Why We Don't Allow "Threes" in the Founder Institute

Most startup mentors are simply too nice, and this is ultimately a disservice to their mentees.

In my most recent Forbes article, I described the method we use in the Founder Institute to encourage honest and tough feedback from our 4000+ mentors, in order to make sure the founders in our program are learning and hearing what they need to hear.

Below is an excerpt:

"Since you can’t force somebody to be brutally honest, we came up with a paradigm in the Founder Institute to get the best feedback from our startup mentors. Throughout our 16 week program, founders are constantly pitching their ideas, customer research, revenue model, growth plans, first products, and more to panels of program directors and startup mentors on what are called “Founder Hotseats.” Right before the mentors are asked to provide detailed feedback to an entrepreneur, they need to rate the company on a scale of 1-5.

There’s just one catch: on a scale of 1-5, no 3's are allowed.

Inspired by my friend George Zachary of Charles River Ventures, who implemented a "no 3's" rule for himself while judging our Founder Showcase events, this scoring system is designed to polarize and extract blunt feedback from mentors. When you can’t rate somebody a 3 out of 5, you are forced to choose negative or positive… and then ponder why. This ultimately leads to deeper and more honest insights for startups in dire need of exactly that.

You would be surprised at how well this works, because it forces even the nicest of mentors to be blunt and introspective. 

A common question I get about this practice is, “why not just do a 1-4 scale?” The answer is simple: this is about polarizing results. If you rated something a 2 out of 4, that could be seen as average - but a 2 out of 5 is clearly poor. We want our mentors to consider the 3, and then judge whether or not the founder’s plans clearly fall on the positive or negative end of the spectrum. The reason for that decision is most often where the most valuable feedback lies."

Give it a try - I think you'll be surprised by the results.

Also, if you're interested in helping startups grow in your city, check out my upcoming webinar with David Cohen (TechStars) on "How to Become a Leader in Your Startup Community".