
Ask HN: How to find advisers - liquimoon
As a bootstrapped solopreneur with a full time job, I am increasingly aware of my limitations. 
It's pretty hard juggling different tasks on a part-time basis. What I realize is that building a product that users like is hard when you don't have the domain knowledge. This is where having an adviser can help a great deal.<p>This brings me to my question, how do other hackers/solopreneurs find advisers that can help them grow? Networking events? Any success story with Linkedin?<p>Thanks in advance.<p>Jerry
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tiffani
Depending on what you're building, see if you can turn a customer into an
advisor. For a product I once put together for other businesses, one of the
earliest users ended up being very helpful as an informal advisor: giving
feedback on the app, introducing me to other folks who'd potentially be
interested in using it, and giving me insight on that field because I had
none.

I've found that if you have someone on your hands who was one of the first
people to use your product and they were especially enthusiastic about it,
they'd be happy to serve in that role (even if just informally).

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angelbob
A lot of bloggers, site owners, entrepreneurs and other people you've heard of
are surprisingly approachable, and are happy to respond to email, phone calls
or requests to take them to lunch. Many are quite generous with their time,
especially the less-famous ones -- and there are many, many less-famous ones.

Give it a try, what can it hurt?

~~~
bryanh
The problem is finding the less-famous ones. Try hitting up the Inc 5000 for
owners of similar firms. Maybe start in the 2k-3k range.

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retube
It's damn good question, and I can't really help you, only sympathise.

Yes maybe you can find advisers with your best interests at heart by
ferociously networking. But in my experience it's a long shot. Why is some
(essentially random) guy with lots of experience gonna help you for free?
Unless there are real mutual synergies - i.e he'll get from you something
equivalent - it's never going to happen. And even if you can pay for it -
that's probably not _quite_ what you're looking for as a small start-up.

If you don't have these connections to start with, I'd plan for not having
them at all. The best you can probably do is - whenever it is you get around
to commercialising your product - is hire a lawyer. They'll be able to offer
you sound business advice.

~~~
mindcrime

      Yes maybe you can find advisers with your best interests at 
      heart by ferociously networking. But in my experience it's 
      a long shot. Why is some (essentially random) guy with lots 
      of experience gonna help you for free? 
    

Ego. When you tell somebody "I value your opinion and want your feedback" it's
an ego boost. Everybody likes to feel valued, and everybody like to talk and
give their opinion. Look at us, just now, answering this question. We're not
getting paid for this, right?

And some people simply like helping other people, for whatever reason. Maybe
somebody loaned them a hand when they were first starting out, and now they
feel a need to reciprocate by helping others. Maybe there's no such thing as
pure altruism, but there _are_ people who derive pleasure from helping others
and sharing information and advice.

Finally, you can always offer equity in your startup. Some reading I've been
doing lately suggests that it's normal to offer a small chunk of equity n
exchange for a more formal relationship / commitment from an advisor.

~~~
retube
Sure. I love helping people, I really do. And yes I might yap away at some
meet to some guy and give him the best advice I can. But am I going to enter
into a long-term relationship with him? A long-term commitment? Highly
unlikely. This is only going to happen if there is some personal connection.

Edit: and re our discussion here, on this thread: a couple of passing minutes
to spit out a comment is not exactly in them same league as committing to
being a company's adviser.

~~~
mindcrime

      Edit: and re our discussion here, on this thread: a couple 
      of passing minutes to spit out a comment is not exactly in 
      them same league as committing to being a company's adviser.
    

Well clearly there are degrees of commitment. I think you might be surprised
how much people are willing to help, for free. But, as I said, there may come
a point where you have to compensate an advisor if you want a certain level of
commitment. But for startups, depending on exactly how much you're asking of
your advisors, you may be able to simply give them a fairly small equity
stake, in exchange for their help.

    
    
      This is only going to happen if there is some personal 
      connection.
    

Well, yeah. Of course. But you have to meet somehow and form the initial
connection, in order for that deeper connection to grow. Maybe your advisor
becomes somebody you met while networking 3 years ago (of course, pointing
that out probably isn't helping the OP much) and formed a friendship with.

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bryanh
Try my site <http://EveryMentor.com>. It might be a long-shot, or a little off
of what you ideally would like, but you might just find someone. You can
create multiple accounts to match up with several people too!

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bdickason
Have you considered speaking with 'consultants' rather than formal advisers? I
often advise my friends on web usability, UI, and their online strategy. I
don't charge a fee and love giving out advice and answering their questions.

Any time they e-mail, I'm there to answer, but I don't consider it a
traditional 'mentor' relationship.

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mindcrime
I just came back from lunch with a guy that I consider an informal "advisor"
and who I hope may agree to join my advisory board later. We met at a LinkedIn
themed networking event, aka "LinkedIn Live." Not sure if those happen all
over or not, but here in the Raleigh area, there's a guy who hosts a
networking event about once a quarter that's targeted at people in this area
who are connected to each other, through him, on LinkedIn.

I find those kind of events valuable, but you have to separate a lot of chaff
from the wheat, ya know. That is, in a given night, you might meet 70 people
and collect 50 business cards, but maybe only one or two of those people will
actually offer any kind of mutually beneficial connection in the future.

As for LinkedIn itself, yeah, I occasionally get cold contacts from people who
said "I saw your profile, looks like you're interested in some of the same
stuff I am, let's meet" or "Looks like you're an entrepreneur, I like meeting
people like that, let's grab coffee." Some of those connections have been some
of the more interesting / useful ones I've made, to be honest.

Other thoughts: leverage former co-workers or classmates. Want to meet a
professor who teaches a certain topic, because you think he might have useful
info or be a potential advisor? Maybe a coworker graduated from that school
and knows him/her. Don't be shy about calling around and asking people.
Maintain a big list of connections, even if they're "weak ties" Weak ties can
be very useful:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_ties#Weak_tie_hyp...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_ties#Weak_tie_hypothesis)

Also, Barcamp or similar events. If your town doesn't have a HN Meetup / Open
Coffee Club or something similar, start one. If there is one, join it and
attend. Join "business development" related Meetups on Meetup.com, if there
are any near you.

There's potential to meet people all over the place, look around. Does a local
community college or university offer free seminars for entrepreneurs? Attend
those, even if the content isn't all that interesting, just to meet the other
people. Go to a Startup Weekend. Hang out in the "business" section at Barnes
& Noble or Borders and strike up conversations with random people. If you see
somebody reading an interesting book in the cafe at Barnes & Noble or Borders,
strike up a conversation.

Edit: another thought on LinkedIn. Use it to find and connect with people from
former employers, who worked in different departments, even if you didn't know
them well. In my experience, most people will accept link requests if you
actually worked at the same company at the same time, even if they don't
really know you on a deep level. So, if you are, say, a techie, and looking to
make some biz dev connections... go back to a former employer, link with the
marketing / biz dev / sales people from there, and message them and arrange to
meet for coffee or drinks or what-have-you. Even if they can't help you
themselves, the'll likely have other contacts they can refer you to.

