Mentorship that accelerates women into leadership.
xEllerator pairs mentees with the right mentors using an equity‑aware matching engine, then tracks the goals, sessions and outcomes that close the leadership gap in STEM.
How a match is scored
Sources: Women in the Workplace 2025 (McKinsey and LeanIn.Org) for the first two; The Sponsor Effect (Center for Talent Innovation, 2010) for the third.
Every proposal comes with a number and a reason.
Everyone answers a few open questions when they join. The engine reads the answers and scores every allowed pairing, and each proposal comes with a written reason.
How the score worksHow groups compare, on the same page.
The HR console has an Equity page. It splits every mentee by gender identity, career stage and field, and shows each group's figures beside the figure for everyone.
What the Equity page shows| Group | People | Matched | Days to match | Accepted their match | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Everyone | 49 | 92% | 6 days | 90% | 81 |
| Woman | 31 | 94% | 5 days | 93% | 83 |
| Man | 13 | 92% | 9 days | 77% | 79 |
| Non-binary | under 5 | Fewer than 5 people, so no numbers are shown | |||
| Prefer to self-describe | under 5 | Fewer than 5 people, so no numbers are shown | |||
What a mentor does beyond advice is written down.
During the match, a mentor logs each introduction, stretch opportunity and time they spoke up for their mentee. The mentee sees the list on her dashboard, and the Equity page counts them for each group.
How sponsorship is loggedWhere does the data live, and who sees it?
The app and its database run on Railway, in its US East region in Virginia. All organisations share one database. Every record carries the organisation it belongs to, and HR's screens read only their own organisation's records. Your HR admin sees names. The programme team, the small team running this pilot, sees names across organisations. It also reads check-ins, answers and requests for help pair by pair. Nobody on it reads these for a pair they are in, or for the pairs in an organisation where they are HR. A group's figures are shown only if it had five people or more when they were worked out. Answers about promotions, moves and confidence are counted only when the person ticked the box that allows it. Everything between your browser and xEllerator is sent over HTTPS.
Who decides a match?
The engine proposes. HR releases each proposal, or withholds it with a logged reason; HR cannot change the ranking. The mentee decides first, then the mentor. Either can decline, and that mentor is not proposed to her again.
Does xEllerator use AI?
Yes. An OpenAI model reads what people wrote when they joined and picks out the skills and goals in it. The app compares these by meaning. The score itself is added up by the app's own rules, with the fixed weights shown above. The model then writes the reason on each proposal. It is given only the facts behind the score. Check-in answers, private notes and requests for support are never sent to the model. AI spend has a daily limit, and when the model is off or the limit is reached, the app uses word matching and written templates instead.
How much time does it take?
One session a month at least, plus short check-ins in the app. Mentors set how many mentees they will take and how many hours a month they can give, and the engine keeps to that.
What happens after the pilot?
You get the outcomes report and a recommendation on next steps. There is no automatic renewal and no long-term obligation. Whether to continue is your call.
A time-boxed pilot for up to twenty organisations.
Run one cohort with us. At the end you get a written report on who was matched, how often pairs met, what participants said, and where the gaps were. Then you decide whether to continue.
- Length
- 8 to 12 weeks
- Places
- Up to 20 organisations
- Cost
- None during the pilot
- Contract
- None. No automatic renewal.
- Time per person
- One session a month, plus check-ins
- At the end
- A full outcomes report