What makes a great Mentor?

They are founders of one or more successful technology startups and have been through the same thing you’re going through.  They enjoy spending time with other entrepreneurs and thinking about different businesses.

They have a huge network of customers, vendors and employees they can introduce you to. They’re really busy, but make time to meet with you every week and are responsive to your emails and calls.

Chris Gillan | @chrisgillan

Chris Gillan has studied the advancement of human potential and entrepreneurship for over 25 years. His expertise lies in the earliest stages of the start-up process: Taking a company from the idea stage, confirming a market, building the early team which successfully creates and takes the product to market and navigating the different possibilities for funding the project.

He is the Founder and Managing Partner of Kent Street Partners, LLC, a boutique consulting firm serving the software industry. Prior to founding Kent Street Partners, Chris co-founded Gazzang, Inc., a security software company focused on securing cloud and big data computing infrastructures. As the Founding CEO, Chris led early product formulation, built development teams, secured early angel funding and took the company to a successful Series-A investment round led by Austin Ventures. He then recruited a team of veteran start-up executives that continue to grow the company, even in today’s challenging economy.

Prior to Gazzang, he was on the start-up teams of two other software companies including Houston-based Idera, Inc. currently employing over 400 people. Prior to this, he held positions in sales, sales management and business development for a variety of Houston-based software companies including BMC Software, Bindview Development and Business Forge.

When not engaged in business, Chris is an avid hiker, sailor and Boy Scout Leader.

Follow Chris on Twitter!