Entrepreneurship is often described as freedom – the chance to chart your own course and turn your ideas into reality. But behind that freedom lie loneliness, constant uncertainty, and the need to keep moving forward even when everyone around you doubts you or tells you your idea won't work.
It is precisely in those moments that a mentor's role becomes especially important – someone who can do more than just evaluate a business idea; someone who can help its author see the weak points, understand the scale of the challenges ahead, and yet not lose faith in themselves.
"Entrepreneurship is one of the loneliest professions, especially when things are going badly," says Steve Mackie, founder and managing director of Shourouk Media.
In 2026, he took part in the Seaside Startup Summit Armenia as a mentor for the fifth time. At the summit, Mackie speaks with startup founders, discusses their ideas, dreams and goals, helps them assess their chosen direction, takes part in competitions, and introduces entrepreneurs to potential partners and investors.
However, he says, one of a mentor's main tasks is not to deliver a final verdict at all.
"People want to know whether they're moving in the right direction. Sometimes they need validation, sometimes they just need a little hope and support to keep going. That's probably what brings me the greatest joy – being able to give someone a little hope and help them not give up," he told NEWS.am Tech.
A good idea is one you'd want to invest inHow do you tell that a startup is genuinely promising? Steve Mackie has a simple criterion: while listening to a pitch, he has to feel that he himself wants to become a customer of that project.
"When someone sits in front of me and tells me about their idea, I want to feel: I need this, I want to buy this. If I believe in what they're building, if I find myself wanting to say, 'Here's my money, where do I pay?' – that's a good sign."
As an example, he cites a team developing tools to optimise podcast production. Mackie himself hosts his own podcast and has already released around 450 episodes. To publish new episodes regularly, he needs a team and well-established workflows. That is why the solution proposed by the startup immediately struck him as particularly valuable.
"They've created exactly what I've been looking for. They already have a solution to my problem. For me, it's an obvious choice: I want to be involved."
But personal interest is only the first signal. A mentor must be able to look beyond their own needs and understand whether the idea a startup is offering could be useful to others.
Over the years, Mackie has helped hundreds of companies enter the Qatari market and has worked with representatives from a wide range of industries. The specifics of those industries can vary enormously, he says, but the fundamental principles of business remain largely the same.
"I'm not God. If someone has decided to do something, they're the one who will be able to make it happen. So I don't deliver a final judgement just because I personally like or dislike the idea."
Even if an entrepreneur presents a solution that Mackie has heard several times before, he says, he won't simply say: "It's been done before." Instead, a good mentor can share their own experience and ask questions that will help the founder assess their idea more deeply for themselves.
A startup should start with a problem, not a productOne of the main shortcomings Mackie observes in novice entrepreneurs is insufficient attention to the problem that their product is meant to solve.
He says many get carried away with the idea itself and start thinking about how to present their future project in the best light, even before they have established that it is genuinely needed by the market.
"They want to ice the cake before they've even weighed the ingredients. No market research has been done, demand hasn't been validated, many of the fundamentals are still missing – but they already want the cake to look beautiful. And yet there is no cake yet."
That is why an entrepreneur must not only come up with a product but also verify whether there is a real problem that it can solve. And market research doesn't necessarily have to be a formal procedure – it can be the first step towards finding customers.
Mackie gives a simple example: an entrepreneur approaches a potential user, says they are conducting market research, and asks for their opinion on the product. The person might reply that they like the idea, but that they would need certain changes or additional features to use it in practice. The entrepreneur can then come back a few weeks later with an improved solution – and perhaps turn what started as market research into their first sale.
"You came for feedback, but thanks to how you conducted that research, you can walk away with a customer already," he said.
To understand how compelling a startup's idea is, it is important not only to test demand but also to find out how the startup differs from existing solutions.
"I might ask: 'Who are your competitors? Have you looked into who's already doing something similar?' If the idea seems so brilliant that no one has ever tried to implement it before, that's also something to think about."
The goal of such questions is not to prove to the founder that they are wrong, but to push them to test their own assumptions for themselves.
Don't crush the dream – make them thinkWhat if a startup idea seems utterly unrealistic or doomed from the start?
In Mackie's view, even then, the mentor's job is not to destroy the novice entrepreneur's enthusiasm. It is far more important to speak honestly about the potential obstacles and help the person recognise for themselves what they are getting into.
"You shouldn't crush someone's spirit. You need to ask questions in a way that makes the person think about how thoroughly they've tested their idea and whether they really understand the decisions they're making."
