Thread by @Gabrielaellala

Our ABA @ukaeroaccel Founders are going through the first full day of mentoring and networking meetings today (across 16 hours 🤯). They are ready to meet the @Boeing team and experts. 💪

If you are a startup wondering how to make the most of mentoring, keep reading... (1/10)

Know your mentor! Research them in detail before your meeting.

1️⃣ LinkedIn: What's their expertise or role? Do they have any useful connections you want an intro to?

2️⃣ Personal: Who are they? Where are they based? Anything you can use as a conversation starter? (2/10)

Currently, a lot of mentoring may happen virtually. Make sure you think about the following:
🖥️ Make sure you have a good wifi connection and sound
🖥️ If possible, turn your video on
🖥️ Avoid backgrounds that are too distracting
🖥️ Keep your energy up, engage and smile (3/10)

Be ready to introduce yourself and your business - the less time you spend getting the most important points across, the more time you will have for questions or open dialogue. Always start with the elevator pitch! (4/10)

Focus on what's important in the introduction & prepare targeted questions!
1️⃣ Essentials: What problem are you solving & for whom? What's your differentiator?etc.
2️⃣ Focus on questions they have/ you have & challenges they can help with 👈 this is where the magic happens! (5/10)

Make sure to take notes and if the mentor is happy with it, maybe even record the session so you can re-listen! ✍️ 🎙️(6/10)

Especially when it gets to corporate mentoring: don't spend the whole time selling! You'll get more valuable results if you really learn as much as you can about the problem and what benefit you can really bring first 💡 (7/10)

If you can: demonstrate! Whether that's a demo or prototype - showing what you are building is always better than just talking about it. 👀 (8/10)

ALWAYS FOLLOW UP ‼️

A thank you goes a long way. Also, remind them of any intros they promised or point out any especially useful insights they have given. Arrange the next meeting if that is applicable. Connect with them on LinkedIn if they are happy to! #network (9/10)

These are only a few of the most important and hopefully helpful points! Good luck to our teams 🍀 Sign up for office hours if you are a founder that needs support or want to chat about startups, accelerators etc. 👉 calendly.com/atiboeingaccel… (10/10)