

Advice for a First-time new startup advisor? - neocognitron

Hey HH community,<p>I&#x27;m an experienced data scientist in the NYC area who was recently offered an advisor position with a fashion startup that&#x27;s doing very well. They want to bring me along to help advise the growth of the data science initiatives &#x2F; the data science team, and they&#x27;re currently working out the typical 0.25% advisor equity arrangement.<p>I&#x27;m absolutely new to advising startups, and while I&#x27;m very excited (and a little nervous!), I wanted to get your words of wisdom on how to be a good advisor. Some particular questions:<p>(1) What should I be expected to do as an advisor, and how can I tell when the tasks are too much for my role?<p>(2) We&#x27;re in the midst of hiring data scientists. After growing that team &#x2F; bringing on experts &#x2F; etc, how can I continue to contribute value, if the people we hired have more industry&#x2F;technical experience than I do? (which seems like a good situation for the startup, in my limited experience)<p>I&#x27;d really appreciate any tidbits of advice. Thanks!
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allpratik
Answer (1): As your specifically hired as an advisor for data science team, it
in-a-way conveys that you are responsible to help them use/build an awesome
data science tools and eventually build a team which can develop/maintain/use
those tools.

I think, the most important question you should ask those guys is that, how
exactly that startup want to use data?

It will help you to clarify your role and tasks within that organization.

Answer (2): Always remember that you are advisor, you can advise data science
tools/practises to the team which you built. If there are some persons who
have much more experience, ask them to share their thoughts on a particular
topic. But at the end, give your OWN advice. Your advice will be valuable even
at that time, because you are building team in the first place.

Well on another part, is REMOTE OK for you guys? :p

