How mentors fill gaps in a founder’s business

If family or friends can help you get in touch with someone who can guide you, that is a good way to find and reach out to a possible mentor. The mentor can also help you get in touch with contacts he has built over the years.

“You might just get these contacts if you cold call, and yes, that shows initiative. But when you are trying to start a company, and are pressed for time, a recommendation might mean a lot of time saved," says Anuj Rakyan, owner of RAW Pressery, a cold pressed juice brand.

creating trust

A mentor’s suggestions often come from the experience of having worked through similar challenges. Dhanuka’s experience in the honey industry was the closest Setia could have found for his idea for the dairy industry. Some of his advice was industry specific—such as whom to approach and how to build contacts – while some remained more general in nature.

“As a startup founder, you want to do so much so quickly, you sometimes overlook the obvious. At the beginning I was making silly mistakes like booking work tours with my own personal money. But he made me realize that if I kept on doing that, I would never be able to understand how much the company is actually spending and therefore, how much we will need to be sustainable," explains Setia.

For Wakefit’s Garg, sometimes the mentor’s idea might not click with the founders completely. They then have a discussion and if they are still unconvinced, they take the suggestion to a third person and let him weigh in on it.

Sometimes though, Garg and partner Chaitanya Ramalingegowda (who incidentally was a mentor before joining the company), go with their gut. For example, in March 2017, when they wanted to increase their product portfolio by making sofas under the Wakefit brand, their mentor thought it was too early to do that and they could lose focus. “We ignored that bit of advice and launched it anyway. But, we had to close it in nine months, though it was a learning experience," says Garg.

Sometimes the suggestion the mentors give is taken with a pinch of salt. “It is okay to do that, because often, certain ways of thinking can be obsolete. And while you trust your mentor, and respect their experience, it is often your gut instinct which helps you take the final call," says Rakyan. He has been on both sides—he was been mentored by the likes of former Mondelez India vice-chairman Rajiv Wahi and is now mentoring startup founders as well.

The journey of a single founder can be lonely, says Rakyan. And therefore, he tries to pay it forward by informally helping a few startup founders as well. It isn’t just the founders that benefit. Rakyan believes that while founders are ruled by instinct and passion at the beginning of a start-up journey, it is slowly overtaken by logic once the company starts to expand. Talking to these young founders keeps Rakyan on his toes, keeps his thinking fresh and passion as strong as day one.

“It’s a win-win for both. And while start ups founders may need it the most when they suddenly have too much money, or have to build a team, it is also attractive investors to know that the company has good mentors to guide the founder through thick and thin," he adds.

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Mentor or investor ?

The approach taken by each mentor plays a different role in the evolution of a startup.

A good mentor asks questions and does not force his or her answers. Mentoring opens-up the potential of an entrepreneur, while an investor quite often limits himself to ensuring better returns on investment. A mentor taps into the creative abilities; investor brings alignment with goals.

Both play important roles as one ‘lets loose’ and other ‘tightens’. An entrepreneur has to keep in mind that if he or she wants to be creatively challenged, s/he should turn to a mentor. If s/he needs to be challenged for business performance, it’s time to meet the investor.