Most founders leave working with a mentor for "later". Experience says later means never. So — from the start.
Why it matters
Because the customer notices it before you do. Working with a mentor is not a task you finish once; it is a habit that comes back every week.
- Conversation first, code second
- Strangers, not friends
- The painful answer is the valuable one
An investor buys the rate of growth, not the idea.
How to do it
- Talk to ten people
- Put the answers in a table
- Pick the three most painful
- Sketch a solution for those three
- Show it to ten more
In practice
| Stage | What happens | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Conversations | Ten answers |
| Week 2 | First version | Something to hold |
| Week 3 | The test | One number |
Small numbers are still numbers. The big plan — short cycles, a result on Friday.
From the campus
How our portfolio companies did it — uzcombinator.uz/portfolio.