Mentorship for startups

Having an idea is just the first step towards the journey of entrepreneurship, the long and arduous journey. And more often than not, it requires skills that are beyond the capabilities of the founding and core team. Even with the necessary skills, the challenge most businesses face is that of mindset. Either to grow and scale or pivot when in a difficult situation or conflicts about the long term strategy are some of the toughest decisions the teams need to make. And with so many possible courses of action for every decision, more often than not, it is a problem of plenty. This is where coaching or mentorship for startups can help massively. A coach can help with a specific problem that the team might be facing. With his or her experience, the coach can deal with a range of issues – business related, conflict resolution, mindset etc. A mentor can also work with the team and help with deeper issues and developing skills that might help them in the longer run. Lastly, it always helps to have an experienced set of eyes looking at the business, processes, financials, etc. someone who is close enough to see possible roadblocks but not be blinded by emotions.
  • Both coaching and mentoring are critical for business. Both these roles are like sounding boards to bounce of ideas of. But they differ in the expected time frame for impact.
    A coach, with his or her experience in business, provides short term solutions for specific problems that the business might be facing. The issues can range from technical recommendations, business process improvement, customer acquisition strategies, skill development, etc.
    A mentor on the other hand looks at the longer term impact of the solutions. Again, the solutions can be from any area of business but they tend to have long term development and impacts.
    In summary, while mentoring can be considered a broader form of guidance, coaching is typically more structured and action-oriented

Sports, business or the battlefield – No battle can be won without a coach. A coach or a mentor, with his or her expertise can guide the teams on both short term problems and long term strategy.
They can also look at the skill gaps and recommend course of action for upskilling of the team members.
With their wisdom, they might be in a better position to look at possible roadblocks and risk mitigation action plans to avoid any shocks in business.
They also act as a guide to ensure that the execution of all strategies agreed upon stay on track and the teams do not, unknowingly go haywire with their execution glide paths.
Lastly and possibly the most important benefit is that of networking. A coach or a mentor can introduce the team to a whole of individuals and companies not only for growth (organic or inorganic) but also develop symbiotic relationships with the entities within the network.

Fractions CXOs as a concept is novel and an attractive concept for startups. Here experts from a particular field act as CXOs for a startup for a contractual period with clearly defined deliverables. The startups are able to take advantage of the expertise without having to hire a full time CXO. This is typically helpful while starting up or while making major changes to the strategy. The founding team need not necessarily have all skills available. They are better off setting up the strategy and direction along with a fractional CXO and then executing it internally.
A fractional CXO can be from any discipline – CFO, COO, CMO, etc. depending on the requirement of the startup.

The first and foremost concern that comes with mentors is the responsibility and accountability. It is important to have a clear communication and understanding between the startup and the mentor.
Secondly, the challenge one might face is around the deliverables. Since mentorship is a longer term process, it becomes difficult to quantify the outcomes that one can expect. More so, when it comes to skill development or leadership coaching, the impact of the mentor or the coach becomes very difficult to quantify. Hence, having a clear understanding around these issues helps having a cordial relation throughout the engagement.
Lastly one needs to understand that these engagements take time to show results. They are not like magic wands that might show results overnight. So businesses engaging mentors need to be patient and ensure the steps of the engagement are adhered to.

A founder of the organisation is usually the leader for the entire the team. A very often the founder is either coming from the background of having worked in an organisation or out of college. In both these scenarios, one is an expert in one or two verticals of business and may not be able to understand the business end to end from day one. There could be gaps in formulating the strategy, creating an MVP, testing and research, customer acquisition, scaling up, finance and compliance etc. Not only functional skills but the founders might also lack leadership experience and skills and may find it difficult to manage time, delegate, effectively communicate with teams, etc.
A leadership coach helps identify these gaps, suggests way to overcome them and also lends a hand in achieving the required competency levels way sooner than one trying to learn on their own. This is critical for the success of the leadership team and thereby the business.

RBC Mentorship formula will be extremely essential for:
• Business Idea development
• Ecosystem scan for product-price mapping
• Overall Market entry analysis
• Business strategy and planning with/without fractional CXO services
• Innovation management, go to market strategy
• Business pitch, investor connect, organic and inorganic growth support
• Operational process setup, digital marketing
• Legal, registration, tax filing
• Continuous leadership support and coaching

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