6 places to find a startup mentor to help you build a successful business

Mentors bring knowledge, skills, and possibly the wisdom that comes from experience to a mentoring relationship. Good mentors understand the challenges mentees face, and help them learn how to think and make decisions based on good judgment. 

Mentors teach mentees how to be better. 

Many mentors will tell you they have had failures along the way, and while they hurt, they have learned from them and become better. Failure itself is not a good thing, but the learnings from it can help us be even more successful going forward.

Finding the right mentor at the right time is key. Because your startup stage will change as you go from idea to product, to market. So the question is often how or where do I find a startup mentor?

Let’s look at six different places and ways you can find your startup mentor/s.

Social/personal networks

Technology makes things easier. Lookup a potential mentor on Linkedin or Google or any other site where you’ll be able to see where they work, their skills, experience, and their affiliations. See if there is anything in common with your personal interests that you could use as a way to make an introduction and build a foundation for a potential relationship.

Ask yourself, “Which needs do I definitely have?” This will help you target specific mentors.

Google your potential mentors. Review their LinkedIn profile. Find them anywhere and everywhere you can think of. Is there anyone in your existing network with connections to someone with the skills you need?

Ex bosses & teachers

If you went to business school, reach out to your favorite professors, and ask if they would be willing to mentor you in areas where they are experts.

Similarly, if you look up to an old boss you had worked for, ask them if they can spend some time with you every month and coach you in building leadership skills or building your startup team.

Since they already know you, it will be easier to get them on board. 

Accelerators & incubators

In the past few years, an incredible number of incubators and accelerators have opened up. First, incubators are generally places where you can rent a space to do your work. As long as you pay your “rent” you can be there. In some cases, incubators offer a nice set of options; funding, mentor pool, workshops, scheduled networking, and events that could be of interest to the group.

An incubator can be a place to make some great networking contacts. There is a wide range of incubators. Some are affiliated with schools and universities, others are non-profits set up by state and local governments that may subsidize them.

A number of incubators are set up by the type of product line or industry affiliation. Many are also set up by what is done in the space (for example, app development, maker-spaces that are set up with tools to help create products) or by the type of individuals that work out of the spaces (such as artists and musicians).