9 Rules for Being an Effective Mentor

In my experience, having effective, talented, and knowledgeable mentors has been the most powerful startup accelerator that I know. The best mentors I've worked with do a lot of the things on this list. You can call these the 9 rules of being a mentor - they will help you provide feedback to entrepreneurs you know and respect. These are not meant to be a definitive list (you should make your own list of things that work) and will get you started toward the process of sharing your expertise with a startup team. Rule #1: Use your Superpower (and know what it is)

Maybe you are amazing at Operations. Perhaps you understand Finance better than anyone you know. Or you can design an email marketing campaign to ensure the highest percentage of opened emails. You know your superpower (or you should) - and you can be a really effective mentor if you can leverage your experience in a way that doesn't say "do this, or else" to the entrepreneur you're advising.

Rule #2: Be Mindful of Limited Time

You are busy; the entrepreneurs are busy too. So show up on time, whether it's an in person meeting or a phone call. Give people information to review before the meeting. And answer any questions promptly so that you can give the best impression possible to a budding entrepreneur about how you can do things the right way. (Bonus points awarded if you thank them for emailing you and demonstrate a great customer service affect.)

Rule #3: Give to Get

This mentoring relationship is not about you: it's about what you can provide to a person trying to do a very difficult thing. If you do nothing else with your mentoring relationship, you should be focusing on what the other person says that they need (and listening for the unspoken, unmet needs as well.) You can also use the power of your networks to spread the word and really amplify the efforts of a fledgling business.

Rule #4: Make Introductions and Provide Context

I'm sure you've received more than a few emails or requests in your time where you read the email and are not sure why the person is contacting you and how they would like you to help. Providing context makes things better for you, the entrepreneurs, and anyone else they are working with. For example, "This is ____, he/she is solving this problem ____ for this customer ___ . It would be great if you could (clearly defined ask) by (clearly defined date.) If this doesn't work for you, please suggest another resource who might be able to help." is a short, focused way to request assistance. You may also need to do a "pre-ask" and make sure the resource is willing and able to help.

Rule #5: Build a Community of Mentors

A community is only as effective as its members, and the totality of the network provides the relationships and ideas that make the network really thrive and grow in value. Please meet the other Mentors, the other startups, and be open to the idea that you are always learning. You never know what a day will bring when you're open to new opportunities.

Rule #6: Only Offer What You can Deliver

The relationship with your startup company will be better if you set ground rules for how you can be contacted, what you can offer, and what you're expecting to give. (You might ask the same questions of them.) Setting these expectations up front will avoid disappointment and will make it clear what sort of communication cadence you need to build.

Rule #7: Make "Checking In" into a Habit

Set up a regular meeting with your team – either in person or on Skype – and encourage the entrepreneurs to drive the meeting using a well-defined agenda. A great start to an agenda (suggest your own favorite) is "what I did, what I'm doing, and where I need help." Sending answers to the same set of questions is also a great way for teams to inform their mentors - a tool like iDoneThis or 15Five or a shared Google Doc can do the trick here.

Rule #8: It's Not Your Startup

Building a relationship with a set of entrepreneurs is exciting, and sometimes develops into a lifelong relationship. And remember that you are there to provide advice, to help frame decisions, and to be correct when someone asks you a specific question. But it's not your startup. Remembering that fact makes it easier for you to deliver difficult and important advice, and it also frees the entrepreneurs to ignore your advice when they need to make their own way.

Rule #9: Ask the Right Questions

In best Steve Blank form, encourage your teams to "Get Out of the Building" and validate their assumptions with real customers as soon as possible. You can help them build their hypotheses by asking incisive questions, but ensure they make key decisions based on the customer insights they uncover during customer validation.

Are these the same rules I would have written when I first joined a startup? Nope. So remind yourself that your own personal rules for serving as a mentor (and for being mentored) will change over time. Your job as a mentor should be to focus on creating, communicating, and delivering unique value for the startup you're mentoring, and to help them do the same for their customers.

This guest blog post was courtesy of Greg Meyer, a 9Mile Labs mentor.  You can learn learn more about Greg at his website or by following him on Twitter (@gmeyer)

Is my startup too late / too early for an accelerator?

