DEMAND OF MENTORING AMONG NEW STARTERS Wikholm Jimmy, ALMI Business Partner, Orebro Sweden e-mail: jimmy.wikholm@almi.se Henningson Thomas, ALMI Business Partner, Orebro Swed Hultman Claes M., Orebro University, Orebro Sweden Abstract Mentoring is considered of crucial importance to the survival and growth of small and medium sized companies (SME´s), and that provision of new firm support can yield positive and worthwhile returns to the public sector investment. From a Swedish perspective there is a need for further action to become as competitive within business start-ups as the rest of the EU as well as the USA. The purpose of this paper is to get an indication of the extent to which new starters are interested in taking part as an adept in mentoring and their attitudes towards mentoring. The results are based on a questionnaire going out to 1 022 new starters in different branches located all over Sweden, with a reply frequency of 48,53%. Our research is a contribution within the field of supply and demand of mentors for new starters. Furthermore this could give new directions for governmental and other supporting agencies and indicate new directions for cost-effective business development programmes within EU to SME´s and entrepreneurial firms. Keywords: mentor, mentoring, mentoring program, adept, start-up, new starter