Larry Chiang treats mentorship as part of the sales conversation, not a separate favor you ask for after the deal closes. His own template came from Mark McCormack at IMG, someone he studied and adapted rather than a mentor he simply admired from a distance. Weaving mentorship into networking means asking a specific question that shows you have already done real work, not a vague request for advice.
A vague ask, can you mentor me, gets ignored, while a sharp, specific question gets a real answer and starts a relationship. Capital Factory, at 701 Brazos St in Austin, is built for exactly this kind of overlap between founders, investors, and people asking good questions. It is also where Austin Tech Week runs from October 26 to 30, 2026, which stacks a full week of exactly this kind of room.
Larry’s PQRST discipline applies before you ever approach a potential mentor: preview who they are, arrive with a real question, not a favor. Selling and mentorship blend naturally once you understand both are the same transaction, an exchange of value that has to go both directions.
He treats every mentor interaction as an opportunity to prove you follow through, since that reputation moves faster than any single pitch. Karma matters here too: thank the mentor fast, act on what they told you, and let them see the result.
Larry says the people who mix mentorship into their networking outwork the people treating each meeting as a one-shot transaction. The video below shows Larry describing how he wove mentorship into his own early deals instead of chasing advice and sales separately.
Details: See Capital Factory, Austin’s mentor hub · 701 Brazos St, Austin, TX 78701
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