Mentor Comment: I’m in it for the money

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Recently I was talking to someone that reached out to meet and learn how to get involved helping startups in the community. We did the standard introduction talk for 15 minutes about our respective backgrounds and established some of our views on technology and markets. Finally, I made the ask, “So, why do you want to help startups?”

Normally, the response is something along the lines of “I enjoy giving back” or “I want to stay current and relevant.” In this case, the answer was “I’m in it for the money.” Hmm, I thought. Being in it for the money makes sense for some people but most of the community that I interact with on a regular basis is in it to help other people and make a positive impact on society. Yes, money is important, but potential mentors that lead with wanting to make money aren’t going to support the type of culture we’re promoting. Paying it forward without an ulterior motive is something we believe in strongly and I’ve seen it play out many times in positive ways.

Mentors can add tremendous value but make sure their values are aligned with your values.

What else? What are your thoughts on mentor values?

Comments

11 responses to “Mentor Comment: I’m in it for the money”

March 5, 2014

Joe Koufman

http://joekoufman.com/blog-thoughts-on-marketing/the-value-of-mentorship

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March 5, 2014

Sandeep

Can we say that the person was honest enough to say that? May be the person will remain committed if the desire of financial commitment is also fulfilled.
Although the desire might not go with the ethos of every organisation that is also understandable.
~ Sandeep

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March 5, 2014

Trish Nicolas, Catalyst | Coach

People are motivated in different ways, but I have found that when we help companies and their leaders (focus, grow, connect, survive, thrive, etc.), the money will (eventually) follow. One of the greatest gifts we can give to entrepreneurs is to help them learn from our collective successes and missteps, as well as from their own. Some of it is free, some people build businesses on sharing that knowledge. Either way, helping others is emotionally rewarding and worth the personal investment.

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March 6, 2014

Tony Pietrocola

I have met numerous early stage investors in raising capital and I always hear “If I invest in 10, 2 will kill it and we will make a lot of money. This includes angels. It is the American way!

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March 6, 2014

Joyce Drake Ory (@JoyceOry)

Motivation may have no relationship to impact.

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March 6, 2014

Vernon Niven (@vniven)

I’ve been building, advising and investing in software & online services startups since the late 1990s. Along the way, I’ve learned a few things about hiring good mentors and advisors.

The most important lesson I learned (during the first Internet bubble) is that during times of easy capital like the one we are living in now, plenty of unreliable ‘mentors’ and ‘advisors’ will come out of the woodwork – to get ‘money for nothing’.

But later on, when the easy money is gone and the weaker companies get washed out, they’ll get spooked and leave you – right when you need them the most. They may even sue you.

So, if I sense someone is offering to mentor a startup to ‘make money’, then I will (politely) show them the door.

This serves their interests, too: there are better ways to make money than mentoring a startup!

For the startups that I work with/own/invest in/advise, I am interested in a mentor who meets 4 criteria:

1. he’s built a tech-based business from scratch OR he has a strong personal network in our industry
2. she clearly respects our customers, our mission and our team
3. he provides critical skills, relationships or experience that our team really needs
4. she is helping our company for a deeper, more personal reason than to ‘make money’.

There are plenty of good reasons to mentor a startup team: to help change the world, to build new relationships, to give back to your industry or local community, to help your own company solve an important business problem, to learn something new, to solve an important technical problem, whatever.

But “money for nothing” is NOT one of them.

What is this, 1985? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAD6Obi7Cag

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March 6, 2014

Izzy Green

It’s always nice when people do things and having other people in mind. But let’s face it, at the end of the day we are all doing what we are doing for ourselves. Whenever someone tells me ‘you know, i’m doing this because i only care about my clients best interest’ i tell them stop with the baloney.

I always tell people “It’s in my best interest to do whats in my customers best interest” The only way to achieve in business what you want is to deliver to your customers what they want. But at the end of the day all we really care about is ourselves.

So give this guy a break. He is just being honest. Something most of us aren’t doing. And if he is a smart man he will do everything that’s in the start ups best interest in order to achieve whats in his best interest which is MONEY!

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March 6, 2014

David DeLugas

“To make a positive impact on society,” as you put it, David, also means providing goods or services in a space not adequately responding to an existing demand. Result? Success. Benefit to society AND the entity delivering attains great value.

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March 6, 2014

andyjones14

For that to be his first response is concerning. Yeah everyone who wants to change the world wants to be paid as well. However if your first response is money, is he really concerned about helping? I’ve always thought its help first, money will come

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March 6, 2014

tebzito

Good point there Andy

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March 6, 2014

Kun

Reminds me of an NPR story about Wall Street:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/02/20/279737277/what-it-was-like-to-be-a-wall-street-recruit-after-the-bailouts

TL;DR – a new banker on Wall Street is asked by his boss why he decided to become a banker. The new recruit gives a noble line on how he wants to help companies with their finances. The boss then cuts him off and tells him that if he’s not there to make lots of money then he’s in the wrong business.

Can’t speak for all, but I like to think that a good amount of my influences came from superheroes trying to save the world. Captain Planet, Superman, etc. never even considered money; they did what I considered the right thing to do. Hopefully as our generation moves up through the corporate world we’re start to see a paradigm shift where social impact and sustainability are the key driving forces of the economic world!

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