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#mentormondays

Mentor Mondays
3rd Monday Monthly
Dave Parker - @DaveParkerSEA

Agenda:
Noon: Lunch 12:15 Talk 12:30 Q&A 12:45 1:1 Mtgs

Next Month 9/17


Matt Shobe Feedburner/Big Door Lessons Learned in UI/UX

#SEFI @Founding

Finding a Mentor Avoiding the Leeches


Dave Parker - @DaveParkerSEA

Agenda
About Dave

Startup Ecosystem
What to look for in a mentor?

Avoiding the Leeches


Timing and Stages

Aligning Goals / FAST Agreements


About FI.co

About Dave
Dave Parker Director, Seattle Founder Institute CEO & Co-Founder Bundled.com Co-Founder OneAccord Partners Board Member Guidant Financial Former Board Member Classmates.com Founder Institute 15 week program pre revenue, pre-product, pre-idea stage Ideation to fundraising Office hours/individual coaching Tuesday night dinners Costs
$50 Application Fee WAIVED $995 Course Fee 3.5% into shared pool $4,500 tuition after funding

Mentors (Past/Current)
Andy Liu Bryan Mistele Dan Schapiro Charles Mount Rebecca Lovell Dave Bluhm Matt Shobe Brian Schultz Todd Hooper Charles Kwon T.A. McCann Chris Devore Joel Espelien Keith Smith

The Startup Echo System


Supportive
Sponsors Law Firms, Accounting, Banking, etc = free drinks Groups NWEN, Programs FI, TechStars, University Resources

Leeches
Never Sponsors Come to sell you stuff at events but never sponsor Wantepreneurs Read the books, speak the language never done it Startup Groupies Want the upside but no risk Youll end up paying them out of your savings

SeattleTechCalendar Media
GeekWire

Fundraisers & Introducers

Not Bankers, but helpers help make introductions Have a big network of investors NEVER invest themselves BUT want a % of the deal, equity and retainers

What to Look for in a Mentor


Been there/done that
Experience not theory Has been where you want to go

Industry Experience
B2B or B2C, Vertical Market, go-to-market

Experience you dont have


Building a team Scaling a product

Using a Mentor
Set a regular time
Buy lunch of coffee

Communicate between meeting


two week updates

Be specific with your questions


Send an agenda in advance, General questions take a lot of time

Timing and Mentors


Idea Stage
Brainstorming, innovation

Product Stage
UI/UX, knows your target customer

Go to Market
Sales, marketing and Business development, channel

Traction
Operations, HR,

Funding

Aligning Goals
Set aside a small % of the company for Advisors Set expectations Align incentives

Dont Abuse Mentors


Some will say No http://fi.co/contents/fast

Kevin Rose video http://fi.co/posts/665

Thank You!

http://fi.co/join/mentor
15 Week Program with Local and SV Mentors Ideation to fundraising Office hours/Individual coaching

Monday night meals


Costs
$50 Application Fee/Test Waived! $995 Course Fee 3.5% of company into shared pool (peers, mentors and FI) Post funding tuition - $4,500

Dave Parker @DaveParkerSEA ForestTreesBark.com Information Session Aug 28th Early Admissions Deadline Sept 2nd Ideations Bootcamp Sept 6th Information Session Sept 12 Founder Night Out Sept 18th Final Deadline Sept 23rd Session Starts Oct 2nd

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