Ins and outs of startup mentorship: How to expose a quack and find your sensei

As the saying goes–for every startup, there’s a startup mentor. There’s an ocean of advice. If you look carefully, it’s possible to find pairs of perfect contradictions for every tip. It’s better to go public earlier, no – it’s actually better to wait; looking for team players rather than autonomous individuals is key, no – actually, the opposite is true. 

There’s plenty of advice for founders of all shapes, sizes and management styles, so how not to get confused among all of this noise and how to tell potentially toxic insights from the valuable ones? We’ve gathered some tips that will help you navigate the jungle of startup mentorship and help you find your way towards the sensei of your dreams. 

Define your questions

Start by defining your unknowns and picking a set of the most burning questions. While mentors may have very strong opinions about certain matters, if you’ve found what works for you – there’s no reason to rework it just because somebody else advised you to. Define your goals and figure out the type of help you need for your company. This will allow you to develop a list of specific qualities you’re looking for in a mentor and, simultaneously, ignore irrelevant advice. 

Look for large networks

A good mentor has not only been in your shoes, or deeply familiar with your situation, but has also managed to build a network of people suitable for solving the issues you have identified. Having a mentor with good connections in the industry gives you the leverage of operating without hassles. Empty talk is useless. If the mentor cannot suggest fitting people who are experts in your issue, consider this shallow advice. 

Do you speak the same language?

Half of the problems with unfit mentors arise from the fact that they are not familiar with your field. The first question to ask yourself is – does this person have any entrepreneurial experience or have they been working closely with startups before? If the answer is “no”, stop immediately.

It is crucial to find out whether the person has any experience in the field. Different industries require different approaches, and what may be suitable for one, may dig a grave for players in the next. 

Skillset compatibility 

While it’s important to look for experts from within the industry, you need to find mentors with complementary, rather than mimicking skills. People who have the same issues and approach problems in the same way, won’t get you far. Discover a mentor whose expertise serves as the missing piece of your puzzle. The benefits are endless and include, without limitation, new skills, different viewpoints and a better idea of how to scale your startup.

Aligning values

Soft requirements like values usually skip the headlines. However, finding a mentor whose definition of success and impact is aligned with yours is one of the key prerequisites for successful cooperation. Consequently, too much time can be lost in merely attempting to explain and introduce the mentor to the values of the company.