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Am I the only one who doesn't much like the word "mentor"? It makes me imagine kind of a superior/inferior relation, as if the best people aren't the ones who s
by solve 13y ago
Am I the only one who doesn't much like the word "mentor"? It makes me imagine kind of a superior/inferior relation, as if the best people aren't the ones who starting the startups. Shouldn't the very best people be the ones in the startups?
mentor:
- an experienced person in a company, college, or school who trains and counsels new employees or students.
- advise or train (someone, esp. a younger colleague).
The word has very clear, strong connotations.
So what is being said here? That founders can't be experienced serial entrepreneurs? That older people should be training younger people? It's a very strange word to choose, and I think it impacts how people perceive their roles.
- kohanz 13y agoMentorship isn't about being the best. It's about having teachable experience.
- simonebrunozzi 13y agoExactly true.
- michaelmior 13y agoI've never thought of a mentor as being necessarily superior. But if the "best" people are the ones starting the startups (which isn't always the case), they should be smart enough to know they can learn from others.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- michaelmior 13y agoI don't see how that contradicts with my statement.
- eru 13y agoWise people can learn from fools. The opposite is not true.
- IndieDevClub 13y agoWhen I went to tech meetups I met a couple mentors that had office hours... the first thing they started talking about was how much money they helped startups raise. They acted as if that validates any advice they gave. And their advice didn't seem that good. In reality I got more helpful advice from my peers. That's why I recently started a club for developers. The idea is to meet weekly online and talk to each other about the progress of our projects and startups. If any developers feel like they have no network at all (like me), then you should join my club. The link is in my profile.
- ixmatus 13y agoYour interpretation, I think, is off. The mentors I met ranged from intellectually superior, experientially superior (billion dollar companies under their belt, > 1 company), financially superior, operationally superior (in ability to speak or lead or execute), etc... Some were my age, a few were younger, some were old, and others in their 30's. Some "mentors" were more like peers - current founders that had grown beyond the "we are trying to make it" phase. Others were aloof. Some only cared about "being a mentor for Techstars" and not actually helping the companies. Others had little to provide except for enormous enthusiasm for what everyone was doing and hung out all the time. I learned a select few things from our mentors that was really important (mostly about leadership and fundraising) and most of the other mentors were more of a sounding board that allowed me to hone in on a consistent, concise, and powerful story about my company and our product (which we really didn't have prior). In one meeting you'll get lots of support for direction X and then the next meeting you could be met with a lot of skepticism for that same direction X. I learned quickly that absorbing the mentor's personal experience and then training a better story by telling it and observing how much of it they understand or don't understand or is picked apart by them. What is being said here is that founding a company is hard. Having a sounding board is extremely important as an indirect heuristic and there are some things you can directly learn from some of the mentors.
- solve 13y agoNo interpretation, I just pasted the Google definition. I see, so these accelerators are talking more about "specialized experts" (the mentors) vs "generalists" (the startup founders)?