Mentors often say that they give up their time to pass on advice for nothing because they want to give something back. But Jason Stockwood, the managing director of match.com, an online dating agency, logs on to the e-mentoring community at horsesmouth.co.uk with another motive. “I am evangelical about the power of the web,” he says.

“I am quite passionate about the web as a social media and the opportunity for it to influence people’s lives.” And from a practical perspective, “it’s a really time-efficient way of helping people,” he says.

Fired up by the idea of e-mentoring, Stockwood posted details about his background and his business experience and waited. The process is similar to online dating in that you post a personal profile and wait to find people who share your interests, he says. The responses vary.

“It can be quick questions that are answered in quite a short time, but in the case of James, I built up quite a rapport with him. We went back and forward on a number of things and we are still in touch today.”

Stockwood and James Davis, who hopes to launch his own online business, have exchanged business e-mail addresses to make contact quicker and easier. Davis asked Stockwood to sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) before he shared his commercial plans in full.

“There will come a point, now that we have exchanged details, that we will meet up.” The idea amuses him. “I’ve never talked about this, it does sound increasingly like dating, doesn’t it? But I’ve never been asked to sign an NDA in a relationship before.”

Joking aside, Stockwood doesn’t feel that e-mentoring rushes or depersonalises the mentoring process. “Not for me... it’s a useful way to be connected.

“I feel that I get a lot out of the fact that I can help him and hopefully he feels some benefit from the fact that I have a little bit of experience in the online area,” he says.

What could be more fitting than seeking advice from fellow e-entrepreneurs by logging on to a website? When James Davis, who quit his job as the sales director of a commercial radio company to launch his own online business, read about the informal mentoring website horsesmouth.co.uk, he thought it was “worth having a play with to see what was there”. Davis was looking for good advice from people who had been there and done that.

“You can’t really be taught how to set up a business, but hearing it from the horse’s mouth is invaluable,” he says.

Davis is reluctant to disclose his own plans, preferring secrecy in case the competition is reading. That same secrecy comes in handy if you don’t hit it off with an online mentoring respondent. Because both parties are anonymous, you can move to another e-mentor without any feeling of awkwardness.

After mixed success, Davis eventually found a good mentoring match in Jason Stockwood. “There is commonality [with Stockwood’s business, match.com] with what I am looking to do... listening to someone who has ten-plus years’ experience is quite invaluable,” he says.

Davis is in regular contact with Stockwell by e-mail when he needs to bounce ideas off his mentor. “I’m not using a mentor to say, ‘I’m in this situation, what’s the answer,’ but he offers his expertise in terms of experience,” he says. “He’s a bit like a father-figure but in the business world rather than life. I have found it immensely rewarding.”

The mentoring relationship is a personal one – the two share jokes, for example – although Davis has never spoken to Stockwood, let alone met him face-to-face. But it won’t always be an electronic relationship. “I do envisage us meeting up at some point and taking it from there,” he says. Stockwood will certainly be invited to any official launch of his start-up, hopefully next year. “It would be rude if I didn’t.”

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