On one occasion, a team of three came to Mackie with a medical device they were developing. His first reaction was cautious: the medical industry is known for its complex pathways to adopting new technologies.
"I asked them: 'Do you understand how difficult this is going to be? In medicine, the principle is often: if it isn't broken, why fix it? Some methods have been used for 150 years, and people don't want to replace them precisely because they still work.'"
Then one of the team members explained that he himself was a doctor. The idea had come from a real professional need: he wanted the ability to monitor his patients' condition regularly and remotely, rather than being limited to infrequent measurements with traditional devices.
The technology proposed by the startup was designed to collect data remotely – via wireless connection, without the need to use a familiar blood pressure cuff on a continuous basis.
Once the doctor had explained all this, the project looked completely different. The mentor was no longer looking at an abstract idea, but at a solution born from a concrete problem that the founder had encountered in their own work.
"Who am I to tell novice entrepreneurs that it's too difficult and they shouldn't go down that path? They have to walk that path themselves. My job is to explain what they should expect, not just automatically say: 'What a wonderful idea!'"
According to Mackie, a mentor should be a realist, but should not strip anyone of their dream.
"No one should destroy someone else's dream. You should challenge them, ask tough questions and help them see reality."
He compares mentoring to raising children. Mackie has four children and eight grandchildren, and his own experience has convinced him that it is impossible to set a limit in advance on what a person is capable of.
"You can't just say: 'No, you can't do that', because maybe they actually can."
Sometimes a person still decides to go their own way, even after the risks have been explained. In that case, the mentor's role is to be patient and not turn their back on them.
"When you tell a child: 'Don't touch, it's hot', they might still touch it and burn themselves. And then they'll say: 'You were right.' People often want to see for themselves."
So, Mackie says, if a novice entrepreneur wants to keep working on an idea that the mentor considers weak, it isn't always necessary to stop them at all costs.
"If you've honestly explained how you see things, and the person still wants to try – let them. Maybe later they'll come back to you and trust your experience more. Sometimes a mentor's job is simply to be there and help someone get back up after a failure."
'Feel the fear – and do it anyway'Despite all the difficulties, Steve Mackie's advice to those who truly want to become entrepreneurs is remarkably simple: start taking action.
"Just do it."
But there is a long distance between an idea and a business. According to Mackie, many get caught up in building the product but fail to pay enough attention to the fundamentals: market research, demand validation, financial planning, legal incorporation and all the other details without which an idea cannot become a sustainable business.
"The hardest part is in the details. You have to bring people back to reality and explain: it's not just about the icing. First you have to prepare all the ingredients properly."
Entrepreneurship is not for everyone – and there is nothing wrong with that. You can choose a stable job and build a career within a company. However, if building your own business is a genuine inner desire, Mackie advises not to abandon it simply out of fear of failure.
"The life of an entrepreneur is tough, although at a certain stage it does offer freedom. But if you truly want this – then go and throw yourself into it completely. Make mistakes, fall down, dust yourself off, get back up and keep going. And only then decide whether you want to stay in entrepreneurship or prefer to work as an employee."
At the same time, Mackie says, before taking the first step you need to ask yourself one important question: does the idea you want to work on actually solve a real problem?
"If you can't answer that question, and you're just thinking, 'I'd like to do this', it could be the biggest mistake of your life."
But if you believe in the idea and feel that entrepreneurship is genuinely part of your character, you should give it a try.
"You have one life. Feel the fear – and do it anyway."
Seaside Startup Summit Armenia 2026On July 26, the international technology and entrepreneurship forum, Seaside Startup Summit Armenia 2026, officially launched on the shores of Lake Sevan and will run through August 1. The event is organized by the Startup Armenia Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of High-Tech Industry of the Republic of Armenia.
According to the organizers, the summit brings together over 2,000 representatives of startups, investors, venture funds, tech companies, mentors, and experts from approximately 50 countries. The forum traditionally takes place as an open tech camp at Sevan Festival City, where participants not only pitch their projects but also discuss the growth prospects of the innovation ecosystem.
The summit program features several specialized events focused on various vectors of technological advancement. These include the World Youth Environment Festival, Sevan AgriTech Summit, WineTech Innovation Summit, Cyber Insurance Summit, Mining Innovation Summit, and Sevan EV Rally. Each track centers on specific areas—ranging from agritech, eco-friendly solutions, and wine tech to cyber insurance, mining innovations, and electric vehicle development.
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