How many mentors does it take to change a light bulb?
How many mentors should you have? Is there a number that too less or do many mentors spoil the broth?
This broth tastes bad
One of the common practices (feature so to speak) of most accelerators is to connect the members with as many mentors as possible. In my previous gig at Spark10, we started out with that model and had about 30 individuals connect, as mentors, with the startups, plus a few more based on personal requirements of the teams. And even though we started out that way, soon, my partner and I, decided that was not working out.
Firstly, it’s difficult to find smart people. Second, it’s hard to find people who’d be able to give much of their time to mentor and help the startups and third, the kind of value that the startups was not linearly correlated with the number of people they met or interacted with.
And so, we had decided that we would stop having a pool of mentors at Spark10 and only bring in someone for a specific problem that a specific startup might have. For most operational and strategic discussions, I was always around, while my partner was there to help with questions on fund raising, which was enough for most startups.
The advantage in this (extremely) lean model was that it saved us a lot of time (operationally) to find, connect and maintain relationships with individuals. I still maintain those relationships, but I don’t have to do it as an obligatory duty — keep mentors happy and engaged. And moreover, the distinct benefit we observed was with the startups.
In our first cohort (with about 30 mentors), startups were left more confused than they started out with. They heard contradictory comments, suggestions or feedback from mentors, leaving them questioning which path should they be taking next. In most cases, people tend to go with the mentor who they liked the most and not the one that made most sense, if those two weren’t the same person.
In a bad or non-existent relationship
By observing and interacting with the startups, I realized that the founders didn’t really understand the concept of mentoring. Heck, at first, even we didn’t and that’s why we had so many. I realized that their (the startups) and our motive to have many mentors was the same — have as many opportunities opened as possible.
For us (as an accelerator) , it was about bragging rights, but for startups it seemed to be more of a networking activity. Connect with and collect as many business cards as possible with the view that one of them will open some door someday.
But it didn’t work and doesn’t generally work. Startups faced the same problem I faced — maintenance of those relationships. And while I had incentives to continue managing them, the startups slowly stopped doing that. And so, all those business cards turned into the figurative dust pile.
Each relationship is important and needs to be nurtured. It’s probably one of the most important lessons a seasoned networker will tell you. And if you can’t nurture the relationship, it’s going to fade away and die.
It pays to have many people look at and give their views. But the problem with that is that the views are not consistent. Everybody has a different worldview shaped by their experiences. And because of which, everyone will have a different say in what you should do.
If you are person or a team that can take feedback objectively and not be swayed by every conversation you have, go ahead and ask many experts for their feedback. But most people aren’t like that and, as I mentioned before, end up being confused about their next steps.
How many is enough?
One. At most, two.
If you find a person, who believes in you, your product and the potential of your business, has the expertise or the experience that you can count on, then that one person is enough.
The experience and conviction (in you) is enough for them to open as many doors as they can for you. And that’s what you want. A few doors, but the right doors. And the same goes for advice. If your mentor is good and cares about you and your growth, they’ll have the best advice for you or find you someone who can give you what you need.
At most, you can have two. You should not have more than two mentors. And these two should not have many overlaps. For example, don’t have two experts from the same industry, domain or function. You don’t need two marketing experts in the retail industry. You need only one. If you have one, then let the second person be a logistics expert (or an expert in something else that you direly need).
Making the best out of your mentor is a science and an art. And if you are juggling between three, five or twenty of them, you aren’t going to get much out of them. Here’s a blog post that I first wrote in Nov 2016 that can guide you to have a more fruitful relationship with your mentor. Here are the 5 things I highlighted in the post:
- Know what you are looking for
- Drill down to the specific
- Make a really specific ask
- Do the groundwork
- Don’t have unrealistic expectations
Go ahead, read that post and have great conversations with your mentor(s).
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This story was published on #cannotgetsimpler by untangled start.