One of the most common questions we encounter when we talk to founders is - I have a lot more traction / funding / revenue than your standard “two guys and a C compiler” startup candidate. Should I be applying? Our level 1 response to this question is – do you think there is value to a world class mentor network, and the geometric network effects that will create for your business? That makes intuitive sense to most founders. However, the skeptics among them still want to see some evidence for that. While we wish we had examples from our own cohorts, we’re not there yet. So as a level 2 response, we point to stories from other accelerators and entrepreneurs who had $1M+ in revenue or $1M+ of funding, were already profitable, or were mentors in an accelerator themselves, and yet decided to join an accelerator. And then we point them to this great blog post “You’re Never Too Far Along for TechStars.” There’s another great blog entry, this time from a YCombinator startup, which addresses this common objection. Ultimately, even though we all know you’re perfect ;-), you have to take an objective view of where your gaps are and decide whether an accelerator can fill those gaps for you. As for early stage startups, i.e., the “two founders in a garage,” relevance of accelerators is probably more obvious. Co-founders at this stage are typically technical wizards who have a vision for a product that they can build. However, they’re less likely to be experienced on business functions such as marketing, selling, building a team, developing alliances, accounting, legal matters or product management. Accelerators help early stage startups template-ize what’s possible (e.g. standard legal / accounting terms), and can provide assistance for the founders to learn other areas where there is a skills gap. By surrounding co-founders with experienced entrepreneurs and functional experts, accelerators provide other avenues for startups to fill the gaps. Of course, really early stage startups benefit from the experience and networks of the mentors as much as do their later stage counterparts.

At 9Mile Labs, we also believe very strongly in using Steve Blank’s customer development methodology to build the product. This discipline allows founders to keep product development rooted in feedback from customers; it also provides startups with the basis for pivoting or iterating quickly where appropriate, while wasting minimal money, time and other precious resources.

Does Seattle really need yet another accelerator in 9Mile Labs?

Few people have asked us this question directly, others by implication. So we thought we'd share our point-of-view. We all know Seattle is rapidly becoming an attractive startup destination (#4 in the world according to the Startup Genome report) not just for WA state but also for the Pacific Northwest. An organization that helps nurture and grow early stage startups may not be a bad thing for our startup community. We certainly hear it all the time how the early stage startup ecosystem could use more support. Not just that, the Seattle area has been relatively sheltered from the economic crash of 2008 and as things begin to look up in the economy, we believe that the startup activity will intensify.

And how is 9Mile Labs different from the dozens of other incubators and accelerators in town? First off, we believe lumping incubators and accelerators together is like comparing apples and oranges, they are fundamentally very different business models. For a lot more on this topic, and which one is more appropriate for you as a startup, see this short YouTube video from Brad Feld or the discussion thread on Quora. So just focusing on the oranges (just go with it people!) while TechStars and Fledge.co are doing a great job with their startups, this region could certainly benefit from another early-stage accelerator. With all the technology talent and aspiring entrepreneurs in this region (rated #2 in the world in the Startup Genome report), there’s surely more than 10-20 competitive startup ideas that can use help from an accelerator.

One other way that 9Mile Labs is slightly different is our exclusive focus on B2B startups. All of us founders are career B2B software guys and the mentor network we are recruiting are all B2B-focused superstars. While we acknowledge that we end up narrowing the applicant pool with the B2B-only strategy, we believe we improve the chances of success for our startups with the laser focus.

So do we have what it takes to compete and succeed? You bet we do! We are entrepreneurs / executives ourselves and understand that our success is tied to the success of our startups. We continue to expand our slate of mentors, will have our program closely hew to Steve Blank’s customer development methodology, are creating customer panels to provide critical customer input, and offer great support to improve the success of our startups. There’s a lot more that goes into it, but you get the idea!

So what are you waiting for? Hop on over to www.9MileLabs.com and apply today!

9Mile Labs has opened the application process!

9Mile Labs (www.9MileLabs.com), a Seattle high-tech accelerator focused on B2B software and cloud technologies, is now accepting applications for its program starting April 2013. 9Mile Labs invites startups from Washington state, Oregon state, and the Vancouver B.C. region to apply. 9Mile Labs will run two 3-month programs every year, each with a group of 9 startups. During this 3-month period, 9Mile Labs will invest $20k in each of the companies joining the program in exchange for equity. Startups receive access to our wide network of mentors and advisors who have extensive startup, technology, business, and functional experience. Startups also get great perks such as free workspace, internet access, and hosting.

At the end of the 3-month program, the startups in the program have the opportunity to pitch their businesses to angel investors, venture capitalists, industry influencers, and executives during the 9Mile Labs Demo Day.

Perhaps one of the greatest value startups will get from the 9Mile Labs programs is the mentor network. The 9Mile Labs mentors come from a cross-section of the high-tech industry. A majority of the mentors are successful entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business veterans from the startup world. Many are executives from the high-tech business world who have excelled in an executive or functional capacity. Yet others are VCs and angel investors who have worked extensively with startups.

The 9Mile Labs website provides many more details. Application deadline is Feb 22, 2013, so don’t wait, APPLY NOW!