Critical to Entrepreneurial Success: 5 Key Learnings from Mentoring 76 Software Startups

MESA is a non-profit organization offering pro bono mentoring by C-level software executives to founders/CEOs of MN-based startup software companies. MESA’s sole mission is to grow the size and vibrancy of the Minnesota startup software community.

Founded in 2011, MESA has mentored 76 companies, including many Minnesota startup success stories, for over 6,000 total mentoring hours. These include When I Work, Dispatch, Players Health, Sezzle, Fulcrum, Omnia Fishing, Datica Health, and Vidgrid. With 6 mentors at our founding, we now currently utilize the proven knowledge and experience of 41 C-level, volunteer mentors.

Through our combined experience, we have identified a short list of critical and focused actions common to the successful growth of our startup mentees. With attention given to these building blocks, we speed founder/CEO learning and avoid potholes that slow growth.

This session will highlight the key points an entrepreneur needs to understand for each of these five critical startup building blocks:
* Selecting your first target market (what to look for)
* Founder as initial Chief Sales Officer (when you’ve never sold before)
* The path to predictable sales results (data matters)
* Being ready to raise money (if you want to)
* Minimizing chances of a cash crisis (when to raise the yellow and red flags)

• Startups