Follow up after a mentor meeting
As a matter of practice, you should get in the habit of sending at least two follow-up messages. The first is a quick "thank you," and the other is a detailed recap. The initial, quick email enables you to express your gratitude, immediately, which will provide you with more time to review your notes and compose a more detailed recap.
A quick thank you can go a long way
Immediately after you part ways with your mentor, take 30 seconds to send a quick thank you email. It doesn't have to be more than a few sentences. This simple email serves three important purposes.
- First, it's an expression of gratitude for someone who has volunteered their time to help you.
- Second, it's an opportunity to further your relationship with your mentor beyond a one-off meeting.
- Third, it provides you with extra time to review the meeting's content and associated tasks before following up with a more detailed recap of your meeting.
If you met your mentor in person, try to ensure that the thank you message will be in their inbox before they return to their desk.
Tip
If you and your mentor have communicated via text, you can simply text your mentor a quick thank you, rather than emailing.
Provide a detailed follow-up for your mentor
Now that you've had the opportunity to thank your mentor, you now have more time to review your notes and/or recording to capture details from the meeting. If you were able to block time on your calendar immediately following the meeting, take advantage of compiling your recap while the meeting is still fresh in your mind. If you were unable to block time, make sure to return to your notes and/or recording as quickly as you can.
Let's create the second follow-up email that you're going to send.
First and foremost, make sure to capture any and all tasks that the mentor recommended for you. In this case, your mentor raised several questions about metrics that weren't captured in your financial model. You both agreed that it was important to add those additional parameters to improve the effectiveness of your financial model. So that's one task you should capture.
Consider whether they are tasks that can be completed quickly and easily, if they'll take hours, or if they'll take a significant amount of time. Organize them accordingly in buckets like "Before our next meeting" and "Complete by [DATE]." If you've met with your mentor more than once, remind them of the tasks you've completed since the previous meeting, "crossing them off the list."
Mentors will often suggest other people you should meet. Next, list any introductions to be made, ideally by both and contact name company, if available. For names that are easily discernible, indicate that you'll be sending your mentor an email that your mentor has permission to forward to the contact when they make the introduction. For names that are not obvious, ask for clarification before providing an email for an introduction.
Tip
In the middle of a meeting, your mentor may only remember a company name or a partial name. Make sure to capture as much context as possible to help remind the mentor of the person. e.g., "When we were talking about LTV, you mentioned the founder of a company in a space similar to ours who went through Techstars. You mentioned that founder might have some guidance on how to estimate LTV for our product."
Often, your mentor may also offer to send you links to books, articles, podcasts, or other resources. Capture a list of any of those resources mentioned by the mentor. Try to find as many of those resources as you can on your own. Note the resources to which you already have access, like books or articles that you've been able to find. Also indicate which resources you're still seeking from your mentor. Like introductions, the more context you can provide, the better.
If a future meeting is needed with the mentor, offer to begin comparing calendars to schedule the next meeting. Feel free to use the list of tasks, introductions, and resources to begin roughing out an agenda for that next meeting—even ahead of having decided on a specific topic or agenda for the meeting.
Finally, if appropriate, ask the mentor if you have permission to add them to regular status reports about your startup, providing the cadence that those reports are published for context.