2. "the number one piece of advice I would share is to
recruit a mentor. Find someone you admire who is at
least one generation older, and has no direct authority
over you. Lack of context and perspective can cost you
months and years--with a bad career choice, an unwise
relocation, short-term negotiating posture, and,
generally speaking, sophomoric thinking".
- Bing Gordon, General Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers
3. “Back in the late 1990s when I was a 19-year-old
engineer at Netzee--much like other bright, young,
‘hot-shot’ engineers today--I had this sense that I knew
everything, and I didn’t realize the importance of really
listening to those who were more experienced. What I
have realized since then, is that one of the most
important things you can do is to surround yourself
with great people, and to listen to them.”
- Bill Ready, CEO, Braintree
4. Startup Ecosystem Report 2012
Silicon Valley
Tel Aviv
Chile (Santiago)
Mentoring is the key aspect of Silicon Valley. Tel Aviv although close
second will never be able to overtake SV because of lack of mentoring
culture
5. “Failure to select and use appropriate outside professional
advisors”
- Blue Rock Capital
“it can be even more damaging to neglect to take the advice of
those who have come before you”
- Illya Pozin interview, Forbes
“Entrepreneurs contact advisors only under distress situations
looking for a quick-fix”
- Advisor on FounderMates
9. What is FounderMates?
Seek Advice from mentors and experts to develop and grow
your business, minimize mistakes and cut-short your
learning curve
FounderMates
Entrepreneurs Advisors
10. How it Works?
• Entrepreneurs and advisors screened
• Entrepreneurs search advisors based on
different criteria
• Entrepreneurs “Request Advice”
• Advisors respond to the question
• Advisors are reviewed by entrepreneurs
12. Entrepreneur Cases
“I need advice on the following areas: Use of Growth Accelerators;
Management team and pitching to investors; fundraising, company
valuation”
- Pre Revenue
“Customer Acquisition by non-traditional means. Handling of labour
man power effectively. Recruitment and retention of good labour and
employees”
- Revenue
“We're looking for advisors to support us in the following areas: a)
logistics - mentor us in building a reverse logistics network across
Indian metros b) online marketing - mentor us in driving traffic and
conversations c) technology - mentor us in building both front and
back end technology from both a strong UI perspective and integration
with logistics”
- Growth
14. Target Market (contd.)
• Advisors
– Give back to the community
– Want to become more visible to the
entrepreneurs
– Looking to identify entrepreneurs to work with
long term
15. Why FounderMates?
Bridging the demand supply gap
Accelerators and incubators are difficult to
get through
Seed Capital/Angel investment not easy to
raise
Capability to be a global platform yet with
strong local connections
16. Vision
Become the “business card” for advisors globally
Reduce the startup failure rate (Currently 50% of
funded startups fail & 95% fail by year 10)
Create 20,000 jobs by year 4
18. Testimonials
“I was in touch with Rahul Arora for just couple of days.
After that i got it touch with Srikanth Vasuraj who has
helped me immensely just over a single meeting. He has
provided very valuable feedback and advise. I am currently
making changes to our strategy as advised by Srikanth.
Foundermates has come as a wonderful platform and has
given me the right help i needed. Thank you very much for
creating such a platform. It is a must for every startup to
have an advisor/mentor.”
- Rodney Lewis
Founder
Stallmart.com
23. “the primary speaker was great too – very
relevant content. I do like that you guys are
doing more focused stuff (as opposed to the
general gyaan at most mentor events)”
- Anand Vemuri ( partner, 91Springboard)
25. Short Survey
Virtual Mentoring –
Four 1-hour bi-weekly sessions
Progress measured after each session
Mentor rates you.
Best Rated entrepreneurs get to feature their startup on our
Platform
