Mentors on Call

Mentoring is now big among entrepreneurs, especially those who have started businesses in their 20s. When you’re young with a terrific idea but are fumbling about taking it forward, advice from somebody in a related field can be invaluable. A mentor is somebody who has been there, done that, and can share wisdom with you regularly — usually for free but lately the definition has extended to mentor-investor or a paid advisor.

“Typically, young people are big on ideas but low on experience and execution,” says Mohit Goyal, 62, a charter member at The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE), who has mentored over 200 people in startup businesses over the past five years for free. A former IBM executive, he now devotes his time to advising young people and investing in new businesses. “At TIE, we don’t charge for mentoring. It’s our way of giving back to society and encouraging people to think,” he says. At the recently concluded TIE conference in Delhi, business experts had one advice for budding entrepreneurs — seek out a mentor.

“I’ve used a few mentors on issues ranging from strategy and technology to hiring,” says Deep Kalra, 39, CEO and founder of Makemytrip.com. Though he has single handedly built up his business of over 800 employees and acts as a mentor for young people, Kalra continues to seek the advice of a gentleman who runs an online travel company in the US.

For every idea that finds a nod from a mentor, there are 10 that get rejected. Goyal recalls how a successful shoe business owner approached him on how to extend his business to the Internet, to increase his consumer base. His plan was to provide free home delivery of shoes, and a take-back offer if the customer didn’t like it. Goyal politely shot it down. “As a mentor, I told him frankly that people need to see and try on shoes before buying them,” says Goyal.

Meanwhile, there are organisations like the Indian Angel Network (IAN) that provides capital for startup businesses, apart from holding regular review meetings. When 39-year-old Shaleen Raizada wanted to expand her company Sanshadow that advises on intellectual property rights and patents, she turned to her personal mentor, who realised that she needed a more organised setup and funds, and put her in touch with IAN, an organisation of senior entrepreneurs. After a year of hour-long sessions every 15 days, the IAN agreed to fund her. Raizada has since opened offices in Bangalore and California, hired 20 PhDs fulltime to assist her in Delhi and retains 20 consultants on need basis. “I reworked the business plan over 200 times. If there was one number wrong on one page of 20 Excel sheets, they would find it,” smiles Raizada, a tad wryly. Raizada refuses to divulge the valuation of Sanshadow, but tells us the IAN is prepared to give her a second round of funding.

The IAN has also funded a 30-year-old techie who came up with a jacket that at the press of a button makes you warm, with an alternative switch for cooling. The IAN helped him get a patent and he’s currently working on marketing it abroad. Another 30-something has come up with a robotic vacuum cleaner and is being assisted by the IAN to improve the technology.

Several companies do have mentoring programs where employees can talk to people within the organisation, but now one-to-one mentoring of the top honcho is emerging as an important focus area in organisations. “An outsider provides a helicopter, third-party perspective,” says Suhel Seth of Counselage, who holds regular mentoring sessions with the CEOs of Tata Steel and the Taj Group of Hotels. Seth insists he’s not a consultant but a paid mentor. “Sometimes in structured companies, innovation is dead. My role is to provide an out-of-the box idea,” says Seth. “I’m not telling the CEO that he needs to cut cost nor am I meddling in the day-to-day running of the company. That’s a consultant’s job.”