Key is that the mentor is 'an experienced entrepreneur'. This is very important - everywhere I see nowadays are startup programs with 'mentors', most times they are just corporate employees with no entrepreneurial trackrecord.<p>What do experienced entrepreneurs know?<p>Their advice is initially ignored and they know that that's normal. Every first-time entrepreneur has wrong assumptions that they are advised against. But they just must test them out themselves. Non-experienced entrepreneur mentors want their advice followed and quickly give up mentoring if it isn't so.<p>That advice is still very important: the advantage is that you get to a point quick where you remember the advice initially ignored and pivot faster and learn much quicker.
Alternate headline: Very successful people seek out mentors to enhance their own capabilities.<p>More seriously, I've always found two distinct types of mentors, and discovered it's crucial to separate the two types apart from each other and not confuse one for the other.<p>One type is the "been there done that" type with decades of experience in one particular area, and they simply share with you lots of anecdotes about how things have played out in the past as empirical evidence of how they may play out in the future.<p>The other type is the kind of mentor who provides you with an analytical framework to be able to prioritize and evaluate decisions on your own. This person often helps you see the forest from the trees, or helps you recognize blindspots you might not be aware of.<p>Both are valuable, but it's important to know the difference.
I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately. If you give up typical mentor equity - ~0.5% in exchange for someone who can open doors and quickly make connections for you, payable upon company exit, this can end up being a pretty good deal. Consider this, many of the things mentors can do for a startup are things that could be done by a high level employee, but could take up lots of time - sourcing talent, getting intros, removing roadblocks, etc. If you hire someone to help with these things, it costs you $100,000+/year in your prime growth stage where working capital is vital. If you have a mentor who can do these things in a fraction of the time because of his or her network and experience, if you have a $100mm exit, this ends up costing you $500,000 somewhere between 5 and 10 years later. It also frees up that salary which can then be used to finance growth in operations or some other vital need. Of all the financing and investment options a founder has available, if you have access to good mentors, this seems like one of, if not the, best option to help with the growth of your company.
The article itself is not terrible, but I have a strong aversion for horrible titles like that. Why not just say something like: "Start ups greatly benefit from experienced mentors"?<p>I get the same kind of eyeroll response when people define themselves 'social media ninjas' or 'growth hackers' or 'panini artist'.
Glad to see a "proof" of the gut feeling I have had since before launching my startup.
I chose to turn down VC money and accept deep-pocketed BAs instead.
First, we all have "skin in the game"
Second, and more importantly, a 50-thing BA with several successes and/or failures is much more valuable to me than a 20-30-thing analyst whose job is to check my excel files, do a broad market analysis and inform his boss.<p>(I have nothing against 30-things, I am one myself. I value our generation new ideas, but I also admit that experience is useful :-) )
And unsuccessful companies usually ignore their mentors' advice and fail (all the while scratching their heads as to why the mentors quit).<p>I can't tell you how many startups I've mentored where the CEO/CTO/founders would not listen to me or the other mentors/advisors on the team, and eventually it gets to the point where there is no reason to continue, the company's doomed to fail or stay stagnant in terms of growth/additional funding.
The key is knowing when to listen mentors - or actually doing what they suggest - and when not to. The more seasoned, experienced and older you are, the better you can filter the advice given.<p>One of the worst things is first-time entrepreneurs bombarded by mentors and their advice, and the startups then actually doing everything they're told. Have seen many great startup teams and ideas ruined by that. Happens especially at 2nd rate accelerators.
That's kind of like saying Harvard is the key to getting a high-paying job. The novice entrepreneurs that build successful relationships with experienced ones are also sending signals that they will succeed before that relationship begins in earnest. The previously successful entrepreneurs are picking winners whose efforts they can magnify.
I believe this to be true in other aspects of professional life as well. When I was learning to fly to become a commercial pilot having a mentor who was himself an accomplished pilot and mechanic helped tremendously. I was able to advance through my flight ratings at a much greater speed than if I had been learning on my own.
My experience is that mentors, being one step removed from the company, also have the ability to see the things that the founders don't want to either believe or see. But it also reminds me of the story we had a couple of years ago about how you can't recognize greatness if you haven't actually experienced it. So you think this friend of yours is the greatest <foo> you've ever seen and yet your mentor feels they are good, but not great, and you need to improve that area, what comes out is the 'mentor just hates my friend' which is the easier logic for the founder.
It's interesting how the loss of elderly wisdom in our society has came back in the tech arena. People who have legitimately been around the block know things. Strategy being one of the most important.
If anybody is on the East coast, I highly recommend Mike Krupit: <a href="http://www.trajectify.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.trajectify.com/</a><p>He's helping me and he has some really great experience to back up his advice.
The best mentors are elders in your family: dad, mom, grandparents, uncles, etc. Sadly we ignore them very often.<p>They also say that majority of successfully entrepreneurs are one where parents were also entrepreneurs.
"Correlation does not imply causation". That these founders are mentored by very successful people is not proof alone of the value of mentoring. It seems like mentoring is very powerful, but the fact these founders have access to such successful mentors may say more about the environment these people are founding their company, rather than the quality of mentoring.
"Shrinks for startups?" (<a href="http://twitter.com/mikellsolution/status/571590631304388608" rel="nofollow">http://twitter.com/mikellsolution/status/571590631304388608</a> ) might be part of a mature stack.