Nichole Mustard is the co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Credit Karma a fintech platform that provides personalized recommendations for credit cards and loans. In February 2020, Intuit purchased Credit Karma for $7.1 billion (USD).

During Nichole’s time on the TechTO stage, she shared insightful perspectives about mentorship.

Mentorship is a good word and I love mentorship, but I've been looking to really advocate for people.

Mentorship is kind of telling people these are the things to use, how you should change. But I look inside my organization and across my VCs or other areas and I vouch for people that I believe in. I make sure I build those relationships and talk to them about philosophies or principles that are important to me and understand where they sit on those.

And I think it's important as a woman to go out and say, “I think this other woman is really a great opportunity for this role. And you know, if they're in, I'm in and I'm here to help them continue to grow.”

I want to move from a passive state of mentoring to an active state of advocating.

Here’s an example: I've got a woman that I advocate right now that just left Uswitch in the UK after being there for 13 years. Pretty much coming out of college, went straight there and she's starting a brand-new startup around the Carvana model in the UK and that's fantastic.

So I'm introducing her to a lot of VCs because I know she's data. I know she's consumer. I know that she gets the scale and the passion of building. And so I'm there saying, “Hey, this is someone I'd put money behind — you guys should put money behind, too.” And it's that type of advocacy that I think really matters in this environment.

What do you think? How has your career been influenced by mentors or advocates? Do you have any specific tips or ideas to help build relationships, especially in this time of remoteness?