Thanks for sharing your application. It takes guts to be open about this kind of stuff.
One thing I didn't see in the application was what your distribution strategy will be. I understand the collaborative nature of GitHub for Writers, but are there established channels that you could take advantage of to help your customer acquisition. Publishers are one group but perhaps they don't closely manage writers in that way. Perhaps advertising firms or print media might be a way to go. A couple big enterprise customers might be good validation for your business.
> but are there established channels that you could take advantage of to help your customer acquisition
Yes, absolutely. See "How will you get users" question. I listed 6 different growth/distribution strategies, but redacted 3 of them for the purpose of sharing publicly. They are not necessarily groundbreaking, but I'd rather not just hand over my growth strategies to competitors.
A manager can be a mentor regardless of the type of organization. What is important if you want to improve a particular skill set is that the people that are managing you truly understand what it takes to do your job well and can provide feedback on what you are not doing well from a "do-ers" perspective - more of an apprenticeship model.
I have personally found that mentors are great for career advice and resolving questions, but never have enough "skin in the game" to invest their time in my development.
I used the word mentor incorrectly. What you want is peer teachers, not mentors. Mentors by the corporate definition are largely useless. You contact them 1-2 per month at best, which is pointless.
What you want is a person that observes your code, behavior, interactions, demeanor, etc., and tells you how to do better. It is impossible to have perfect introspection. You need to find a guide more than the corporate definition of "mentor". People need apprentice masters more than mentors, I wish I had used a better term.
that's pretty much what I meant... if you've just graduated that person is not really your 'peer', maybe not your 'boss' either ... a lot of times real world roles and relationships don't line up with org charts.
One thing I didn't see in the application was what your distribution strategy will be. I understand the collaborative nature of GitHub for Writers, but are there established channels that you could take advantage of to help your customer acquisition. Publishers are one group but perhaps they don't closely manage writers in that way. Perhaps advertising firms or print media might be a way to go. A couple big enterprise customers might be good validation for your business.