How large is the pool of mentors here?

The best way to find a mentor is to look around in your industry and see who you feel has accomplished what you're setting out to do, and that you gel with the way they did it (values, brand, etc). "Ask for money, get advice. Ask for advice, get money twice" ~ Pitbull If you can get a warm introduction, do that. If not, you can always cold email them with a specific issue that you want advice on .. ideally it's something super relevant to their life experience and interesting enough to get their attention. Never ask them to be a mentor. Mentorship usually develops over a couple meetings and is informal. The value to them is to give back to the next generation. As long as you listen, execute on their advice / or not, AND follow up - then they'll continue to give you some time. Mentors are best for those large life decisions that most people turn to their parents too ... those decisions are interesting for most noteable people to give you 15 minutes on a call to discuss.

I'd recommend finding a qualified operational advisor and offering some SMALL level of equity to keep all interests aligned, as well as bring further credibility to the business!

As a 500 Startup mentor I would suggest the following 1) Blog about distribution, design and data. Those are the things that 500 values most and usually the fastest way to get on their radar. 2) Interact with @davemcclure (and all other partners) on Twitter 3) Attend geeks on a plane or other events they host. It's all about relationships and perception, so create opportunities to increase the probability of showing them that you have skills that are relevant to the companies they invest in. Hope that helps.

- Peter Thiel was crucial for Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) - Ray Chambers for Jack Dorsey (Twitter) - Ken Allard and investors Ben Horowitz for Dennis Crowley (Foursquare) - Paul Graham and Partovi Brothersfor Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi (Dropbox founders) - Adam D'Angelo for Kevin Systrom (Instagram) See more of who mentored whom at http://www.businessinsider.com/meet-the-mentors-behind-the-visionaries-of-tech-2012-7?op=1

I was born a maker, and I've been an Entrepreneur for six years now (and a wannabe for much longer before that) and I think the worst advice I've got was from people who had never taken a step of the journey. People with academic (or other) credentials who advise you based on theory and completely miss the point of entrepreneurship. They know about the theory of sales funnels and marketing strategies and much more but they've never made a cold call. Or a sale for that matter. The best advice I received was from my godfather, who is an entrepreneur and salesman. That advice was simple, brutal and actionable: "If you can't sell it to a customer, how do you expect to sell it to a salesman ?". That made me realize that you don't stand a chance at success if you can't convince anyone. A good startup advisor understands all of the field he's advising about and knows what a startup is. He knows how to apply his knowledge to the constraints a startup faces and how to deliver that wisdom in regular words to support the startup's decision process.