Q: What is your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?

A: You've got to surround yourself with the right people. Everyone tells you to get a mentor. A mentor is super important and has a role, but you need more than that. You need a hitting partner [like in tennis]. This is somebody who is motivated by the same end results you are but not competing with you. In my case it was one of my very active board members.

Finding that hitting partner to challenge you and work with you every day makes you better at every turn. I think that's something we forget to tell young entrepreneurs. We tell them a lot to find a mentor; we don't tell them a lot that they need a hitting partner and a coach. And those are different things. People think all the time that mentors are coaches. It's not [the case].

Coaches are really sitting back and looking at what you're doing from a different perspective. The hitting partner is the one that is making you better.

If things go well, they go fast. So when you don't have those pieces, it's tough. Now I say to every entrepreneur, go find your hitting partner, that person is going to be the most valuable to you.

This is why we structured our program the way we did.