TechStars Mentor Manifesto

Last night TechStars Atlanta announced their 2016 class. As part of the event, they invited all the mentors and passed out The Mentor Manifesto:

1. Be socratic
2. Expect nothing in return (you’ll be delighted with what you get).
3. Be authentic and practice what you preach.
4. Be direct. Tell the truth, however hard.
5. Listen, too.
6. The best mentor relationships eventually become two-way.
7. Be responsive.
8. Adopt at least one company every single year.
9. Clearly separate opinion from fact.
10. Hold information in confidence.
11. Clearly commit to mentor or do not. Either is fine.
12. “I don’t know” is preferable to bravado.
13. Guide, don’t control. Teams must make their own decisions.
14. Accept and communicate with other mentors.
15. Be optimistic.
16. Provide specific actionable advice, don’t be vague.
17. Be challenging and robust but never destructive.
18. Have empathy. Remember that startups are hard.

Thanks to @lance for tweeting this out.