Entrepreneurs (including Joe Barton!) dish on how they formed relationships with the mentors who most influenced them.

Most smart founders have more than a few influential mentors helping support them behind the scenes, formally or informally. Many of those people are successful founders themselves, looking to pay it forward with a new generation.

Curious about how these mentoring relationships form, we asked nine successful founders from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) who their most important mentors are today—and perhaps more …