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Entrepreneurship & Startups vocabulary · Startup Ecosystem

Mentor

Meaning in entrepreneurship & startups, with examples

/ˈmentɔːr/nounCommon term

In entrepreneurship & startups, mentor means: An experienced person who gives a founder advice, feedback and support over time, usually without being paid, based on their own business experience.

In Turkish: mentor, akıl hocası, rehber

How it is used

Accelerators and incubators give startups access to mentors. People say find a mentor, mentor a founder (as a verb), mentorship and mentoring sessions. A good mentor asks hard questions and opens doors, but the founders still make the decisions.

Example sentences

  1. My mentor helped me prepare for the negotiation with our first big client.

  2. Every startup in the programme meets its mentor once a week.

Common collocations

  • find a mentor
  • mentor network
  • mentoring session
  • mentorship programme
  • advisorAn experienced person who gives a startup regular advice and introductions, often in exchange for a small amount of equity rather than a salary.
  • acceleratorA fixed-term programme, often three to six months, that gives a group of startups mentoring, training, contacts and usually a small investment in exchange for equity.
  • incubatorAn organisation that supports very early startups over a longer period, offering office space, advice, training and sometimes access to funding.
  • entrepreneurA person who sees a business opportunity and starts a new company to use it, accepting financial risk in the hope of profit and growth.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Startup Ecosystem

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