How Clint Rogers Used Mentorship to Learn Startup Skills Faster

What kind of challenges were you facing when you decided to look for a mentor?

When founding Creativo, my startup, I was asking myself: how do you raise funds, how do you hire, how do you navigate all of these challenges? I found Mentorcam online and decided to take the step of hiring a mentor. I took that step because I was looking for answers. And the power of Mentorcam is this: it's the power of speed. You're getting actual access to leaders that have done it before. They have actually built and navigated the challenges you're facing.

What are some ways Mentorcam has helped you with the fundraising process?

One of the mentors I spoke with on Mentorcam was Joe Coyne, a VC. He had great insights that helped us with some major decisions we were making. Do we navigate customer growth right now, or do we navigate raising funds? He gave me the VC perspective on building the company in a way that would make us more valuable when approaching them in the future. 

Another mentor that I spoke with was Colin Rogister, who also helped on the VC side. He let me see blind spots that I hadn't seen—certain areas in our company that I didn't even realize we needed to put more focus on to be stronger. Each time I spoke to Colin, he helped take Creativo to another level with each little bit of wisdom and insight.

One of the things about the mentors at Mentorcam is that they truly have not just the knowledge and the wisdom, but a heart to see you succeed. So that was huge.

Did you get any hands-on help with your pitch deck?

I did! I was talking to Rune Hauge, of course, one of the mentors on Mentorcam, and he specifically looked at my pitch deck and saw it from a different light. Here I am, I've watched all these videos on YouTube, I've done all the work to get the pitch deck right. But when I showed up and I was speaking to a mentor who has the experience, who's taken a pitch deck out there hundreds of times and pitched it live, he's like, "Hey, you need to make this little change. That slide doesn't work. They're not going to be interested in that." In the deck I was applying advice I learned elsewhere, like on YouTube. Sometimes that advice can be good and that can be bad of course. Because looking at what I had, he realized, "No, here are live examples. This is what VCs want." And those changes were huge.

What I found is when I started to get on with investors and VCs is that he nailed it. It was exactly what they were interested in. Those changes were instrumental and actually, I had more conversations, was able to pitch more and had better success because of that advice from my mentor.

How would you recommend Mentorcam in your own words?

Do you want to get to where you want to be faster? If you do, that's the power of a mentor. You're investing in speed. 

You can go learn anything today on the internet, you can learn anything on YouTube or other resources. But you know what? You're going to have to invest the time. The power of working with a mentor is rather than me watching hours of videos or reading all these different books on the subject, I'm talking to someone who's an expert in that field. They can cut right down to the nugget of what I need today and speak right into it.

So if you're questioning, is it worth it? Is the value worth it? Well, is the speed worth it to you? Do you want to invest the time yourself, or do you want to work with someone who has the knowledge, the insight, and can take you there faster? That's the power of Mentorcam. I would say make that step. If you're willing to invest in the speed and growth of your company, then do it. It's worth it.