> Again, Happy to have this debate with y'all!

I’m not sure how much there is to debate, but it seems like you’ve got something more like a decent small (productized) consulting business than a VC-funded startup.

Given that you aren’t paying your mentors, I genuinely wonder how scalable it is. You mentioned that you have tried paying before, but I wonder if you were offering enough for top mentors who are able to be hired. The price for a good mentor can be very high when it’s not free and given out of some sort of goodwill.

Regardless, best of luck!