Mentors

Founded by Leonid Boguslavsky and H-FARM

← The manifesto01 / 12 · With founders

01

Keep the founder in the driver's seat.

Challenge, question, push back. Then let them decide. It's their company and their call.

The founder lives with the consequences of every decision long after the conversation ends. You don't. That asymmetry is the whole point: your job is to make their decision better, not to make it for them.

Strong mentors are often strong operators, and operators are used to deciding. The temptation is to say “if I were you, I'd do X” and move on. It feels helpful. It isn't: a founder who executes your plan without owning it will abandon it at the first obstacle, and will never learn how to make the next call alone.

So push hard on the reasoning. Surface the options they haven't considered, the risks they're underweighting, the evidence they're missing. Disagree openly when you disagree. Then step back. If they choose a path you wouldn't have chosen, help them execute it as well as possible, and agree on what would tell them it isn't working.

All principles

  1. 01Keep the founder in the driver's seat
  2. 02Build capability, not dependency
  3. 03Be direct
  4. 04Ask for evidence, not opinions
  5. 05Separate fact, experience and hypothesis
  6. 06Say “I don't know”
  7. 07End with a next step
  8. 08Show up prepared
  9. 09Be responsive and follow through
  10. 10Open doors
  11. 11Keep it confidential. Declare conflicts
  12. 12Earn your place in the pool