The incredible success stories of self-made entrepreneurs that you see in the press may lead you to think that today’s celebrated founders made it to the top all on their own. What headlines usually don’t say is that they all had experienced mentors to guide them. Just think of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, or Sir Freddie Laker and Richard Branson, to name a few legendary mentor-mentee duos.
There’s evidence that startups with mentors do better. In an analysis based on interviews with 700 tech startup founders based in New York City, TechCrunch found that 33 percent of founders who are mentored by successful entrepreneurs go on to become top performers themselves. Studies have also shown that 70 percent of mentored businesses survive more than five years, double the rate of their non-mentored counterparts.
