The entrepreneurial journey can be lonely, and it is certainly beset with challenges. But as any quest, the path toward founding a company will include heroes—people who step in and aid you at just the moment when you need them most.

In this post I’ll tell you a little about my own entrepreneurial journey thus far, and describe the 5 hero archetypes I’ve met, and how they helped me along the way. It’s a little bit of a public “thank you,” and also, I hope, an inspiration to those of you at the beginning, or a low point, of your entrepreneurial quest. You will meet heroes along the way. Keep an eye out for them.

Image: http://beacon.wharton.upenn.edu