The Right Way to Be a Mentor. 5 Reasons a Startup Mentor Need Not Be Your Friend. Published Oct 05, 2012 Friends tell you what you want to hear. Mentors tell you what you need to hear. When the message is the same from both, you don’t need the mentor anymore. In that sense, you should think of a mentor more like your advisor who has done all he can. You always need the friend. Also don’t confuse a business mentor with a business coach. A mentor’s aim is to teach you what to do and how, in specific situations, unlike a coach who helps you develop your generic skills for deciding what to do and how. Before you are ready for a mentor, you must know yourself. Once you are ready, what are some of the attributes of a good mentor that you should look for? Applies pragmatics to your ideas. How do you find a person who meets these criteria?
This person could be a professional who does this for a living, or a role model in a related business who is willing to help you. View more articles from this columnist » Martin Zwilling. 5 Key Tips for Engaging a Startup Mentor | Stratessence. A business mentor has more entrepreneurial and domain expertise than you and can help in improving productivity, streamlining marketing initiatives, build better business relationships and in retaining key human capital for your Startup. Read ‘Importance of Business Mentoring’ to understand the relevance of a mentor.
Finding the ‘right’ mentor is not always easy and requires some research and hard work to get the best fit for the founders and the Startup. Here are five tips on finding and choosing a mentor for your Startup. Ask around for recommendations from your past & present colleagues, contractors, accountant, lawyer, and among your professional friends.
The startups that I have mentored have all come through such recommendations.Mentors have a variety of expertise. To get the best out of them, you need to brainstorm the areas of guidance you need a mentor for. All the best for your search! Pitching to Angel Investors - Part 1. Over the next couple weeks I'll have multiple posts on this topic since it's a popular one amongst Entrepreneurs. I'm not quite sure where to start with "Pitching to Angel Investors" so I'll just dive in... To be blunt, a large percentage of people I speak with have ZERO chance of raising money from investors. There are dozens if not hundreds of reasons why this is true but one big reason is the lack of any possible and substantial return of capital for the investor (99% of Angel Investors want to make money, they are not Philanthropists in this aspect of their lives).
Raising money from Angel Investors is hard and can take a long time. Angel Investors are usually successful entrepreneurs or business executives with very high standards for excellence. They want to invest in the best people, with the best ideas, in the biggest markets with the greatest potential for success and big returns. Ask yourself: Why are you different? Remember: Ideas are common, great execution is rare. How To Find a Great Startup Mentor. If you're an early-stage entrepreneur and this is your first startup company, you are not alone. Thousands are toiling over code in the hopes that their product will gain users and revenue. The problem with being someone who can build a great product is that you might know more about your core technology then you do about the business of startups.
In the past few weeks ReadWriteWeb has covered emerging tech hubs in Israel, Austin and Boulder and the common thread amongst them is that each community encourages mentorship. Today we're looking at what you need to know to find a great mentor. Says Union Square Ventures VC Fred Wilson in a recent blog post, "The young entrepreneurs who are starting companies for the first time are best served by seeking out and getting experienced serial entrepreneurs as angel investors, board members, and mentors. We encourage all of the first time entrepreneurs we work with to do this. " Let us know how you chose your mentor/advisor in the comments below. HackFwd. Aaron Greenspan. Great Mentors Get Out of the Office - Bill Russell and Nancy Altobello. By Bill Russell and Nancy Altobello | 8:00 AM September 7, 2012 Without the mentoring of my high school coach, I (Bill) would have never been able to achieve the success I did.
I was cut from the junior varsity basketball team. The varsity coach took me to the Boys and Girls Club, paid the $2 membership and told me if I practice every day he would put me on the varsity team. His belief in me made me realize I had the potential to be successful. We went on to win three straight state championships. Research increasingly confirms how critical it is for young people to have caring mentors. But here is the real secret about mentoring that we’ve both learned through our work at the MENTOR partnership: The mentors frequently learn as much as the students. Similarly, youth mentoring can also be rewarding to your career. Here is what you can expect to bring back to the office, if you decide to offer a young person your time and concern: The Unwritten Secrets for Choosing a Startup Mentor. Every first-time entrepreneur, or even an experienced founder stepping into a new business area, needs a mentor.
Nothing you have ever done raises so many questions, or has the potential to be so fulfilling, or so risky, as starting a new business for the first time. A mentor is a confidant who has been there and done that, and is willing to guide your steps. In case you think mentors are only for “wimps,” you should know that most great entrepreneurs are quick to give credit to their mentors. Bill Gates always revered the early guidance he received from Dr.
Ed Roberts, creator of the Altair 8800. Later, the great Warren Buffet became his mentor on many corporate matters. In a reverse fashion, most of the recognized business gurus always found time to be a mentor. The best mentor candidates are the most experienced professionals you admire, and from whom you can learn, to accelerate your progress and avoid the deep potholes in the road ahead. Mentoring is not a group activity.