You bring up two interesting points. Regarding the first (partnering), I definitely think that's a great way to learn and I'm definitely open to those possibil

You bring up two interesting points. Regarding the first (partnering), I definitely think that's a great way to learn and I'm definitely open to those possibilities if someone is interested. Though the question still stands regarding how to find such a person, and also how to make them want to let you work with them when you're admitting upfront that you're not a superstar? :) Regarding the second (difficulties of being external), I'm not sure I agree. Say for example I wanted to make a HN-like website. I'd talk to this person about it, and say that I was planning on having one table for posts, and one table for comments, and then I'd scan the comments to rebuild the threaded discussion tree. "Mentor" might respond by saying "that's an OK start, but you're going to hit some bottlenecks pretty quick. Here's another way to do it/think about it/etc". I think that in reality, when you bring projects down to their architecture and design, they become manageable even for an external person, as long as they've been involved from the beginning. As such, I definitely think they have an opportunity to make an impact. Regarding your desire to find a strategy/business mentor, maybe this post is helpful: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1098994 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1098994