Sandra Sick through mentoring, marketing and travel

By John Kregler, StartOut

For Sandra Sick (she/her), mentoring is that real opportunity to give back. A marketing and business development strategist with 25+ years of experience, her career has let her work with clients around the world, mentor startups in the US and abroad and travel extensively.

Sandra always planned on exploring the world and had no plans on waiting until retirement to do so. She’s lived, worked and mentored teams in every continent other than Antarctica with chunks of time spent in Portugal and the Czech Republic. In Romania, Sandra also worked with orphans guiding and supporting children in need.

“I feel like I’ve been mentoring my entire life. Whether I was coaching softball or working with growing tech companies, I always saw the value in helping others get somewhere they weren’t currently.”

Celebrating five years with StartOut this month, Sandra has truly left a mark on our community of LGBTQ+ founders. When she returned to the states after four years in Lisbon, Portugal, she attended a StartOut event in Los Angeles and instantly felt a calling within the organization. In a few short years, Sandra worked her way from a board member, to co-chair and chair of the LA board, and most recently the co-chair of the People & Culture programming board.

Today, Sandra continues to guide our founders one-on-one in key areas of growth marketing and business development. With backgrounds in traditional and digital marketing, her ability to analyze a startup’s market is instrumental to founders looking to launch new products or increase marketing growth.

“I believe in the StartOut mission of amplifying the stories and success of all LGBTQ+ founders. Being part of this organization allows me to give back and I have found the founder/mentor matching to be very spot-on. When you mentor in accelerator programs, you mentor a very wide base of founders. StartOut’s mentorship program is tailored towards a founder’s specific business problems and we’re able to quickly pair up and focus on the issues.”

Sandra always felt the responsibility to form authentic relationships with her mentees. As a mentor, she’s able to provide real, tangible advice to help grow their startup. As a friend, she’s an irreplaceable, long term support system.

While the effects of COVID-19 have made it difficult to get together in person, Sandra still makes every effort to check in on former mentees and their businesses. She’ll join in on Instagram live sessions, congratulate them on their wins, and reassure her mentees that she’s still part of their growing network of supporters.

“Mentoring is never a laborious process. Helping others shouldn’t feel like homework or extracurricular. We’re problem-solving together and sharing ideas to uplift a community that hasn’t received an equitable level of support historically. If you have the knowledge and experience to help underserved entrepreneurs grow, then it’s a great opportunity to do so.”

Interested in getting help from a StartOut mentor? Join our community at www.startout.org/community and apply to be paired today.

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