

Ask HN - Where to find startup advisors / mentors? - factorialboy

##TL;DR<p>I'm a long time programmer but a newbie entrepreneur. I'm unsure how to get started with this startup thing. Where can I find advise, advisors, mentors, references?<p>## The Long Story<p>I saw the possibility of simplifying and redoing enterprise collaboration specifically in the decision making space.<p>So I did the easy part.<p>I've put together a minimum product -- Review19.com -- which BTW got not so much traction when I shared it on a "Show HN" thread :-( Anyway, I want to now solve the next part of the puzzle.<p>I've done a basic market survey, I know the big guys I'm up against (the SAPs and the IBMs). I know what's good about their offerings, and what sucks.<p>From the team perspective, I'm the engineering / technical founder and I have marketing co-founder in the wings. While the product can be used by individual users, I fully understand the major market will be the enterprise users.<p>I acknowledge that a majority effort will be marketing, selling, pilot tests, gathering feedback etc. and I concede that engineering may have to play a limited role.<p>My next milestone is to attract some seed funding so that I can put together the team, prepare resources and reach out to potential customer. The problem?<p>I don't know how to go about this.<p>Where can I find advise, advisors, mentors or any other kind of references?<p>How should I go about this?<p>Thanks,
Sri
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kkt262
It helps if you're in a city that has a large base of startup entrepreneurs
like San Francisco, Austin, Seattle, etc. If you're not, I suggest moving to
one.

Check your city to see if they have any meetups (Meetup.com and Google). If
you live in any of the cities that have active startup communities there are
definitely meetups. Or just check if there are any upcoming networking events
in the local area.

Go to the meetups and meet everyone and anyone you can. Try to make real
relationships with these people. Become completely ingrained within your
city's startup community.

You'll be surprised where a little bit of networking goes.

Another tip: Apply to an incubator/accelerator. If you don't think you're good
enough to get into Ycombinator, then apply to the lower-tier ones. Even the
worst incubators can be immensely helpful for someone who isn't plugged in to
the community.

