I found a great post last week @ GenYstartup.com:

As far as Start-ups are concerned, a Mentor is someone who has been in the industry for much longer and has been involved in a number of startups himself/herself. The duty of this person is to advice you based on their experience and also help you out courtesy of the connections they have built while gaining that experience. Okay, that’s just a primary overview of what a mentor does. There are many other things a mentor brings to the table that could be invaluable and I will get to that in a minute. When looking to find a good mentor, make sure you look for someone who will add value to you in every way possible. A person who pays for servers and hardware for your start-up doesn’t automatically become a Mentor. There have been several scenarios where investors have become Mentors but it’s paramount that these people have been involved in other start-ups in the past as well. Finding a good mentor is not the easiest thing in the world but it’s not climbing Mt. Everest either.

You should read the whole article…A Good Mentor Is A Must For Every StartUp, Sep 2009

Over the years I have had  mentors help me navigate the product, process and political issues in both large companies and emerging start-ups. I have also tried to give back to the tech community by mentoring, coaching and hosting workshops for those looking to test their ideas and start their own companies. I directed a mentoring program for a short time and that is when I realized that all mentors are not created equal. They often fall into three categories which I have dubbed Mentors, Managers and Mongers.

Mentors (or advisors as described above and in the recent Paul Graham post) are experienced individuals that assist through measured advice and by challenging the conventional or isolated thinking that often plagues and distracts early stage founders from their main goal of building a product / company.

Managers are people posing as mentors but are just trying to run companies by proxy. Their participation is often qualified by phrases like “I am looking for founders who will listen” or “as your advisor, I will help you make all the right decisions”. Bullshit, these people are looking to run your company without taking risk or investing any money. A good mentor will help you think through problems and avoid mistakes not run the company for you and treat you like an minion.  If you are not capable of making you own decisions, then don’t start a company or at least partner with a co-founder who can handle the issues and keep the company on track while you do what you do.

Mongers are the service providers that flock to join mentoring programs as a business development activity. In fairness some of these folks are credible mentor material and do bring valuable skills to the mix, but most have never worked in or even worked with a start-up and wouldn’t know the first thing about early stage business or technical challenges. Be wary of these mentors – all they offer are flowery anecdotes and distractions.

Good mentors or mentoring programs are not accompanied by lots of fanfare, social networking and color-coded name tags, they are one-on-one relationships built on credibility and trust.  A good mentor has limitations and is not a super hero, they will draw on the power of the rest of the community and will not try to be all things to all people. The following video from the TechStars program is a great recap on the power of mentoring done right.

The Founders | TechStars Boulder | Episode 12 | The Beginning from Andrew on Vimeo.

I don’t mean to scare people away form using mentors, quite the opposite. Even if you have done the start-up dance before, you need a good partner. Just remember who leads.