1. 8 ways to do better Mentoring V 1.0 please send your
thoughts /suggestions to [email protected]
2. Objectives of this presentaton To share a few thoughts on
best practices in mentoring
3. About me.. 10 Start-ups in 6 countries (8 winners, 1 loser,
1 ?) Former director Founder Institute/ Inacademy /Fast Bridge I
help people in small and larger companies build the companies of
their dreams Would love to work more with scaleups, but havent
found the moneys Writing a new book: CYCLES- The Simplest,
Scientifically Proven Way To Build Your Business (LINK: 2 Beliefs
1. 10/90 rule. In most businesses, people want to do well, but 10%
of success = people, 90% systems 2. With the right systems, almost
anyone can succeed in innovation / building a business
4. What I see working with scaleups 1. An incredible focus on
the positive 2. A continual search for silver bullets 3. Scared to
ask for help 4. If they ask, too much done internally 5. What they
want to do lacks clarity / focus 6. Lack of systems / Lack of
urgency 7. Avoid tough decisions and stay in a business too long
Deluded Scared of negatives Alone Unclear Lacking systems Not
making decisions
5. The hard facts Scaling up is hard work and deadly if done
wrong (70% of companies fail at the scale up phase)
6. Do Mentors / Accelerators help ? There is no empirical
evidence that mentors or accelerators help growing a business
(except when the mentor is an angel investor) Mentors have been
shown to build a false sense of security and get companies too
focused on thebig ideas In a review of 35 academic articles and 38
studies, the Kauffman association concludedno evidence that
companies are more successful if they come out of an incubator
Sideline: Angel mentors dont build upside, but remove downside
risk
7. A less charitable view
8. Opportunities The typical program uses Entrepreneurs, the
skills that make a good entrepreneur are the not the same as a
coach / teacher (shallow narrow focus) Too much focus on high tech
Too much focus on job creation Too much helpthey never learn to
fish Too little helphere is a space and money..go.. Fixed timings
to build urgency (some notable exceptions) Learn from programs with
proven track records (share experience)
9. Where is there proof ? 5 year results 90% in business 70%
profitable 45% funded 450 participants 90 Teams 38 in market in 3
wks Increased speed (up to 6X) Decreased risk (30-80%)
10. The 8 keys to success 1. Structured / Fixed timings 2.
Education to build skills/mindsets 3. Working with peers (more than
mentors) 4. Forcing moments 5. Learning cycles 6. Eco-system
development 7. Smart speed 8. And most importantly, let the
scale-ups make the decisions..
11. 1. Structured
12. 1. Structured
13. 1. Structured
14. 2. Education to build skills/mindsets The Founder Institute
3 lectures per week, followed by weekly assignments Inacademy Daily
lectures, a playbook, daily application Innovation Engineering A
body of knowledge, immediate application then facilitated (coached)
learning 1. Regular 2. Active 3. Immediate Application
15. Theory Plus exercises day by day
16. Reverse classroom Video intro Learning in groups
17. 3. Working with peers (more than mentors)
18. 4. Forcing moments Almost anything works faster with a
deadline Inspiration days Pitch events (with internal / external
judges) Hackathons Up and running in 82 cities. Moments of truth
(they call them forcing moments) is their secret sauce
19. Building urgency for better ideas Friend and Family Day
Really Ugly Meetup Event Still Ugly Speak at Conference Less Ugly
Investor Presentation Good Enough
20. 5. Learning cycles
21. A simple process repeated again and again Align: we need
ideas for Build ideas Systematically Remove Death Threats
Communicate And Check Idea Cards Key to success = rapid cycles of
development The ABCs of idea building
22. It is the best way to remove risks .. When there are no
death threats left You cant help but succeed !
23. An example of world class (IE) Objectives A weekly learning
cycle every week for 10 weeks 10 ideas for new users/ uses of their
product At least 80 new ideas, with 60 killed, 10 merged and 10 in
progress Alignment Every Monday what next now Build ideas Each
Friday a brain-storming session (with new external people)
Communicate Check Systems Identify death threats/ work on death
threats Kill all weak ideas where death threats not resolved in 2
weeks An 10 minute standing meeting every morning Write and
document work done each week One person writes up the ideas/
Another lists the death threats External experts to validate/ give
feedback on all ideas
24. 6. Ecosystem development If you want to move
fast/effectively, it is usually not what you know, but who you know
that makes the difference FI: leading entrepreneurs each week
Inacademy: 70 leading mentors for 450 participants Innovation
engineering: Personalized collaboration cafs and rapid testing
panels
25. 7. Smart Speed A study by Economist intelligence with 312
companies split into 2 groups: 1. Go, go, go 2. Think, go , think,
go (paused at strategic moments) The companies with strategic
pauses achieved: 40% higher sales, 52% higher profits Moments of
Truth Are the times to stop and think
26. 8. Dont make decisions for the scale-ups Mentors want the
companies they are working with to succeed This desire makes it
easy to want to help too much. Great mentors, help, support, but
dont push decisions. They know the scale-up needs to be remain
responsible Mentor, dont push decisions
27. Moving forwards Im looking for more best practices and real
proof showing when Mentoring works best Please contact me
bryan@fast- bridge.com or join the discussion on LinkedIn :
http://tiny.cc/domentorshelp
