Who is a Mentor?

Reprinted with permission from the August issue of the magazine Entrepreneur.

Two questions aspiring entrepreneurs invariably ask me are: Who is a mentor? Where can I find him? We’ll address both these questions in this column.

Can anyone who gives me advice be called a mentor?

No. There is no dearth of people who give you advice. But they are all not mentors. Mentors are those who hand-hold you to make sure that the advice they give you is actioned successfully. So it is advice with accountability.

What can I expect from my mentor?

A mentor brings to the table three mission-critical things :- one, he brings his experience. This is necessary because when entrepreneurs are fresh out of college, they don’t know what an organization looks like, so left to themselves, they may arrive at a successful blue-print after a lot of trial and error. A mentor with experience can bridge this gap and save them time, money, effort and heart-ache.

Two, a mentor opens doors for the entrepreneur which may otherwise remain shut. A mentor is someone who’s is very well networked and has credibility in his habitat. Networking may be to bring in other mentors, for gaining market access, for validating a business idea, for raising capital, for developing the product, - in other words, for just about anything.

Three, mentor is your mirror. He is expected to tell you things exactly as they are, not sugar-coat them. He’s not the devil’s advocate, he’s the devil himself.

Should the mentor know everything that there is to know ?

Now you’re being unreasonable. Like I said in my previous column, he is not Buddha and you are not his disciple. If you have a mentor to help you with business strategy, it is not even necessary that he knows your domain. Having said that, even if he doesn’t know everything, the mentor should have the perspective to point you in the right direction.

Can I have more than one mentor?

Of course yes, if you are one of those lucky guys, more power to you! You can have a mentor in your domain for product development, you may have another for going to market, and you may have a third for financial structuring.

How do I pay the mentor?

This is an arrangement between you and your mentor. Some mentors charge a small monthly retainer fee against which they provide mentoring and this may be articulated in the terms of engagement. Some may ask for a stake in the company, typically anywhere between 2-3%. Some may invest in your company for a 10% stake and mentor you. The models are many and may be tweaked depending on mentor-and-mentee convenience.

How can I trust the mentor?

Exactly the same way you learn to trust other people in your eco-system, such as employees, customers, and partners. You do adequate due diligence, you establish his credentials, you talk to other people whom he has mentored, you establish proof of concept. And finally go with your gut feel. It is very important that you connect with your mentor at a basic human level. Both of you need to like and respect each other, first as human beings and then as professionals.

This brings us to the second question.

Where will I find mentors?

You won’t find them with a doggie tag that says Mentor. They are hidden gems and you need to dig them. But look around you, there is enough and more activity happening, at least in the metros in India. There are lots of people today who are passionate not just about creating entrepreneurs, but fostering an entrepreneurial economy in India. Dig them from the pages of Linkedin, from the lecterns of a TiE conference, from the blogs of holykaw, from the TED talks, from a casual conversation in a waiting room, from an event at Headstart or Proto or OCC or Spark, from the incubators in IIT’s and IIM’s and PES,- in other words, from just about anywhere. Just the way you look out for opportunities, look out for mentors too. Seek and thou shalt find!


- Prof. Nandini Vaidyanathan, a Mentor on MentorSquare who teaches entrepreneurship in biz schools around the world and has co-founded two companies, Startups (forstartups.blogspot.com) and CARMa (www.carmagroup.in), both of which mentor entrepreneurs.