How Do You Scale Mentoring?

By guest author Irina Patterson

To date, on this blog, we have interviewed more than 30 incubator managers and more than 40 angel investors, and all of them are looking for solutions to scalable and effective mentoring resources.

Most mentors are active or retired entrepreneurs, senior executives, and incubator managers themselves. Most seek not only emotional satisfaction from mentoring but also a return on their time (and often money) investment.

If you are a senior executive, your time is worth anywhere from $500 an hour and up. Mentors spend anywhere from two to 100 hours a year with each entrepreneur. So, they invest anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000 in each entrepreneur in terms of time.

Now, consider an alternative. The 1M/1M Premium Curriculum covers all the core groundwork on bootstrapping, positioning, market sizing, customer validation, financing, customer acquisition, team building, and so on. In addition, we have electives that are specific to industry segments like Web 3.0 and e-commerce, cloud computing, healthcare IT, online education, mobile and social apps, gaming, outsourcing, and more.

At 1M/1M, we ask each entrepreneur to spend at least 50 to 60 hours digesting the curriculum so that by the time they engage with a local, live mentor, they have already mastered the basics.

Once entrepreneurs know the basics, local mentors could do higher caliber coaching. This way, everyone stands to get greater return on their time (and money).

By everyone, we mean the entrepreneurs and their local mentors, the incubators and regional economic development organizations and, of course, the local and global communities at large.

Note: The 1M/1M team has invested significant resources to engage with and understand the challenges of the Incubator industry around the globe. You can sign up for our opt-in mailing list to get this information via email on an ongoing basis.

How Much Is An Entrepreneur’s Time Worth?

By guest author Irina Patterson

Ms. Sramana Mitra, the owner of this blog and founder of 1M/1M, interviewed hundreds of successful technology entrepreneurs, many of whom are her good friends.

All of them built successful multi-million dollar technology companies by trial and error. Many made mistakes that easily cost them a few million dollars in lengthy experiments. Many of them lost a few years here and there because of lack of knowledge or experience.

The 1M/1M Premium Program has been built on what has been learned from those multi-million dollar mistakes.

We strongly believe that if entrepreneurs follow the 1M/1M methodology, they will avoid such costly mistakes and save themselves a few years and a few million dollars.

Note: If you are considering becoming a 1M/1M premium member and would like to join our mailing list to receive ongoing information, please sign up here:

Business Incubator Series: Dave Knox, The Brandery, Cincinnati, Ohio (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Dave: When we select our companies, we’re trying to get a feel for who the entrepreneurs themselves are. Are they ones who would benefit from a mentorship-driven network, in terms of being coachable and being open to change?

The final thing is just looking at the team’s – for lack of a better term – hustle, drive, and passion for creating a meaningful company. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Dave Knox, The Brandery, Cincinnati, Ohio (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What are the core benefits that your accelerator provides?

Dave: The Brandery is about accelerating the path of a startup. We’re lucky to have a great network of mentors, ranging from startup founders to venture capitalists to consumer marketing professionals.

Through that mentorship we provide a very deep network of connections for our companies.

The second thing that we provide is a focus on the brands and consumer marketing of the startups. That’s something that most others don’t offer. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Dave Knox, The Brandery, Cincinnati, Ohio (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

I am talking to Dave Knox, one of the co-founders of the Brandery, which is a mentorship-driven 12-week business accelerator based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 2010, they are part of TechStars Network, have similar format, and offer early stage entrepreneurs $20,000 in financing. They particularly focus on startups where design, branding, and marketing can be a serious competitive advantage. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Micah Kotch, NYC ACRE At NYU-Poly, New York (Part 4)

By guest author Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What help do you offer in terms of financing?

Micah: Before a company is going to go out and raise capital, we want to make sure that the founders have a good sense of their market and, if possible, show revenue.

If a business is revenue positive, they could have more leverage with investors than if it is just what we refer to as an “aspirational business.” >>>

Business Incubator Series: Micah Kotch, NYC ACRE At NYU-Poly, New York (Part 3)

By guest author Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Micah: For the most part, the entrepreneurs who are on our waiting list are looking for physical space. We refer them out to other spaces. We’ll refer to Deb Johnson (Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation), or there’s something here called the Coalition of Office Space Providers. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Micah Kotch, NYC ACRE At NYU-Poly, New York (Part 2)

By guest author Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: At what stage do you usually prefer that businesses apply for incubation?

Micah: We like to see them before they’ve closed their Series A round of funding, so anywhere between friends and family [funding] and revenue.

Companies can come in with some revenue. But if they’ve closed their A round and they’re already more than 15 people, then they’re probably too late. >>>