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GullySales

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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 05 · Every month

    Report against the baseline

    What moved, what did not, and what changes next, in plain words.

  6. 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. 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. 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. 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. 4

    Rebuild the profiles

    The bio page, LinkedIn and the directories that matter in your field, done once and done properly.

  5. 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. 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.

We call and WhatsApp on this number.

We use your details only to reply to this enquiry. See the privacy policy.

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?
Because fees are not what it returns. Board seats, advisory equity, a first look at a round, and a reputation that brings better founders rather than every founder. If none of those matter to you, this is not a good purchase and the audit report will say so.
Can you get me onto accelerator mentor panels?
No. We write the profile and the material, and we neither apply on your behalf nor hold relationships with programmes. What we can do is make the application you send look like it came from somebody they should want.
I also invest. Should the angel side sit on the same page?
Keep them on one page and separate them clearly. A founder needs to know whether a conversation with you is advice or diligence. Blurring it costs you the candid conversations, which are the reason founders come back at all.
How much does it cost?
There is no price list, because the work differs by business. The fee is scoped in the free audit and put in writing before anything starts, split into our time, your media spend and production.
How long is the contract?
Three to six months at a time. There is no twelve-month lock, and renewal is decided on the numbers against the baseline recorded at the start.
How soon will we see results?
Fixes to reply time, follow-up and your Google Business Profile usually show in weeks, because the enquiries already exist. Ads show in days once follow-up is ready. SEO and content take months. The audit tells you which applies to you.
Who will actually do the work?
The person you meet on the audit call. We work from one office in Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru, with no account managers in between.
What do you need from us?
For the audit, last month's enquiries in any format and 45 minutes with whoever handles them. After that, access to the accounts the work touches, such as the website, Google Business Profile or CRM, and time for the monthly review.
What if we are not happy with the work?
Tell us and the plan changes. Every month is reported against the baseline, so a number that is not moving is visible to both sides. Terms run three to six months at a time, and the refund and cancellation policy sets out the rest.

Get a free audit of how you sell, and a scored report of where the work is.

Book a free audit