Sarah Malter
Having a community to talk to and getting advice from people in a similar situation is essential.
25 November 2024
Seeing mentoring from both sides
Name: Sarah Malter
Business: Kapitalise
Key success factor: Empathy
Sarah Malter is the founder and managing director of Kapitalise, a specialist adviser on R&D tax credits. She is clear why founders need to support each other, “It’s essential. Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely journey. Friends who take more traditional career paths have different lives, different problems. Having a support system is beneficial.”
As a founder who is also a mother, Malter particularly values having other successful female entrepreneurs to draw on. “I’ve had two children since starting the business. Having a community to talk to and getting advice from people in a similar situation is essential.”
Structured, formal support
Malter is part of two founder support networks, Helm (formerly the Supper Club) and the Worshipful Company of Entrepreneurs, a guild and livery company. Both allow her to draw on the support of and learn from fellow founders. At Helm she is also part of a Forum, where the same small group of founders meet regularly. “Every month we go through potential problems, challenges and growth opportunities. Having that structure means there’s accountability,” she explains.
She also mentors and teaches on MBA programmes and has done work with a female leadership programme and Girls Who Code, a scheme offering mentoring on issues from technology, to starting a business to communication styles.
Because a good mentoring relationship is never one-way, Malter has learned a lot from this. “It raises questions you may not have perceived in a certain way. Your mentee might have a challenge you are familiar with but see it in an interesting new way. There might be similar themes in your business, but they’re handling it in a way that makes you think differently.”
Having a community to talk to and getting advice from people in a similar situation is essential.
The founder’s dilemma
Mentoring for founders can, she says, have a deeper and more personal edge to it, because boundaries between work and personal life feel more blurred than for other people. “Being an entrepreneur, there are a lot of crossovers from your personal life into your professional life. There are times when you cross boundaries and it’s hard to know if you should talk about some things.”
She cites mental health as one example. “Can we work through it or not? How does it all interweave? Understanding when you can help, because you may have had a similar experience within your own journey, is important.”
Support with mental health for founders is a big topic, says Malter, because the life is so all-consuming. “There'll be times that work affects relationships. It affects your day to day. If it's your business, the buck stops with you, you are responsible for it and that ability to switch off completely doesn't exist.”
The power of the informal network
Malter also draws heavily on less formal support. She says this informal side, including networking, is great for asking questions or raising issues where you can get multiple inputs. “That looser support is a good tool to have,” she says.
Describing herself as the “visionary-dreamer” kind of founder and “a big picture thinker”, Malter values both the structured and informal support. “Having the structure of something like a Helm Forum session is important, as is the accountability. But sometimes I need flexibility to test out an idea that’s just forming and that I want to tinker with.”
Seeing both sides
Malter says that having drawn on various mentors through her career and now in turn mentoring others has been extremely useful. “I'm fortunate to have sat in the middle, to be a mentor and be mentored by others. It’s so valuable.”
A personal passion for Malter is supporting female founders. “I know as a female founder it's been difficult to get support financially. And I would love to see more women in roles like mine. I know that along with having a family it can be difficult, but it's not impossible. Getting more women to be able to do this is a passion, and I wanted to be able to do that.”
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