Ask HN: I am from Brazil, how I find mentors? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: I am from Brazil, how I find mentors?

13 pointsspeeder14 comments

I noticed that a good amount of the most solid startups have mentors, advisors, nearby friends, people visiting each other, or they join stuff like YCombinator (that requires physical presence).

But I am in Brazil, and I found no hot startup scene here (like there are in SV or near MIT), I am struggling to have friends or mentors, everyone that I talk to is using internet, and everyone lives really far away from me (the closest person is 2000km I think?)

So, how I find mentors, advisors and whatnot?

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Lots of smart people online writing blogs, whatevering on tumblr, chatting on irc etc. Find a credible of information and somewhere you can ask questions like a forum or stackoverflow or even hn for some things.

Later this year go to this and meet real life people who may be suitable mentors. There's probably also many startup and whatever industry events, conferences, etc that may have interesting people attending.

http://geeksonaplane.com/destinations/2013-destinations/lati...

I`m facing the same problem , i`m from Brazil also, i would suggest you to have a look on Quora:

http://www.quora.com/Startups-in-Brazil/Who-are-the-leading-...

http://www.quora.com/Startups/How-can-I-find-an-advisor-from...

Also if possible could you send me an email, I'd like to keep in touch with you. viniciusfbm at gmail

Try http://mentii.com -- it's still in beta but there are a few startup advisors / mentors explicitly offering help.

disclaimer: I run Mentii and happy to help you find the right mentor if no one responds (reach out to me at sumit at mentii dot com)

You might not need mentors or advisers as much as you might perceive.

Focus on building product and talking to customers. I learned this from Paul Graham. If you hit a fork in the road, then you might.

What is hitting a fork in the road?

It's an English idiom (phrase) which means having to take a tough decision, it comes from having to choose between two roads when they split into two.

Another thing I can suggest is to network via sites like LinkedIn. I actually got contact with another HN-poster from Brazil! And best tip: if there's no group where you live yet, you can start one!

I'm from Uruguay, but I believe there are a few startup hotspots in Brazil.

The past Tuesday, there was an event here, which showcased the finalists from the LATAM Startup Challenge. All finalists were from Brazil, and I was extremely impressed by them, and they seemed very approachable, maybe you can get some of them to help you find the local startup scene.

http://www.latamstartupchallenge.com/

I've also seen several Brazilians commenting over here too.

No idea if they can help an IT startup, but there's SEBRAE:

http://www.sebrae.com.br/

also the brazilian software chamber Softex:

http://www.softex.br/_home/default.asp

The Uruguayan chamber (CUTI) usually finds mentors for new startups, maybe the Brazilian equivalent does too as well.

Looking at the Brazilian startup challenge sponsors, there are a few that can help you as well:

http://www.anjosdobrasil.net/

Brazilian angel investors, and

http://startups.ig.com.br/

That's a source about Brazilian startups, maybe they can direct you to a mentor.

Edit: 500 startups did a Brazil round as well, so there's an Y Combinator alternative for you.

Edit2: where do you live? If you live in the south, and there really aren't any startup hotspots (which I find hard to believe), you can always come to Montevideo :) there's a decent startup scene over here.

I know there are tech hubs in Porto Alegre and São Paulo and Rio.

If you're in the north, well yes, that's a bit tougher and I can't advise you much :) the internet is your best bet I guess.

I am in São Paulo.

Oh, Sebrae do not help much, they ask too much stuff, you might run out of money before they ever decide to help, usually those that get help from Sebrae are from agricultural stuff or they have "friends" there.

So I guess you'll need to turn to the private side :)

What about the "Anjos do Brasil" thing? Looks promising.

There's a Startup Weekend in Florianopolis

http://florianopolis.startupweekend.org/

And, if traveling isn't your thing, there's DEMO Brasil in São Paulo to network and pitch, too.

Looking at last years' São Paulo Startup Weekend, you could try contacting some of the judges - it had a "mentoring" portion :)

http://saopaulo.startupweekend.org/

Edit: searching a bit further:

http://www.abstartups.com.br/

Associação Brasileira de Startups.

http://www.endeavor.org.br/

The Brazilian chapter of Endeavor, they offer mentorship there (sometimes in exchange of equity)

And a lot of events in your area !!!

http://startups.ig.com.br/eventos/

http://www.campus-party.com.br/2013/index.html

and even a Lean Startups event in the next few months:

http://startups.ig.com.br/2012/nova-edicao-em-sao-paulo-do-e...

and a Startup lab

http://laboratoriodestartups.wordpress.com/

Thanks! Lots of stuff!!!!

Recently i got an edition (12/2012) of the INFO Magazine and it has a interesting article about a Startups competition which happened in São Paulo a month or two ago.

Maybe worth looking into their site or go around and buy the magazine.

Move to Sao Paulo. I had to, so do you.

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