Mentoring Startups Stage by Stage Mentoring Startups Stage by Stage
How to support startups at each stage, from the first idea to growth.
What this presentation covers
What this presentation covers
What this presentation covers
Stages of growth
Each stage brings its own problems
In tech ventures, the main problems shifted in a fairly predictable way as firms grew.
- Conception build the technology
- Commercialization first production and sales
- Growth sales and market share
- Stability profit and controls
Four stages in a program
Name each startup’s stage at entry
Most programs see founders at idea, validation, product-market fit or growth.
- Idea a problem worth solving
- Validation evidence that customers care
- Product-market fit users who stay and pay
- Growth repeatable sales, a bigger team
The idea stage
At the idea stage, test the problem
Mentors help founders turn a hunch into questions they can ask customers.
- Who has this problem?
- How do they solve it today?
- What would they pay?
- What would prove us wrong?
The validation stage
Teach founders to test like scientists
In a trial with 116 Italian startups, founders taught to test hypotheses performed better.
Pivot or persevere
Good tests lead to more pivots
Founders who tested like scientists pivoted more often and did not quit more often.
- Better performance
- More pivots
- No more drop-outs
Product-market fit
Look for users who come back
Ask mentors to check retention and paying users before any talk of scaling.
- Retention users still active after 3 months
- Paying customers who renew
- Sales cycle days from first call to contract
Money before growth
Early grants help startups raise investment
In the US, an early-stage energy grant roughly doubled the odds of later venture capital.
- Public grant pays for a prototype
- Investors see less uncertainty
- Venture capital about twice as likely
The growth stage
At growth, survival is the hard part
GEM finds too few startups go on to become established firms.
What mentors give founders
Practical help teaches founders most
For 360 mentored entrepreneurs, career-related help drove learning most, then psychological support.
- Career-related help advice, contacts, challenge
- Psychological support confidence, a listening ear
- Role model someone to learn from
Sources
The research behind this presentation
- Kazanjian, R. K. (1988) Relation of dominant problems to stages of growth in technology-based new ventures Academy of Management Journal, 31(2), 257-279
- Camuffo, A., Cordova, A., Gambardella, A. & Spina, C. (2020) A scientific approach to entrepreneurial decision making: Evidence from a randomized control trial Management Science, 66(2), 564-586
- St-Jean, É. (2012) Mentoring as professional development for novice entrepreneurs: Maximizing the learning International Journal of Training and Development, 16(3), 200-216
- Howell, S. T. (2017) Financing innovation: Evidence from R&D grants American Economic Review, 107(4), 1136-1164
- Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2026) GEM 2025/2026 Global Report: From Uncertainty to Opportunity GEM Consortium
Meet founders where they are
Name each startup’s stage at entry and choose its mentors for that stage.