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Written by a Techstars Mentor in Residence who has sat across from 350+ startups, so it is the advice from the other side of the table. Its sharpest rule maps straight onto our answer: never open a mentor meeting asking for money, open with your specific 3-month priority (a customer-acquisition metric or a product milestone) and pull the mentor toward that one number.
Founder advice for Techstars Mentor Madness
From landonhowell.com by Landon Howell 8 min read
- Lead every session with your concrete 3-month metric, not a funding ask, so mentors help you move the number instead of pitching you their network.
- Actively recruit the 3 to 5 mentors you click with and tell your program lead immediately, because lead-mentor slots are limited and go fast.
- If 38 of 40 mentors do not understand your vision, the problem is your storytelling, not their judgement; treat the meetings as pitch stress-testing.
