What I Learnt From Meeting 60 Mentors in 2 Weeks

#Discussion(Startup) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

Unknown Unknowns
The startup sphere is a graveyard littered with ventures that have fallen by the wayside. Pretty much every single person who’s got startup experience will say that ideas are two a penny, it’s the execution that matters. Even though I had a long career in finance, I fully accept that I’m a bit wet behind the ears when it comes to building a new company from scratch.
I don’t normally look to Donald Rumsfeld as a source of wisdom, but I think he was onto something when he talked about “unknown uknowns”; those challenges that you never foresee, those moments in which you can’t rely on your experience to bail you out.
Mentor Madness
The Techstars accelerator is a 3-month programme in which a key component is called “Mentor Madness”. True to the name, it’s a string of rapid meetings with mentors who have been selected for the experience and value they can bring to the batch startups. Each mentor meeting is twenty minutes long, and there are up to 10 a day. Speed dating with mentors if you will. A decent analogy for the experience is standing in front of a burst fire hydrant: there will be a tremendous flow of information and viewpoints gushing at us, far more than is possible to fully comprehend. We’ll be left disoriented. There’s even something that’s ominously called “mentor whiplash”.
At the end of it all, while there were many takeaways, there were two in particular that stuck out as incredibly important and actionable:

(I) Customer First
(II) Test What You Don’t Know

There Was No Magic Solution
I was wrong to expect that I could just show up and gain answers to my problems by speaking to mentors. Mentors don’t give you answers, they don’t have them. They can share their views, act as a sounding board, and brainstorm with you. But you know your business the best. Rather than giving you answers, what they can do is help you discover the right questions. It is through these questions that the secret to success can be discovered.

Read More..