+21

Not enough mentors for startups

MaGIC Team 10 years ago updated by Wan Adli Wan Hassan 10 years ago 5
We don't have enough mentors with the appropriate technical skills for startups to go to for help and advise. A lot us have to rely on troubleshooting, trial & error, which could take time.
+1
In the creative industry, many animators, programmers and artists are trying to be startup but lack of business admin & development skill. Mentors in Biz Dev are necessary as well.
+2
Just because someone is number 1 in classroom doesn't mean that person will become successful.
Just because someone has "exited" before doens't mean that person will become a good mentor.
Malaysia's (in fact everywhere) startup ecosystem is rife with dubious characters. Some disguised in angel investors form, some as mentors/accelerators. Be warned. 
The startup process is to test out options. Learning curve an feedback loop is critical. Scalability is key. Investing in these fields is a must. We can't avoid it. But someone with experience will certainly shorten the time, only when one know how to filter out the bad ones.

Sometimes, I rely on informal mentor. Maybe they are my peers, maybe they are more experienced people, or someone I admire.
+1
I can be your technical mentor :)
+4
I've posted this in another thread but i feel it is also appropriate here. So i will do what a programmers does best ...copy&paste ;)

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I would like to add on to the suggestions
  • All universities grants their lecturers a sabbatical leave where they can get attached to other universities for sake of knowledge acquisition. Maybe magic or some government agency can introduce same concept where the founders or key personnel in a start up can get attached in a more established company to gain insightful technical knowledge. As we know there just certain things that are not taught in schools eg proper git management, A/B testing, scrum, etc. These practical technical knowledge is what a lot of start ups are facing.
  • Cradle, MDEC, etc already provides a lot of business coaching but nobody is providing the technical coaching. I believe in order to be successful you need to be able to balance the two. I'm sure we have seen a lot of tech start up that have shown good potential but could not get there because their technical skills are just not good enough.
  • e.g. My company is good with mobile development but we lack skills in game development. So I would like to send my people over to intern at a game development company. That game developer might be good in their field but lack skills in mobile. I would gladly accept their people and teach them mobile development. I'm sure you catch my drift ;)