Mentors: how does it work?

On the eve of the third Moscow Startup Weekend, we decided to answer numerous questions from the community about how exactly the mentoring system works and what it gives to projects. Not to be unfounded, we asked five simple questions to five projects working with mentors (two of which have already attracted angel investments).

Read, understand, ask questions, register your ideas and projects at the Moscow Startup Weekend , which will be held from December 3 to 5, 2010, and also (if you live in the Volga region, in the Urals, in Siberia) at Startup Weekend in Kazan , which will begin on this Friday, November 19th.
1. What idea came on the weekend?
2. What idea came from the weekend?
3. Why did you decide to work with this expert? How did the work go at the very beginning? When did you realize that you are ready for a long-term relationship?
4. How is the work going now: how often, in what format?
5. How exactly did your mentor help you? What is its use?

Microlending on the Internet (working title), Perm. Current agreements of intent are signed with Maria Shevtsova, Evgeny Agronik and Mikhail Tsygankov.
1. The system of evaluation and automated microcredit on the Internet.
2. Nothing has changed in the root idea. Details were added, questions for study and optimization points. We were able to more clearly assess the risks and costs.
3. These experts gave the most useful advice and helped the project to pass the stress test by lynching. The basic idea survived and even received a financial justification.
4. The work is on correspondence, as well as call up once a week on Skype and organize mini-conferences. We also use basecamp at the same time and celebrate there in about a day or two.
5. Already helped with the preparation and verification of financial models. Calculated and reduced financial costs, reworked the original model of the project and moved into the minimum risk segment. Soon, the first partnership agreements attracted through mentors will be reviewed and signed.

F-3.me Photographers search project. Moscow. Mentor and investor - Michael Trufanov.
1. Make a service where anyone can find a photographer for any purpose.
2. The idea has not changed in principle, but the key points have stood out and the monetization model has become clearer.
3. Mutual interest in the project - that’s what brings us closer :)
4. At the moment, work is being done both by correspondence and by personal meetings.
5. The mentor helped to adjust the business plan, and allocates the resources necessary for its implementation. (he is also an investor). We do not disclose financial aspects of the project.
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Geome (Fifteen on the weekend). Moscow. Mentor - Askar Tuganbayev.
1. On-line tags on maps of real cities.
2. Fifteen in real cities, the coordinates of the players are determined using GPS.
3. Since the presentation of our idea (and since she was born on a brainstorm on the first SW, this was already the second day of work), Sergey Biryukov, Deputy Askar, joined the team as an expert. Sergey shared his experience in the field of social games with us, because we were two to five in this matter, practical knowledge, knowledge of the specifics of the direction were very useful to us.
4. We work very simply. We agree on what to do in the next work step. We do. :) We meet, discuss the results, plus share ideas on the project.
5. We are IT professionals, to raise a commercial project from scratch, to think through all aspects is a fairly new task for us, you do not know what to grab. The main thing that helps us mentor - to decide on the next step. Plus - work on BP, calculations, adjustments in the number of finances / people / users, marketing strategy, development strategy, etc. And many different little things, if you do not know that, you can very quickly ruin the project.
And a little extra. lines.
IMHO, the main task of the mentor - it is not to get bogged down in the details, set the course of work. Starting work on your project, we are entering a completely new territory for us. A territory with its own laws and regulations. But the hell with these two rules somewhere written down.
Of course, not any project needs mentors. Of course, there are teams that are so great that they have both a finished product and experienced people of different types in a team. But damn it! Not everyone is like that. And there are people - like me and my brother - who have only an idea and a fierce desire to change this world for the better and do something great. And our mentor helped us to take the first step towards this. He helped to believe in his own strength, showed that some things are simpler than they seem. It is impossible to describe in paragraphs “1, 2, 3” the tremendous feeling that arises when in your project, they believe in your team. It is very, very helpful to those who are just starting.

Glavbot, Moscow. Mentor - Dmitry Altukhov.
1. Make a web game with real robots
2. Make a platform for web games with real robots.
3. He himself decided to work with us, he said that he would help us enter the US market.
4. Now while we are working on the project itself, the correspondence with the mentors is frozen - they are waiting for the demo version.
5. We rarely interact with Altukhov, his contribution (at least the one about which I know) was mostly motivational. Natalia Chanysheva helped a lot !!! She pulled us on RIW2010, plus helps us find investors. We plan to formalize our relations with her, as with a mentor.

The “B152” project is the best way to compile documentation on the protection of personal data. Moscow. Mentor and investor - Oleg Mikhalsky.
1. Initial idea: a project that helps a business compile documentation on the protection of personal data, thereby fulfilling most of the requirements of the law 152 of the Federal Law "On Personal Data".
2. The idea after the Weekend did not change, but additional positioning appeared.
3. The expert has extensive experience in the information security market, and this is our market. In addition, he is well versed in business development from scratch, which is very important for us. The decision on the long-term relationship was taken a few weeks after the Weekend.
4. At the moment, a face-to-face meeting is held once a week or two with Oleg, communication by phone and soap takes place almost every day.
5. The expert gave the necessary connections and helped us with initial investments. He also constantly gives practical advice on the implementation of the idea.
In addition, Oleg and I reached an agreement on angel investments for website development and domain purchase (already attracted), website promotion, and legal support for the project. Terms will be clarified in the coming days.
A little later, we are ready to publish a detailed case as soon as the project is successfully completed 1-2 stages after launch.

There are also negative reviews about working with mentors - we take them into account. :)