Gaurav Bhatnagar
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Build & Grow

Startup Mentorship

Get hands-on guidance built for founders who already have traction, not theory.

Get a startup mentor who has actually run the function you're building, not just advised on it.

The way I got into this wasn't a program or a paid engagement. A school batchmate building a proptech marketplace, Saurabh Garg at NoBroker, took me up on an offer to help with his go-to-market. I did the work first, showed him what it produced, and only then did the conversation about a retainer happen.

Since then, I've mentored founders on a straightforward paid basis, agreed upfront. Over one two-year stretch, I mentored three portfolio companies spanning healthtech and e-pharmacy on that basis, moving roughly ₹61 lakh in additional revenue for those businesses combined. The companies stay unnamed, that's a condition I keep with founders, but the model and the numbers are real.

How This Works

Here's What This Actually Looks Like

  • I only take on founders with real traction already: a product in market, early revenue, a specific GTM decision to make.
  • No fixed curriculum or generic startup-advice playbook. Direct, specific guidance tied to what's actually happening in the business.
  • Terms and a retainer agreed upfront, based on what the engagement actually needs.
  • The same GTM and revenue-accountability lens I bring to consulting and fractional work, scaled to a startup's stage.

Good fit if:

you're past the idea stage and hitting a specific growth or GTM wall you can't quite name from inside the business.

Not a fit if:

you're pre-product or pre-traction. That's a different kind of help than I'm best at giving.

Frequently Asked

FAQs: Startup Mentorship

My consulting work means walking in, diagnosing the problem over a day or two, then proposing a scope and signing a retainer, typically six months to a year. Mentorship is lighter and more ongoing: direct guidance tied to whatever decision a founder is facing right now, without a fixed diagnostic phase or scope.
It's a paid, retainer-based arrangement agreed upfront, based on the stage of the business and what the engagement needs. Early on, before I had a track record, I did take on work pro bono before moving to a retainer. That's not how I structure new mentorship engagements today.
It's built around what the founder actually needs at that moment: sometimes a weekly call, sometimes a burst of intensive involvement around a specific decision, tapering off once that specific problem is solved.
Only founders with real traction already: a product in market, early revenue, and a specific growth or GTM decision on the table. I'm not the right fit pre-product or pre-traction.
No. My mentorship engagements run on a retainer once you realise the value I bring in, not on equity.
That's not the primary offer here. This is hands-on GTM and marketing mentorship, not a networking or fundraising-intros service, though it can come up naturally as part of the working relationship.
See General FAQs

Worth Knowing

“70% of small businesses that received mentoring survived past five years, double the rate of those that didn't.”

Source: The UPS Store survey, cited by the U.S. Small Business Administration

Get In Touch

Book a Free Discovery Call

Thirty minutes, no pitch.

Pick a slot that works for you. You'll get a confirmation with the Google Meet link straight away.

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Prefer to Write First?

higaurav@gauravbhattnagar.com

Gaurav Bhatnagar

higaurav@gauravbhattnagar.com

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