How do startup mentors help you with your idea? How do you find them?

There are many online platforms (other than accelerators) where you can find mentors.

I have personally tried https://www.growthmentor.com/ and https://www.mentoring-club.com/ and especially liked the Growth Mentor(GM).

As I am a startup mentor&coach, I can only judge these platforms as a mentor but looking at the reviews on GM, the mentees also seem to be satisfied with the platform.

10 years ago, when we (with my co-founder) launched our first startup, we also attended an incubator program and received mentorship from several mentors. The academic mentors really helped us gain an understanding of the Lean Startup and the entrepreneurship literature however the other mentors did not help us at all.

Having spent 10 years as a startup founder and exiting from my business, I learned it the hard way that what startup founders need is not mentorship but coaching. Because mentorship sessions are usually one-off sessions and 15-20 minutes of those sessions are spent with getting to know the startup idea and the team. And in every mentorship session, the team needs to explain themselves again and again to the new mentor. That is a total waste of time!

But coaching (or in some cases advisory board membership) is an ongoing type of support. The startup coach is able to see the full picture and help their coaches with grounded advice.

So if I were you, I would not look for several startup mentors but for a talented and multi-skilled startıp coach with a track-record of success in entrepreneurship.

Best of luck!
Ilke K