Lead mentor obligations

a) before joint investment decision
b) after investment & during paid mentorship

a) During 2 months validation period (before investment)

Investigate and make up your mind

SHOULD we we invest in this founders or not, and WHY?

• Main set of questions to share with the rest of investors during investing committee meeting
  1. Would you hire this/those founders yourself? (hypothetically)
  2. Would you give your home keys to this/those founders? (while you are travelling across the globe)
  3. Is there any evidence of market pull, related to the product/service? 

• Fstage opportunity is to take pre-seed startups to seed stage, as this requires less capital and more smartness.
     Therefore we are looking for this/those “things” we are capable of changing cheap/fast enough to make that leap happening.
     We are to compliment/amplify our investment with our expertise, experience and network.
     Therefore, questions mentor should have answers for, are:
  1. What challenge(es) the startup needs to solve that generates the leap to the next round?
  2. Do you believe (based on senses or calculation) that we (Fstage) are able to make it happen in following 18 months? 

• Interactions with founders should be limited
  1. We promised not to disturb them for no reason, as they report us without any payment.
  2. Read weekly reports on Monday evenings, those should be filed on Fridays describing last week achievements and plans for next week.
         You are able to see other startups reports as well. Could be useful to read and see how they differ.
  3. Reach out to founders if something seems weird or wrong for you and you think you can fix that easily with proper advice or short workshop.
  4. Try not to over-achieve something right now. Remember – we are validating founders at this stage. 
         Our real job starts after we have chosen those 5-7. Then after we should start multiplying our investment by giving advice by being proactive mentors.
  5. Remember!  This phase is designed to filter out “bad apples” or/and select “the most low hanging 5-7 fruits” for us to start working with.
  6. Yet again, if you see a great potential that is going to waste and you could fix that, we urge you to take necessary action. 

• Final outcome of this period is to make up our minds about founders.
• Fstage is not a charity organization. We seek for missed opportunities we are able to close.
• We get paid for advisory and mentorship after we decide to invest, not at the moment.
• Founders take action, we remain proactive advisory mentoring party.
• We jointly, as Fstage, identify great potential we are able to grasp, advise, mentor, bring talents, open markets, attract investors to next funding rounds to get out.

b) During 18 months of paid mentorship (after investment)

We multiply our money only if we get them from pre-seed to seed stage

WHAT should we do to MULTIPLY our investment, and HOW with WHOM?

• Main obligations for lead-mentor during 18 months
  1. Supervisory board member role to monitor how management and financial decisions are made.
  2. Grant that Growth Discipline Framework gets implemented (described in mentorship agreement, is based on OKR system).
  3. Grant that Fstage gets monthly meetings wrap-up reports.
  4. Grant that startup receives quality mentoring support from yourself or any other “visiting” mentor from Fstage mentors pool.
  5. Reach out to Fstage administration if any help is requested, ie new challenge needs a mentor Fstage hasn’t listed in its website.

• Addressing challenges during 18 months
  1. Use best known mentoring, coaching, advisory, training, consulting approaches according to context and needs to support founders with their challenges.
  2. Collaborate, reach out, network, study, remain proactive member of the management advisory team member.
  3. Help with your expertise, experience and network help to assess challenges and to pick right approaches.
  4. Avoid getting technical and doing stuff for startup founders if possible.

• Final outcome of this period is to take pre-seed startup to seed stage.
• Startup gets Growth Discipline Framework which significantly mitigates startup’s AND investors’ risks.
• Fstage gets monthly reports about startup progress to attract investors for next investment rounds.
• Fstage is not a solution studio. We advise proactively to seek for right type of help and outsource it or hire brians if necessary.
• We get paid for advisory and mentorship, so we should take necessary efforts to multiply our investment.
• Founders take action, we remain proactive advisory mentoring party.