Founder’s Guide to Mentors vs Advisors vs Coaches

Founders collect all three, usually without deciding which is which. At the highest level:

• Mentors tell you what they did.
• Advisors tell you what you should do.
• Coaches help you figure out the answer for yourself.

Mentors

Mentors are founders or operators a few steps ahead of you. A Series A founder might informally engage a Series C founder to talk through the problems common to the stage. Good mentors are role models and confidants. They help you see round corners and offer solutions drawn from their own experience. Two things to watch.

• Overfitting. Mentors can assume the solution that worked for them is universal. What worked for them might not work for you.
• Unstructured. Mentorship tends to be ad hoc. That works when you know a problem exists. It falls short when you can't yet name it.

Advisors

Advisors are subject-matter experts. A Series B founder might formally engage a multi-time CRO from their industry to help scale the sales team. Most startups build a bench of advisors over time, covering the areas where they lack experience. Two things to watch.

• Treating symptoms. Advisors solve tactical problems in their domain fast. That can paper over a deeper root cause.
• Narrow expertise. Outside their domain of mastery they're far less useful. The advice is laser-focused on one area of the business and can miss the forest for the trees.

Coaches

Coaches are usually former founders or operators who now spend most of their time helping founders grow. A coach might work on management and leadership by asking the questions that help a founder see their situation clearly and find solutions they hadn't considered. The work is aimed at root causes rather than symptoms. Two things to watch.

• Quality. Everyone is a coach these days, which makes finding a good one slow and hard. Low-quality coaching can feel good and still be a distraction from growth.
• Hard to measure. The work is on the deeper issues affecting a founder and their company. It takes time, and the results are difficult to quantify.

Which one, when

Each has its place. The best approach is usually to have all three and know when to lean on which.

• Mentors for experience-based advice.
• Advisors for specialised knowledge.
• Coaches for self-improvement and team development.