Building a Startup Mentor Pool Building a Startup Mentor Pool
How to build a mentor pool for founders, and keep it strong.
What this presentation covers
What this presentation covers
What this presentation covers
Who mentors founders
Recruit across four kinds of experience
Accelerators bring founders together with former founders, investors and corporate executives.
- Former founders have been through it
- Venture capitalists how rounds work
- Angel investors the first money
- Corporate executives buyers and partners
Why breadth matters
More outside views help founders decide
Founders tend to stop searching too soon, so many advisers widen what they see.
- Broad many kinds of advisers
- Intensive many meetings
- Paced a set rhythm
The mentor profile
Write profiles founders can choose from
A founder should see what a mentor knows, has done and can give.
- Expertise sectors and functions
- Track record companies built or backed
- Stages idea, validation, growth
- Availability hours per month
- Interests investments and board seats
Conflicts of interest
Ask every mentor to declare interests
Record shares, advisory roles and competing work before a mentor meets founders.
- Shares in a startup of the cohort
- Investments in the same market
- Advisory roles at competitors
- Something to sell to the founders
- A rule to step aside
Time commitment
Agree the time before the term starts
Put meetings per month, reply times and the length of the term in writing.
- Meetings a set number per month
- Replies within agreed days
- Term one cohort, then renew
- Events kickoff and demo day
What founders value
Founders need a mentor who understands
Mentees were most satisfied when they felt understood, trusted their mentor and saw results.
Mentoring style
The best mentors ask and stay involved
In a study of 360 mentees, questioning combined with real involvement worked best.
- Questioning founders find their own answers
- Involvement the mentor takes a real part
- Both together the best results
Matching founders
Match for trust and common ground
Trust and perceived similarity helped mentored entrepreneurs learn.
- Who chooses? founders shortlist, mentors accept
- On what? stage, sector and the problem at hand
- When to rematch? when trust does not form
Keeping the pool
Keep mentors with feedback and thanks
Show mentors what their founders did next, and refresh the pool each cohort.
- Recruit
- Brief
- Match
- Feedback
- Thank
Sources
The research behind this presentation
- Hochberg, Y. V. (2016) Accelerating entrepreneurs and ecosystems: The seed accelerator model Innovation Policy and the Economy, 16, 25-51
- Hallen, B. L., Cohen, S. L. & Bingham, C. B. (2020) Do accelerators work? If so, how? Organization Science, 31(2), 378-414
- Cohen, S. L., Bingham, C. B. & Hallen, B. L. (2019) The role of accelerator designs in mitigating bounded rationality in new ventures Administrative Science Quarterly, 64(4), 810-854
- St-Jean, É. & Audet, J. (2009) Factors leading to satisfaction in a mentoring scheme for novice entrepreneurs International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 7(1), 148-161
- St-Jean, É. & Audet, J. (2013) The effect of mentor intervention style in novice entrepreneur mentoring relationships Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 21(1), 96-119
- St-Jean, É. (2012) Mentoring as professional development for novice entrepreneurs: Maximizing the learning International Journal of Training and Development, 16(3), 200-216
Build the pool before the cohort
Recruit widely, clear conflicts, agree the time and match for trust.