Mentorship for Startup Investments
Mentors can guide entrepreneurs through challenges and provide direction for startup investments. Online information does not document all knowledge. Mentors have years of experience and can offer insights that can prevent entrepreneurs from making costly mistakes. They have an unbiased perspective and understand the operating boundaries. They are valuable partners in the early stages of a company. Entrepreneurs can avoid missteps and ensure long-term success by seeking mentorship. Find a mentor to guide you on your journey or share your knowledge and experience as a mentor to help the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Why Mentorship?
You need a mentor to guide you through challenges and give direction as an entrepreneur. Online information does not document all knowledge. Our mentors 11.1 KM-S have decades of experience and offer insights that can save you from costly mistakes. We have an unbiased perspective and understand the operating boundaries. We are valuable partners in the early stages of your company as mentors. Weekly dialogs and discussions with your startup investments adviser can help you avoid missteps and ensure long-term success.
Why need a Mentor for your fund raise?
You have taken the plunge and you have chosen a risky path. It is only the very brave dare what you have endeavoured to achieve.
Advise on Strategy
New Entrepreneurs would always set out to traverse the path untrodden. However even you would need direction and advise during challenging times. If there are no visible paths then it is best to ask one of our mentors’ who has taken a similar path.
In the internet era all information is supposedly available on the internet. Mentors have a lot of practical knowledge that they do not write in books.
Secure startup investments
“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with dust and sweat; who strives valiantly, who errs and may fall again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming.”
…..”Theodore Roosevelt:
Your company needs to secure startup investments for its growth. Our mentors for their own startup investments had prepared business plan, pitch deck, negotiation , due diligence, preparing legal documents etc.
Go to market strategy
After years of tackling difficult situations, our mentors have learnt from costly mistakes, available to you now from the Mentor.
Each of these mistakes and timely advise can save you from difficult and costly situations. These mistakes could be years of wrong product development, entry into a wrong geography or an untimely hire. All of these mistakes can either stunt growth or reduce profitability.
In the early stages of your company there is nil or lesser presence of senior management in the team. You would thereby must be feeling the need for a partner to have an uncompromised business conversation. Someone who is not an insider and thereby not prejudiced by the constraints of the organization. Mentor knows the operating boundaries like an insider. He or she would share insights on both strategy and execution during your weekly discussions.
How do Mentors help?
6 situations where Mentor can be useful.
Mentors are invaluable to entrepreneurs facing crossroads, providing guidance and an experienced sounding board. They help refine strategies, set goals, and review performance. They can assist in areas such as sales and marketing strategy, co-founder searches, hiring, branding and messaging, and financial management.
The mentor has experience in various aspects of entrepreneurship. He or she can advise entrepreneurs on how to grow sales, find the right co-founder or hire, establish effective branding, and manage finances. A mentor can also help entrepreneurs prepare for fundraising, which requires careful financial planning and a clear business strategy.
How to increase sales :
An entrepreneur always thinks about increasing sales and revenues. He or she wants to improve either B2B or retail sales. The startup investments mentor has experience in devising and implementing sales & marketing strategies in startups. These strategies are different from those at corporates. The mentor can fine tune your strategy, collate data on progress and then work with you to improve further.
Co-founder related :
Do you need a co – founder ? Why not take a professional instead ? Will the co-founder to be, resonate your ideas? Or would you end up squabbling. After deliberations you may decide to take a co-founder for your startup. You need to know how to start the search, how to short list, and how to consult an experienced entrepreneur mentor. Co-founder stocks/compensation if not already decided is always a matter of dilemma.
The founder may want someone to negotiate on his or her behalf. Or he or she may want a non-partisan dispassionate referee who can help the founder and co-founder sign off on a win-win deal.
Hire :
Is this is the right time to hire for a strategic/senior position and if so, what is the right compensation. How does one attract good professionals when cash is always so short. How to position the company to attract good talent. How to setup a good ESOP policy, or should we give stocks and if yes how much ? Is there a thumb rule ?
Milestones & Reviews :
Entrepreneurs are self driven, but they have many projects running simultaneously. Some projects can take up all their time and sideline some other very important projects/activities. As a working professional there was always the boss and the monthly reviews which helps in auto-aligning oneself. Businessmen do need assistance in goal setting and be reviewed regularly
Branding :
At the early stage of a company the focus of the founders are on product development and Go-to- market. Branding & Communications is pushed to the side to be taken up after the company has settled down.
However establishing the right branding, messaging and the right communication strategy is equally important right from day one. Effective Messaging is important to establish the company as a reliable leader, even to get the first Proof of concept or the first customer. You have scarce resources at hand. You cannot hire a marketing and communications agency at an early stage. The mentor can guide you through with his experience at his startup.
Startup Investment :
You would raise funds when investing into a new product, feature, service, geography, right time hire etc. Preparation for your startup’s Investments should be treated as an equally important function and treated similar to product development and sales.
The investor need to see the best in the company. That means a lot of preparation must go in every stage of the fund raise. The stages include, the right pitch, the right pitch deck, financial forecast, due diligence and final legal documentation. What part of the several product features should you mention or highlight for best impression. What is a plausible growth plan. What should be the valuation. What should be the salary of the founder.
It is only when one goes through the entire process does one know of expectations at each stage. Any founder who has gone through multiple rounds of fund raise would be able to help. 11.1 KM-S mentor helps in shaping the company before fund raise.
