Our mentor program prepares entrepreneurs for the next stage of their startup development as well as for pitch competitions and meetings with financing opportunities.  You can think of it as a "pre-accelerator" as we help you "package" your startup and help set your company on the path to success.

This March, our focus is on "Finding the Product-Market Fit." This is a very important issue for every startup founder. Many get it wrong. 75% of all startups fail. The #1 reason for a startup's failure is that founders build something that no one needs. Finding the fit with an existing need in the market is therefore the most important goal for every startup's product. Without the product-market fit, a startup cannot scale. Founders need a methodical approach to efficiently find the product-market fit and therefore not waste their time, effort and investment dollars on product features not required by the market.

During this interactive session, we will cover the following topics:

1) Defining "product-market fit" (PMF)

2) Intro to the "Lean Startup" methodology

3) Customer Development process  

4) Defining the "minimum-viable product" (MVP).

5) Avoiding pre-mature spending on marketing

6) When to scale? 

Our session will be run by Sab Kanaujia. A globally recognized entrepreneur, executive, advisor and investor in the digital technology industry, Sab is the Founder and CEO of Dia Ventures, an early-stage startup advisory and investment firm based in NYC. He also ran global digital product strategy & development for NBC Universal, where his team incubated, launched and scaled digital products for over thirty global brands across entertainment, news and sports programming for the $16Bn global media and entertainment company. 

Why put your heart into something where you could be setting yourself up to fail when some extra thoughtful hours spent could set you up for success? 

Come join us to make sure you are on the right track!

FINDING THE PRODUCT-MARKET FIT

Members: Free

Non-Members: $20

Mentoring is a benefit for our active members.  Non-members can buy tickets for our workshops but to be matched with a mentor you must join TiE New York first (membership is $100/year and you can join by signing up at ny.tie.org).  

About the Mentor Program

TiE New York's one on one mentoring program, "Mentor Match" welcomes our members looking for startup guidance to be mentored by our experienced Charter Members.  

Many of our recent mentees came to us as presenters at our Startup Open Mic Nights.  Members that have attended our sessions in 2019 and are active TiE New York members are in process of being matched with the mentee's needs foremost in mind during the process.  They are being introduced via email as the matches are made by our mentorship committee.

After being matched, Mentors and Mentees will be responsible for meeting on their own time in subsequent months as well as attend our monthly meetings where we will have speakers and workshops to supplement the one-on-one mentoring.  The events will be predominately on third Tuesdays through June.

If you are interested in becoming a mentee or mentor please register to attend the next event so we can get to know you and fill out the appropriate mentor or mentee intake form for us here. 

About our Mentors

Our mentors are volunteers whose goal is to give back.  They are successful founders and investors running their own businesses and funds. They have agreed to volunteer their time for up-to four hours per month in order to help budding entrepreneurs within the TiE NY community.

About Sab Kanaujia

Sab Kanaujia is a globally recognized entrepreneur, executive, advisor and investor in the digital technology industry. He is at Dia Ventures and on the TiE New York Board of Directors.  During his two decades working with Fortune 200 firms and disruptive startups in US, Europe, Asia and Latin America, Sab launched several path-breaking global digital ventures like Hulu and TMZ, and played a key role in the digital disruption of the media & entertainment industry. As a startup founder, executive, advisor and investor, he has been involved with twenty-two companies over this period, ten of which have had successful exits, including four IPOs (NASDAQ and NYSE). He has held executive roles with Secret Cinema (Interim CEO), NBC Universal (GM/VP, Digital Product Strategy & Development), AOL (Director, Corporate Development, Video Product Strategy), among others.

Sab launched Dia Ventures, a startup advisory and investment firm based in New York City, that is filling a key gap in healthcare innovation through technology entrepreneurship. Dia Ventures combines domain knowledge in the healthcare industry with expertise in building transformative digital products and scalable businesses. It provides critical high-touch support to healthcare industry entrepreneurs, equipping them with the proven digital playbook that previously transformed media and retail industries using technologies like big data, AI, mobile, cloud computing, messaging and video. As a New Yorker since 1998, he is excited to see the phenomenal growth of the City's entrepreneurial ecosystem. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and three daughters.