How do I find a mentor for one specific gap like sales, hiring, or pricing rather than a generalist?
General 'startup mentors' are overrated. What moves the needle is someone who solved your exact problem 18 months ago. If you need sales help, find a founder who just built a repeatable sales motion in a market like yours, not a retired executive. Search by problem: look at who wrote the best thread or talk on that topic, who leads that function at a company one stage ahead, and ask your network for one intro to 'the best person you know at X'. Specific problem, specific person, specific ask.
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First Round Review is a primary, canonical startup-operations source, and this is a tactical playbook on landing high-caliber advisors even when you're a nobody, exactly the 'my network is all corporate' problem. It reframes advisor outreach as earned through specific, valuable interaction rather than cold asks.
Written by a fund built entirely around go-to-market, so it treats sales/hiring/pricing as distinct functional problems, not one 'mentor' bucket. It forces the specificity the question demands: don't seek 'a marketing advisor,' seek 'someone who built a content-driven motion in B2B SaaS selling to finance.' It also separates topical advice from functional support from coaching so you match the person to the exact gap.
India-founded (Bengaluru) and thick with Indian operators who solved your exact problem recently: growth leads, founder-led sales builders, and hiring/HR heads at companies one stage ahead. You search by topic and book a paid 30 to 60 minute call, so you get 'the person who built a repeatable sales motion 18 months ago' without needing a warm intro or handing over equity for a single question.
