Corporate high flyers and successful entrepreneurs are being urged to share their wealth of experience and mentor up-and-coming businesswomen eager to expand their empires.
Entrepreneurial support group Rare Birds is searching for mentors to guide businesswomen with multi-million dollar businesses that are expanding nationally and internationally.
The group launched its mentoring program in March, backed by Richard Branson's not-for-profit foundation Virgin Unite.
And while applications from would-be-mentorees have flooded in, more high-calibre mentors are needed to meet the demand.
Rare Birds founder Jo Burston says senior executives and serial entrepreneurs would make ideal mentors to guide the mentorees, whose businesses include ecommerce, fashion, technology and food.
"The biggest need we see at the moment is digital expertise and global distribution networks," she told AAP.
"People are asking, `so how do I get my business from Australia to the rest of the world?'
"So they are big-thinking businesses."
Ms Burston, who set up eight companies and runs salary packaging business Job Capital, has been mentored for nine years and mentors two twentysomething entrepreneurs.
She sees mentoring as a two-way street.
Mentorees gain from their mentor's experience, while mentors can learn new ideas and ways of thinking.
"I am a CEO and managing director of both my companies and I have no business partners but I never feel alone because I have that support and that brains trust," she said.
She describes one of her mentorees, OnTheGo founder Mick Spencer, as having the "true DNA of an entrepreneur" with a will to take over the world.
But while she refuses to spoonfeed him the answers to his problems, she will help him work it out.
"That's probably the difference with a really good mentor, they don't tell you what to do, they guide you in the direction and let you make the decision."
Spencer, who set up his online sports apparel and accessory business when he was 19, says it's important to have a mentor that "gets you".
Having a mentor has taught him the importance of understanding the details of his company's finances and that being out of his comfort zone is normal.
"Encouragement is as important as constructive criticism, and they can envisage what's coming next for you," he said.
"Jo knows more about me than most people, not because she wants something; because she gives to help me succeed."
Fellow entrepreneur Holly Ransom credits "an army" of mentors, including Rio Tinto boss Sam Walsh and champion surfer Layne Beachley, for helping her navigate difficult career decisions and build her consultancy business HRE Global.
And like Ms Burston, she believes in passing on the benefit of what she's learned.
The 25-year-old, who was chosen by Prime Minister Tony Abbott to chair the G20 Youth Summit in 2014, mentors five people including newly-reinstated Wallabies captain Stephen Moore.
"What astounded me when I started reaching out to people was that they said `yes' to being my mentor," she said.
"Then I realised why they made time for me. They want to pay it forward because someone took the time to help them at some stage and they knew I would pay it forward too."
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