What I Learnt From Meeting 60 Mentors in 2 Weeks

As a founder, we often think in our own minds that we’ve got the answer to a pressing problem, that we’re going to change the world. Well I at least, can admit to this. It is this confidence and optimism that allows us to set out on a journey that's filled with risk, trepidation, and doubt.

Unknown Unknowns

The startup sphere is a graveyard littered with ventures that have fallen by the wayside. Pretty much every single person who’s got startup experience will say that ideas are two a penny, it’s the execution that matters. Even though I had a long career in finance, I fully accept that I’m a bit wet behind the ears when it comes to building a new company from scratch.

I don’t normally look to Donald Rumsfeld as a source of wisdom, but I think he was onto something when he talked about “unknown uknowns”; those challenges that you never foresee, those moments in which you can’t rely on your experience to bail you out. I thus feel incredibly privileged when my startup NIRA was accepted onto the Techstars accelerator programme in Bangalore. I was going to have the opportunity to brainstorm my business with seasoned entrepreneurs and industry practitioners, and hopefully find some answers.

Going into the programme, I had my own set of problems that I specifically wanted to address: how do I really find product-market fit? How can I scale more quickly? How can I build a moat around my business? And of course, how can I get ready to raise another round of funding? Techstars will have all the answers, I was so excited!

Mentor Madness

The Techstars accelerator is a 3-month programme in which a key component is called “Mentor Madness”. True to the name, it’s a string of rapid meetings with mentors who have been selected  for the experience and value they can bring to the batch startups. Each mentor meeting is twenty minutes long, and there are up to 10 a day. Speed dating with mentors if you will. A decent analogy for the experience is standing in front of a burst fire hydrant: there will be a tremendous flow of information and viewpoints gushing at us, far more than is possible to fully comprehend. We’ll be left disoriented. There’s even something that’s ominously called “mentor whiplash”.

As part of our induction process, we were granted an audience with a panel of Techstars alums who had been through the process before. They tried to field the myriad questions we posed, but they couldn’t fully describe the experience. They just said it’s something we’ll only understand once we’ve gone through it ourselves. Worryingly, they explicitly mentioned that they wouldn’t want to do it again!

The night before the meetings, I would prep. I’d go through each of the mentor profiles and prepare relevant questions based on their experience and how they can relate to the problems I’m seeking to address.

And then it started.

Given all the warnings we had received, the first day actually went surprisingly smoothly. Discussions were largely around the topics I had prepared and we came away with some interesting insights. What was all the fuss about? I had this under control!

And Then I Got Punched In The Face

On the second day, things started to change quite dramatically. Conversations went off at tangents and I was challenged repeatedly on fundamental aspects of my business. Assumptions that I didn’t even realise I was making were questioned. It felt like a boxing match in which you have a good opening round but then receive a perfect left hook in the second. Suddenly things that seemed like axiomatic truths weren’t very clear. As Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face”.

I found some respite on Wednesday since we had a break from meetings, and Thursday felt like I was getting up off the mat and onto my feet again, only for another knockout blow to be delivered on Friday. I think all of us in the Techstars batch finished the week somewhat shellshocked, considerably bruised, certainly confused, and absolutely exhausted. Let’s just say we were all ready for a drink (or ten) as the week came to a close.

I didn’t find the second week wasn’t as volatile as the first; perhaps it’s because as humans we quickly adapt to new circumstances, but perhaps it's also because I was more open to new ideas rather than being caught off-guard by them.

At the end of it all, while there were many takeaways, there were two in particular that stuck out as incredibly important and actionable:

(I) Customer First

As tech entrepreneurs, we often focus far too much on the wonderful products we are building, and consequently get side-tracked from the more fundamental matters that need addressing. The meetings served to act as a wake-up call for me; I went into them looking for acceleration but I came away thinking I need to take a step back.

Know your customer. There’s a reason why this sentence is often described at “Business 101”. I had some understanding of my target market, but did I really know who my customers are? Do I really understand their daily lives, their struggles, their aspirations, and their contexts? If I only have a weak grasp of these things, how can I really understand where my product can fit into their lives? How will I uncover the unique insights that will set us apart from the other players in my market? A superficial understanding will only lead to short-lived results. To really build a defensible business, I need to go deeper into my customers’ personas. I need to not only step into their shoes, I need to step out of my own. Whatever ideas of preconceptions I have, need to be left behind.

Before we went live with our business, I spent a good amount of time talking to my prospective customers. Once we started operating however, the customer got de-prioritised in favour of firefighting operational issues, product iterations, and pursuing growth targets. It’s time to bring the customer back to front and centre.

(II) Test What You Don’t Know

My team and I have a myriad ideas on how we’re going to crack our market, and what we think will work in creating that turbo-charged growth we’re seeking. The reality however, is that we don’t know. I was repeatedly challenged on various facets of our plan. Sure, our ideas sounded plausible, but how good were they? How are we ranking them? Why are we placing confidence in these ideas?

The good news however is that pretty much everything can be tested. Even better is that they can be measured too. A key theme from the meetings, particularly from the younger more hands-on mentors was the importance of testing. Test everything. Keep iterating. And do it fast.

Why I Needed The Challenge

It’s easy to conclude that the mentoring process was something of a setback since I’m not coming out of it with a plan to smash the ball out of the park. Quite the opposite. While the reality is quite unnerving, and I will admit to lying in bed at night staring at the ceiling, I view it as taking one step back to take 3 steps forward.

We all came into Techstars with our businesses built in a certain way. We’ve built what we thought best within the context our own personal experience and judgement, the resources we have available, and the circumstances we encountered. Great businesses are built on solid foundations, and sometimes we need to deconstruct to reconstruct something stronger.

Reflecting on my experience, I strongly feel that the meetings which were the most fruitful were the ones which were most challenging. There were some specific forms of feedback which got into the finer details, but some challenges went deeper and cut to the core. I even got asked why am I even doing this?

While it may not be comfortable, it’s when we are forced or challenged in a new way that progress is made. If you do the same exercise in the gym every day, you won’t progress. The day you try something new, even if it’s of equivalent difficulty on an objective scale, you’re still going to feel it. It’s only when we step out of our comfort zone that the magic happens.

I’ve been able to break big problems into little problems. I have to determine the right metric for each of these and be able to measure the results of our actions and iterations to determine whether what we’re doing is working. This data will give us insights to inform our strategy and execution model.

There Was No Magic Solution

I was wrong to expect that I could just show up and gain answers to my problems by speaking to mentors. Mentors don’t give you answers, they don’t have them. They can share their views, act as a sounding board, and brainstorm with you. But you know your business the best. Rather than giving you answers, what they can do is help you discover the right questions. It is through these questions that the secret to success can be discovered.