There is no shortage of ways your startup can get some guidance and support. The problem is that there are so many in slightly varying flavors that making the right choice can be difficult.
If you have been confused, you’ve stumbled upon the right post.
So, how do you decide? Well, the answer’s not that complicated. Let’s look at the different ways to get the guidance you need and see how and when they can actually help.
Mentorship
What is it?
This is when you find an experienced and resourceful person to help you out with your queries and problems. The advantage of this is that mentorship is free and if you find the right mentor, they can add real value to you and your startup. However, you need to find a good mentor who believes in your potential and if and when you do, the mentor may not be able to spend as much time with you due to their current and perhaps more important responsibilities of their day job.
When should you go for it?
If you are experienced or really good at what you do and need the occasional guidance or nudge, mentorship is your best option.
Advisory / Consulting
What is it?
An adviser or a consultant is a person who is committed to helping you towards your goals. This is because an adviser or a consultant is remunerated for their efforts, either in cash or kind. The advantage is that by hiring someone like this can significantly improve your odds, but the downside is that they are generally expensive and good advisers are hard to find.
When should you go for it?
If you have very specific problems that fall out of the gamut of your (or your team’s) expertise, then hiring someone on a short-term contractual basis can help you get through hurdles quicker. For example, if you are struggling with a strategy for entering a new market, you could hire someone to help you define and plan just that without having them interfere in other parts of your business.
Incubation / Acceleration
What is it?
There has been a proliferation of organizations that provide guidance, support and, most times, seed funding to startups for a share of the equity in the company. The advantage of joining these organizations is that you get a wider range of support, as they provide mentorship, professional services, workspace, funding and access to funding, and also provide training. The downside is that unless you join a niche program, the guidance you get is broad-spectrum and generic. Another disadvantage is that these programs are generally mid-to-long term, ranging from three to twelve months.
When should you go for it?
If you are in need of extra support, either logistical, operational, commercial or financial, then joining an incubator or an accelerator program might make sense.
Formal Education
What is it?
Another option that you have is to undergo a formal education to learn more about technology or business. Certified courses in various technologies and diploma or degree courses in business and business management are available at varying degrees of cost, value for money and duration. The advantage is of course the formal certifications you receive (if you collect that kind of thing), but the disadvantage is that you spend more time and money learning about a lot things that may not be important or could have been picked along the way. Additionally, these programs are long and keep you away from your goals for months or years.
When should you go for it?
Never! If you want to do a certificate course in programming to learn how to develop a product or a degree program like an MBA just to learn how to start and run a business, you are in trouble. I would never recommend these to anyone who’s aspiring to be an entrepreneur. There are sites and platforms that teach you most of these things for a much lesser cost or even free. As an entrepreneur, you have to be self-driven and you should be thinking of picking up the skills on your own.
Specialized courses or programs
What is it?
These are short programs designed to help you with one or two very specific problems that you want to solve. These could be classroom trainings, workshops, talks, etc., that give you bite-sized knowledge about the things that matter to you the most right now. The advantage is that these programs are usually designed by experts and designed to deliver. The disadvantage is that these programs are very focused and specialized, which means, if you need help with multiple things, you might not find it here.
When should you go for it?
You should opt for these programs when you are clear about the problem and skills required to solve those. Remember the training modules in The Matrix? If you need to quickly learn something and get back to work to apply the learnings, this is the option you should go for.
Irrespective of what you make and sell, where you do it, and at what stage of growth you are at, you will always need help from outside. This is your business and your life and a wrong choice can cost you money and wasted time and so you have to be very careful in selecting the right approach.
Here’s one program that is designed specifically with the needs of growth-oriented startups in mind – Lab32. It is a four-month long program for early- and mid-stage tech startups. It offers structured, meaningful, outcome-driven guidance on business goals set by startups themselves, in an intensive setting. Applications open for batch 4, APPLY NOW.
– Ravi Warrier, T-Hub
Note: This article was originally published by Ravi Warrier with the title, Which startup program is the best for you?, on April 29, 2018.
