Joel Patenaude

As a young man in the 1980s I lived in Kenya and through my current fintech consulting work, I am active in Guinea and Nigeria. In between I founded an industrial bakery and later I founded a home and garden import business. I developed a commercial building and launched a microfinance bank.

The bakery hired at-risk youth, the import business supported small artisans in developing countries, we built the commercial building to very high environmental standards (LEED Gold) and the microfinance bank serves the poor. I find working with a mission sustains my interest and as a result, I have always enjoyed my work.

I have learned a lot running businesses over the years and enjoy working with younger entrepreneurs to make their big impact. I have been involved with this website since its inception. VC4A has connected me with dozens of entrepreneurs over the years, and some have gone on to big success. I am pleased to see VC4A’s continued progress and look forward to this new Mentorship Marketplace.

So that’s it. I have walked in your shoes and am happy to walk alongside for a bit, to have some chats and see if I can be of valued service. Thanks.

I like the energy of entrepreneurs and I really enjoy the process of being introduced to a business and then staying around to learn and to begin to understand what its leadership faces to get off the ground or to grow. The feedback I get is that I give pretty good advice.

Before I founded my first business — I worked in the field of economic development. I was lucky to find a organization in Brooklyn, NY that worked with the hundreds of old factories in north Brooklyn and my professional access to 100s of industrial business demystified business to me. They were all interesting.

So Why Do I Mentor? I do it because I enjoy it. I enjoy meeting new people and learning about their ventures.