackers / X → strangers ahead of you critique it free.
3. Join the EleutherAI Discord → help on a real research task → co-author path opens.
4. Apply to Emergent Ventures with your best idea → grant + instant network of ambitious people.
5. Cold-email one professor with a specific question about their paper → a lab door cracks open.

The mentors were never missing — you just weren’t in the room. The room is one click away, and it’s mostly free.