

Ask HN: How to find a mentor/advisor? - dzlobin

Hey guys,<p>Me and my co-founder are in the process of writing our MVP, but as we're both students without serious connections in the tech world, particularly the entrepreneurial/valley world, I feel like we should have a mentor or advisor to give a little guidance. Not somebody to really help with the code or anything but rather grant some wisdom on the other parts of startup life. Would it be wierd/rude to have an open-call of sorts, of people that might be interested? Should we, perhaps, aim and cold call somebody we admire and respect and see if perhaps they would take us under their wing?
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jhancock
HN'er DanielBMarkham has done this. A few months ago he posted a request for
HN'ers to be his "advisors". I've participated (a little). Daniel has made
fantastic progress on his new product and I've greatly enjoyed the reports he
sends.

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DanielBMarkham
I can't emphasize how awesome it is to have advisers. Here are a couple of
tips I've learned in the last two months:

1) Have a bunch of advisers. With ten or more advisers, if they only email you
a couple of times a month you can get a huge amount of feedback. Whereas if
you only have one or two advisers the bandwidth just doesn't work out.

2) Good advisers are not just boosters. I'm really lucky to have some HN'ers
helping out and they have been terrific about giving me negative feedback when
it's warranted. Lots of folks can cheer you up or pat you on the back. Good
advisers give you a good reality check.

3) Never use an email distribution list. I did this the first time I sent an
email to my adviser list and it was a big mistake. People are taking the time
to personally help you, the least they deserve is a personal email and
conversation. Yes, it's easy to send things to lots of people at once, but
it's really counterproductive. You're not trying to spam people, you're trying
to engage them.

4) People will usually over-promise and under-deliver. This is just human
nature. It's easy to say you'd like to actively help out with something but
lots of times lots of other things have higher priority. This is another
reason for having a larger list of advisors.

As this latest startup nears beta status, getting and using advisers was the
best decision I've made so far.

~~~
dzlobin
Awesome, thanks a lot for the info. I think we'll be following in your
footsteps.

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sgoraya
My 2 cents:

Attend and participate in local technology and business meetings/events. Even
if you are not in the immediate 'Valley', you will still meet some local
business folks who might be willing to serve as a mentor and open up
additional contacts for you.

You also mentioned that the both of you are students...possibly approach a
professor for advisement?

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metajack
You'd be surprised what you'd get just by asking politely. Find people you
think can help you and that would be good teachers and just ask.

