“Mentor” is a term commonly used in startup competitions. Are mentors vital to startups? Mentors, they have been there, done that, and have seen it all. Yet a woeful number of entrepreneurs start their business without one. Most successful tech titans were founded by people who had mentors. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was mentored by Steve Jobs. Jobs was mentored by Mike Markkula – an early investor and executive at Apple. Eric Schmidt mentored Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google. Do startups need a mentor? What role does a mentor play? This article reviews the impact a mentor can have on startups and provides guidance for both mentor and mentee.