Startup Science Acquires Sphere, Launches Structured Mentorship Platform for Every Founder

Mentorship methodology tested with 2,500+ entrepreneurs across five continents is now live and accessible inside the Startup Science platform.

SAN DIEGO, May 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Mentored startups survive at 2x the rate of non-mentored ones, yet 97% of founders who apply to accelerator programs are rejected. The founders who need guidance most have the least access to it.

Startup Science today announced the acquisition of Sphere, the mentorship methodology and technology created by Colin Christensen, and the launch of its Advisors module. The module makes structured, phase-appropriate mentorship available to every founder on the platform immediately.

The advisory space for startups is large and almost entirely unstructured. An estimated 200,000 to 500,000 mentors and advisors actively serve startups in the United States through informal introductions that many founders will never access. Platforms like Fiverr help founders find contractors, but there's no platform built specifically for startups. The Startup Science Advisors system changes that.

Christensen developed Sphere by mentoring over 2,500 entrepreneurs across five continents. He trained mentors through translators in communities where business is the primary path out of poverty. He worked with tier 1 VC firms in Riyadh helping venture-backed founders scale deep tech. His core insight: entrepreneurs need help with the problems they're immediately facing rather than courses that distract from their immediate concerns.

"The mentor-entrepreneur relationship is the most sacred, the most important one in this ecosystem," said Christensen, now Head of Advisory at Startup Science. "Whether a founder is selling salsa in Honduras or scaling AI in the Middle East, the fundamentals are the same. The difference is whether they have a system to work through those fundamentals with a mentor, or whether they are doing it alone."

The Advisors module matches founders with mentors based on their Startup Lifecycle phase, expertise, and goals. Mentors see founder progress between sessions, track tasks and outcomes, and manage growing practices without losing context. Founders stay engaged between sessions through structured check-ins instead of going silent until the next meeting. The system is designed to scale mentorship the way platforms like Upwork scaled freelance services: by adding infrastructure, matching, and accountability to a market that previously ran on relationships and memory.

"Colin has experience in startup advisory that is distinct and deeper than anyone on our team, including me," said Gregory Shepard, Founder and CEO of Startup Science. "That is exactly the kind of expertise you acquire, not replicate."

The Advisors module is live now at startupscience.io/solutions/mentors.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

About Startup Science and Sphere Startup Science is building the infrastructure that unifies the startup ecosystem. The Startup Lifecycle framework guides founders through seven phases of company building, supported by mentorship, educational resources, and tools. The platform serves over 89,000 founders, mentors, and ecosystem organizations worldwide. The Advisors module integrates Sphere, the mentorship methodology created by Colin Christensen. He's a serial entrepreneur with 15 ventures who has mentored over 2,500 entrepreneurs across five continents. Learn more at startupscience.io.

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SOURCE Startup Science