Yesterday I had the pleasure for the first time to meet with ten startup groups through the R/GA Accelerator program, which is powered by Techstars. I was invited as a mentor to sit with all ten groups and hear about the startup and the product vision they are developing.

We as mentors are expected to listen to the ideas pitched, respond to them, offer our opinions and advice, and see if any of the groups may benefit from our experience and may want to have us as mentors for the rest of the program.

It was quite a pleasant experience for me, I must say. It is amazing how fast 20 minutes go by when you have an interesting conversation with entrepreneurs trying to get a new product to the market. Some of the products presented are close to completion (so it seems), and some are at a very early stage of definition and concentrating on the idea/direction. Naturally, some were more interesting to me as a hardware designer, and I believe I can offer advice in this area. Some ideas were more software-heavy or software-oriented, and although interesting, I do not think I can help much as a professional but more as a potential consumer.

It was refreshing to step outside of the office and listen to ideas being pitched. We were ten mentors, listening to ten startups for 20 minutes each. It must have been exhausting to pitch ideas 10 times in one day. At least we, the mentors, had a new experience every 20 minutes.