Has anyone found mentorship that did not run through a sales pitch?
Everyone tells founders to get a mentor, so I tried properly. I used one of the mentor-matching platforms, had one useful call and then the person stopped replying. That was not a one-off. A lot of people there never reply, and of the ones who do, some profiles look fake and others are mainly there to sell you their agency.
Reaching out directly was not much better. Two advisors cancelled the intro call once they heard we are bootstrapped rather than venture funded, because their real service costs tens of thousands, not hundreds. Another sells a course for $10K, advertises large growth, but in reality there is no guarantee.
What did help me is free and public: YouTube videos and business books. The advice is good, the catch is that none of it is tied to my specific product or situation, so it tells you what worked for someone else, not what to do about the decision in front of you.
I still think good mentorship exists. I just have not found a route to it that does not run through a sales pitch yet 😅
Where did advice that actually fit your own situation come from?
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What always annoyed me were the YouTube's "Yeah, I just walked up to a billionaire, offered a free lunch and some help and he became my mentor" 🤯
@artk Most likely this actually works like that in Silicon Valley :)
It looks like the “dead Internet theory” is being proven right once again, unfortunately. Perhaps the best advice for founders can only come from fellow founders who have already walked the exact same path. I hope you find such people here. Because I honestly don't have much faith in the existence of fairytale gurus, even if they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. At best, they are well-versed in one specific type of project.