Personal branding · Consultants, coaches and advisers
Founders pick the mentor who has done the thing, not read about it.
Personal branding for a startup mentor is the operating history a founder checks before taking your advice seriously: what you built, the stage at which you are useful, and what you want in return. GullySales writes it and takes the substance from the conversations you are already having free.
In one paragraph
Personal branding for a startup mentor is the operating history a founder checks before taking your advice seriously: what you built, the stage at which you are useful, and what you want in return. GullySales writes it and takes the substance from the conversations you are already having free.
Also written for
Startup mentor, Startup adviser, Angel adviser, Incubator mentor.
For startup mentors and advisers
Where it usually goes wrong, and what we would do.
“Mentor is what people write when they have stopped doing something”
The word covers a retired vice president, a busy operator and somebody between jobs. A founder in Koramangala with eleven months of runway cannot afford to discover which one you are over coffee.
“Stage is the only filter a founder trusts”
Advice for a company at two crore of revenue is wrong for one at twenty. When your profile does not say which end you are useful at, founders select themselves badly and your Saturdays go to waste.
“The return is deal flow, and deal flow follows specifics”
An accelerator mentor list runs to three hundred names and nobody reads it. The founders worth your time arrive through something you wrote about the exact problem they have this month.
“If you take a fee for introducing investors, the rules change”
Arranging capital for a fee is a different activity from mentoring and it touches securities regulation. Have your own adviser tell you where your arrangement sits before you describe it publicly, because the exposure is yours.
What we do
What we deliver for startup mentors and advisers.
Every deliverable, what it covers for you, and the result it is there to produce. Nothing here is an extra.
A profile built on what you operated
The company, the years, the function you actually ran and the stage it was at while you ran it. Advisory titles come after the operating history, never instead of it.
Result: A founder can tell in one screen whether you have solved his problem before.
Writing pitched at the stage you serve
The first ten hires, pricing a first enterprise contract, what to cut when runway reaches eleven months, how to refuse a customer who wants a custom build.
Result: Founders arrive with a real question instead of asking for general advice.
The monthly conversation about your office hours
An hour on the mentoring calls you took this month and the pattern running through them. Nothing identifiable is published without the founder's permission. Lose that hour and all we can produce is a generic mentor bio, which is free to write and worth about as much.
Result: Real material out of unpaid work you were doing anyway.
Your terms stated openly
Whether you mentor free, take advisory equity, charge a fee or invest, and the point at which the conversation changes into one of those.
Result: Founders stop guessing, and the awkward call stops happening.
A pack for accelerators and demo days
A short profile, a photograph and the subjects you take office hours on, ready for the programmes that keep asking for it at two days' notice.
Result: You are on the list before the cohort starts rather than after.
Office hours made visible
A standing slot, published, with what a founder must send in advance so the half hour is worth taking.
Result: Fewer coffees, more conversations that go somewhere.
How the result is measured
- Enquiries that name you or came through your profile
- Searches for your name, from Search Console
- Profile views and connection requests from your industry
- Speaking invitations, press enquiries and podcast requests
- Posts published against posts planned, and what held up the rest
Recorded as a baseline before work starts, then reported every month against it.
How it works
From your first message to the first monthly report.
No open-ended retainer. Each step has a point in time and something you receive.
01 · Day 1
Free audit call
45 minutes with whoever handles your enquiries: how they arrive, how fast they are answered, where they are lost.
02 · Within a few working days
Written, scored report
Six areas scored, fixes ranked by return and cost. If you want our help, the scope and fee come with it, in writing.
03 · Before work starts
Baseline recorded
Enquiries by source, reply time, conversion and cost per order, written down so every later month has an honest comparison.
04 · Month 1
The first fix goes live
Usually the cheapest one on the report: reply time, a follow-up sequence or the marketing-to-sales handover.
05 · Every month
Report against the baseline
What moved, what did not, and what changes next, in plain words.
06 · Month 3 to 6
Renew on the numbers
The term ends and you decide whether to continue from the results. No twelve-month lock.
How the work runs for startup mentors and advisers
- 1
Work out whether this is even your bottleneck
The audit call covers how enquiries reach you today. Plenty of owners come asking for this and leave with a report saying the company's own site is the weaker link, and that comes first.
- 2
Search your own name with you
We look at what a buyer sees today: every profile, old listing and photograph. Some of it you will want taken down, and some of it only you can take down.
- 3
Agree what you will and will not say
The subjects you know cold, the ones that belong to your clients, and the lines your regulator or association draws. Written down before anything is published.
- 4
Rebuild the profiles
The bio page, LinkedIn and the directories that matter in your field, done once and done properly.
- 5
The monthly rhythm
Interview, drafts, your approval, publication. The interview is the only part that needs you, and it is the part that cannot be skipped.
- 6
Hand it over
The subject list, the drafting notes and the calendar are yours. Plenty of owners keep it running themselves after a few months, and that is a fair outcome.
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every monthly report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No lock-in, no guarantees we cannot keep
Three to six months at a time. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
The offer
Start with a free audit of how you sell.
It is useful on its own, whether or not you hire us.
What you receive
- A 45-minute call with the person who will do the work
- A written, scored report on the six places orders leak, within a few working days
- Every fix ranked by what it returns and what it costs
- The one thing to do first, and why
- An honest line on whether you need outside help at all
- If you do, the scope and the fee in writing
No invoice. No obligation. No sales script.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Most of this mentoring is unpaid. Why would I spend on it?
Can you get me onto accelerator mentor panels?
I also invest. Should the angel side sit on the same page?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Consultants, coaches and advisers
Personal branding for the rest of the consultants, coaches and advisers.
- AI and data consultants
- Business coaches
- Career coaches and counsellors
- Corporate trainers
- Cybersecurity consultants
- Executive and leadership coaches
- Fractional CXOs
- Franchise consultants
- HR and recruitment consultants
- IT and technology consultants
- Life and wellness coaches
- Management and strategy consultants
- Marketing and branding consultants
- Project management consultants
- Sales consultants
- Supply chain, procurement and logistics consultants
Or start from personal branding.