A mentor for a startup is a person who uses their own experience, skills, and knowledge to provide advice and guidance to a startup founder or employee. Startup mentors also often open up their network to connect startup founders to other experts to help out along the way.

A mentor can help a startup in many ways. They may provide a listening ear when a startup founder needs to practice a pitch before meeting with investors, or maybe a mentor introduces a founder to investors. A mentor might offer software recommendations when a startup is looking to set up a payment system for their business.

Our mentors are carefully selected based on their expertise in business formation and operations, and for their skills as advisors as well as their desire and ability to give back. They are drawn from a wide range of industries, including both for-profit and non-profit ventures. Our mentor pool includes founders, serial entrepreneurs, along with experts in finance, funding, human resources, law, marketing, product development, sales, and team formation. They have contacts across a broad range of industries and markets. They all have agreed to make a significant and sustained time commitment to the program.

Our mentors adhere to a strict code of ethics and also follow a Statement of Principles that govern their behavior, outline their responsibilities, guard against conflicts of interest, and control financial involvement with the entrepreneurs and their business. In addition, all mentors sign a blanket non-disclosure agreement ensuring that all their interactions with mentees are confidential. Mentors may not solicit business from start-up or invest in businesses they are mentoring.

Relationships between mentors and entrepreneurs are formed based on the needs of the entrepreneur and the interests of available mentors. Mentors provide advice, but the actual work is the responsibility of the entrepreneurs. The make-up of a mentor team may change over time as the needs of a business venture change.

The Tarleton Innovation and Entrepreneurship University Center works very closely with America’s SBDC at Tarleton State University (www.tsusbdc.org). This Small Business Development Center (SBDC) is part of a non-profit association providing the most comprehensive small business assistance network in the United States and its territories. America’s SBDCs are hosted by leading universities, colleges, state economic development agencies and private partners, and funded in part by the United States Congress through a partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration.