

Ask HN: Do you have business advisers? - Tawheed

I'm writing an article on why every startup (and startup founder) should have a set of business advisers -- whether it be for product, design or business advice. While conceptually this seems like an obvious thing to me, I'm curious to know how you think about it. Do you have a set of advisers? How do you typically communicate with them? Do you pay them? How do you go about finding advisers? Please share your thoughts...
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Travis
My company went through several iterations of advisors before we found a group
that worked for us.

First group was SCORE, who didn't work out (they would've been more helpful if
we wanted to start a restaurant, rather than a tech startup). Then we tried a
pay-to-play group that would help us with our b-plan, and put us in front of
investors. Waste of money.

Finally, we found a group of volunteers who meet with us every 2 weeks. We do
a presentation every 2 weeks, usually on refining our b-plan and slide deck.
Just hit the point where they're happy with our deck, and now they're putting
us in touch with some PR and marketing connections to build out that part of
our business.

So, we don't pay them, although I expect 1-2 of them to be on our board. Can't
speak to how we found them -- just beating the bushes and trying out groups
until one seemed really professional, I guess.

And I would seriously look elsewhere as soon as your advisers start asking to
be paid. Your funds are limited, use them to build your market and product!

