Mentors and mushrooms

Mentors

Wednesday, November 2, 11

Mentors are like
Mushrooms

by @peignoir

How to recognize the good ones?


Good mentors


How to recognize them..

Successful people
Rare / hard to find
You will have to attract them (they usually say no)
They are awfully busy
They have connections and usually $
They helped a lot of successful Startups

Toxic Mentors


How to recognize the toxic ones..

They claim to be a mentor (it’s not a job!)
They will come to you (usually you beg for a good one)
They cost $ (usually mentors will invest...)
They never successfully launched anything
They will spend a lot of time with you (they have time!)
They are everywhere!

Side Effects of Toxic Mentors

- Weird strategic move - If you survive he will claim success

- Killing your Startup
-Losing credibility


Where to find them in the Startup eco-system

You are taking over the World!
HIGH GROWTH

You have a stable business model
and a great product
SCALE

You have a solid team Garage STARTUP
with some good ideas

You are an ACTION
Entrepreneur

You want to be an DISCOVERY
Entrepreneur

INSPIRE/CELEBRATE
You’ve got some
passions & ideas
?


What is Mentoring?


Origin

Someone who imparts wisdom to and shares knowledge with a less experienced colleague


Is it only about
Knowledge?


ork
etw
’s n
or
e nt
M

An unfair advantage provider


Example of unfair advantage:

Before After

Mary Maxwell Gates
was an American businessperson. Gates served 18 years (1975–1993) on the University of Washington board of regents. She was the first female president of King County’s United
Way, the first woman to chair the national United Way’s executive committee where she served most notably with IBM's CEO, John Opel, and the first woman on the First Interstate
Bank of Washington's board of directors.


Type of Mentors

The Connector Mentor The Guru Mentor

Network > Knowledge Network < Knowledge


How networks and Money Interact with startups

Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company

George W. Fairchild Sherman Fairchild Gordon Moore
(1854 - 1924) (1896 - 1971) (1929 ... )


Be good at school kids!

Having a great Academic network is your first ally!
It allows you to build a great “unfair advantage” by yourself!


It’s only been 6 Years since good
accelerators allows you to have
access to great mentors via your
Talent (usually technical talent!)

Like Colleges each accelerator /
incubators are different. Avoid the
ones who don’t provide good Mentors
(cf the Mushroom section)

Do you need mentors / great
academics to succeed?


Nope...

There’s always exceptions!


Though having models might
help...

Edwin H. Land


Questions?

franck@startupweekend.org


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