Brad Feld

Results for: mentors

Thirty Minute Mentors Episode 38: Venture Capitalist Brad Feld

Dec 15 2021

Female Contemporary Mentors of Mine

Jul 05 2020
In response to my post, Contemporary Mentors, a female reader of this blog who often sends me notes when I fall into a pattern of highlighting cis-het-white men, responded directly to the post with: I hope that you add more women and more diversity to your contemporary mentors. Otherwise you are in the same fucking […]
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Contemporary Mentors

Jul 05 2020
The phrase “contemporary mentors” popped into my head on loop number six of eight on my morning run. I’m training for a Covid marathon, which is 27 loops around my property. My pace is tentative as I’m still gearing up after a long break due to a back injury, but I’m letting the miles and […]
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Looking for Mentors for Entrepreneurs for All – Longmont, Colorado

Nov 06 2019
Earlier this year Amy and I, along with a number of other local friends, supported the rollout of a new organization in Longmont called Entrepreneurship for All (EforAll). EforAll is a nonprofit organization that partners with communities nationwide to help under-resourced individuals pursue their dream of starting a business. They believe everyone should have the […]
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Mentors 18/18: Have Empathy. Remember That Startups Are Hard

Feb 07 2019
This is the final post (18) of the Techstars Mentor Manifesto. As with item 17, Jay Batson, a long-time Techstars Boston mentor, nudged me several times to finish this up and wrote a draft from his perspective. Following is item #18 of the Techstars Mentor Manifesto, in Jay’s words. During one of the Techstars Boston cohorts […]
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Mentors 17/18: Be Challenging/Robust, but Never Destructive

Feb 06 2019
I wrote 16 posts detailing each item of the Techstars Mentor Manifesto. However, there were 18 items and, for some reason, I never got around to writing the final two. Jay Batson, a long-time Techstars Boston mentor, nudged me several times to finish this up. I kept saying “I’ll get to it” but never did. […]
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Mentors 16/18: Provide Specific Actionable Advice

May 16 2017
There’s a tenuous balance between telling someone what to do and giving advice. It’s especially difficult as a mentor, especially if you’ve previously been a CEO and are used to being “the decider.” As a mentor, you aren’t the decider. The CEO you are mentoring is the decider. This dynamic is also true for many board […]
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Mentors 14/18: Accept and Communicate With Other Mentors That Get Involved

May 02 2017
Two mentors in one of the Techstars programs were both people who I knew well. They hated each other as a result of being co-founders of companies that had been bitter rivals. Each company was successful, but their paths ended up being very different. These two co-founders hadn’t interacted with each other, but the CEOs of […]
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Mentors 15/18: Be Optimistic

Apr 21 2017
Last month I took two weeks completely off the grid. As part of it, I spent some time working on my next book, Give First. As part of that, I finished up the sections on Deconstructing the Techstars Mentor Manifesto. While I wrote a draft of this post over a month ago, It felt appropriate […]
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