MENTOR, COACH, INFLUENCER, AUNTIE, UNCLE, BIG SISTER, BIG BROTHER, JEDI MASTER ...
Your reputation obliges you, your calendar limits you.
A modest, recurring income for loosely following the projects of the people who come to you for advice. You set your own terms. Offinity only carries the conversation.
Advice is contingent, attention is scarce, intention is precious. A sincere relationship takes that in, and Offinity respects it.
The most effective moment is also the most spontaneous
Your name opens doors. Your presence fills a room, your recommendation unlocks a funding round, your time at the microphone has a price. Money moves all around your reputation.
Except in one place: the twenty minutes at the end of a dinner when someone lays out their project and you tell them, in three sentences, what would have taken them a year to work out. That moment is free. And because it is free, it has no sequel. You will never know whether they listened, or what came of it.
You end up torn between the consulting engagement — too heavy, too expensive for some of the people you would most like to help, needing the energy to sell it, and killing the informality of the thing — and giving it away, with no limit, no memory, no continuity. What if there were a middle ground, a step between free advice and a paid engagement?
Following is not coaching
Coaching sells sessions: a slot, preparation, presence, a commitment. It is a profession and it is priced as one. Following is something else, and it is what Offinity makes possible.
Coaching
You block out time.
You prepare.
You are expected at a fixed hour.
It stops when the contract stops.
Following
You read on your own schedule.
You know where they stand.
You speak when it matters.
It lasts as long as it makes sense.
What you are selling is not an hour of your calendar. It is the fact that you are up to date — and that when they need you, you will not be starting from zero.
Not a marketplace
Nobody looks you up in a directory. You are not listed anywhere.
No ratings, no stars
No ranking, no score, no public reviews. Your reputation stays yours.
No commission
The money does not pass through us. We do not even see the transactions (if there are any!)
No promise made in your name
No imposed response time. We do not sell your availability.
How it works
You write your terms
The rhythm at which you read, the subjects you follow, what you will not do, what you would ask for. Your words, on your site, your blog, your LinkedIn. Or just for yourself.
You invite
You open the door to whoever you choose, in person, through your personal QR code in the app. Strangers never reach you.
The people you follow keep their logbook
They write their journal first for themselves, as they would anyway — and you are in the circle that reads it.
You read when you want
Everyone you follow in one place, in chronological order. You respond if you have something to say. If not, you say nothing, and nobody is waiting on you.
One app, two possible uses
PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT
You already coach, face to face, and are paid for it. Offinity holds the thread between two sessions: you arrive at the next one already knowing what happened. The recurring income sits alongside your fees; it does not replace them.
OCCASIONAL SUPPORT
There are no formal sessions, and there may never be. The whole relationship lives here: they write, you read, you occasionally respond. It is the lightest form, often the most durable, and it does not rule out the odd coffee.
No exclusivity: mix the two freely — paid with some, pro bono with others.
The other end of the line
What makes this bearable for you makes it bearable for them, for the same reason. A project owner also has four or five people whose opinion counts: a former boss, an investor, an uncle who built three companies, you... Today, keeping those four up to date means writing four times, in four different inboxes, at four levels of detail... and in the end they write to nobody.
Here they write once. You are all notified at the same time, each reads at their own pace, and they no longer have to decide who deserves the summary. You are not their only influencer, and that is a good thing: you see what the others answered, which spares you the repetition — and spares you having an opinion on everything.
Your terms belong to you
There is no contract and no standard offer. Take a moment to think about your best moments of mentoring, about what works well for you. For example:
My terms for following
OpenResponse rhythm
I read daily and answer when I have something useful to say. Never a promised turnaround. If I feel the need, I will suggest a workshop in person.
Subjects I follow
Money flow
€30/month minimum, and we take stock every 3 months. Free for climate projects.
Elsewhere
Never hesitate to mention me on LinkedIn. And for a real emergency, WhatsApp is best.
Some stick to one fixed format; for others it is only a useful yardstick for shaping each relationship individually afterwards. Some will want to publish it, others will not.
The money does not pass through us
If you agree on a payment, you receive it directly: bank transfer, Wero, cash, whatever suits you. Offinity takes no commission, charges nothing along the way, and does not even see the transactions. We are neither a payment intermediary nor a meter.
What we carry is the conversation: a safe place where it holds over time, where nothing gets lost, and where you never have to chase a six-month-old thread.
Twelve people at €40 a month is €480 a month. That is not an income; it is what lets you say yes without thinking about it, and then keep your word.
The questions that come first
How much time does this actually take?
Reading what ten of the people you follow wrote over a week fits inside a bus ride. The load is not in the reading; it is in the intention, in the commitment you carry towards them.
What if I have nothing to say this month?
Then you say nothing. You committed to no volume. The silence of someone who is reading is not the same as absence, and the people you follow — who can see that you have read — know it.
Does this cannibalise my paid sessions?
The opposite, in practice. Following sustains a relationship that would otherwise go dark between engagements. And someone you have followed for a year comes back better prepared, earlier, and knowing why they are paying.
How do you set the potential amount?
The useful reference is not your hourly rate divided by something: it is the amount below which you would read distractedly, and above which the other person would expect to be owed something. There is room between the two.
What if someone asks for too much?
If your terms are written and visible, you can point back to them without being unpleasant. And if they are not, you are committed to nothing at all! You end the relationship whenever you want, with no notice and no justification.
Do the people I follow see each other?
No. Each logbook is a separate circle, chosen by the person writing it. There is no shared feed, no follower list, nothing public.
Write your terms, then invite your own people
Nothing to negotiate with us, no application to fill in, no approval to wait for. You decide your terms; we keep the place where it happens.
Open a profile and think about your terms. Ten minutes, and you can change them later.
Invite two or three people you have been following for free for months anyway.
Give it a month before judging. The value of following does not show up in the first week.
You already gave the advice. All that was missing was somewhere to see what became of it.