A common pitfall in mentorship is developing emotional dependency. Mentors should provide support, advice, and guidance for your professional growth, but they are not a place for codependency or a substitute for a therapist or parent. Keeping this boundary clear is crucial for a healthy and effective relationship.
Founder Janice Omadeke credits her entrepreneurial drive to a childhood game her father created. At dinner, he would ask his children to identify a problem they saw that day and design a business to solve it, including target market and go-to-market strategy, effectively gamifying problem-solving.
After her mother died, having endured a toxic work culture while sick, founder Janice Omadeke used that painful memory as a motivator. She baked the mission to prevent others from having that experience into her company's DNA, transforming personal grief into a profound professional purpose.
To get candid early-stage feedback, founder Janice Omadeke disarmed potential advisors by explicitly asking them to tell her if her "baby is ugly" and why. This framing signaled a thick skin and a genuine desire for constructive criticism, leading to more valuable insights instead of polite encouragement.
Instead of generic networking, founder Janice Omadeke prepared for her accelerator by creating hyper-specific lists of target mentors. She cross-referenced sponsors and partners with HR leaders at "best places to work," enabling her to make targeted, intelligent asks and maximize every networking opportunity.
To get meetings with busy leaders before her product was ready, founder Janice Omadeke explicitly stated, "I am too early for you to purchase this." This non-threatening approach lowered their guard, reframing the conversation from a sales pitch to a collaborative session focused on learning their problems.
A founder's decision to sell was triggered by her first-ever panic attack during a casual conversation about the business's future. This intense physical reaction served as an undeniable gut signal that her ego-driven push for the next funding round was the wrong path, prompting her to explore an exit.