AI for SCORE mentors
Used well, AI helps you prepare for a client in an industry you do not know.
Where this fits
You are the client’s thinking partner, not a search engine, so the useful place for AI is before the session, not during it. It is good at getting you oriented in an unfamiliar industry, drafting questions worth asking, and pressure-testing an idea you are unsure about.
It is bad at knowing your client. Anything it tells you about their market, their numbers or Maine regulation needs checking against a real source before you repeat it in a session.
One rule that matters
Client information stays out of AI tools. Do not paste a client’s financials, business plan, personal details or anything they told you in confidence into ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or anything else. Everything in a mentoring conversation is confidential between the client and SCORE, and typing it into a chatbot is a disclosure.
Ask about the situation in general terms — “what do first-year cash flow problems usually look like for a Maine food truck?” — rather than about the client.
Platforms mentors are using
Three that SCORE mentors have settled on. All three have a free tier that is enough for preparation work.
Chat assistant
ChatGPT
The most widely used, and the one most clients will have heard of.
Chat assistant
Google Gemini
Signs in with your Google account, which is the same account you use for SCORE mail.
Chat assistant
Claude
Handles long documents well, which suits reading through a client’s plan structure.
Detailed prompt sets
Three sets of prompts, written by mentors for mentors. They live in Drive — open them and copy the prompt you need.
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Guide Drive file
Prompts for Startup Vetting
This handout provides a series of prompts designed to guide entrepreneurs through a comprehensive vetting process, covering key areas such as industry identification, market analysis, pricing strategy, and more.
Description not yet checked by a mentor
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Guide Drive file
Prompts for GUIDE + ACT frameworks for startups
This handout is designed to help mentors and mentees effectively use the GUIDE + ACT framework to navigate the unique challenges and opportunities startups face.
Description not yet checked by a mentor
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Guide Drive file
Prompts for Mentoring in an Unfamiliar Industry
This handout covers a series of strategies mentors can use with an AI to help mentor a client in an industry they are not familiar with.
Description not yet checked by a mentor
Mentoring outside your industry
The most defensible use of AI in this role. Before a session with a business you know nothing about, ask it to brief you:
- What are the main cost drivers in this kind of business?
- What usually goes wrong in the first two years?
- What licences or regulation typically apply, and who regulates it?
- What questions would an experienced advisor in this field ask first?
Then check anything Maine-specific against a real source. AI is confidently wrong about state regulation more often than it is right.