

Ask YC: Choosing advisors for your Startup? - dustineichler

I'm interested in finding advisor's for my startup. 1.Is it necessary at the start. 2. Am I jumping the gun before I have a finished project. 3.When should or should I even bother finding people to help guide me. Thoughts please.
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paulsb
My advisor's are actually people that I already knew and are experienced
entrepreneurs that I kept going back to for advice. I didn't seek them out and
say "will you be my advisor?", it just naturally occurred. The advisor's I
have are people that know and trust; they are also people that have 'been
there and done that'. I have found my advisor's to be a great source of
experience that I can tap into, and they are also great at keeping me focused
and grounded - I tend to get too excited and carried away with my ideas.

It's always a good idea to find advisor's/mentor's that can help guide you
along a successful path, and with whom you can bounce ideas off. I found the
best way to find advisor's is to just find someone experienced in what you
need advice in; if you keep going back to them for advice, then they naturally
become your advisor's.

There are also different types of advisor's: business advisor's, technical
advisor's, funding advisor's. Therefore, the type of advisor you need really
depends on what stage you're at. Ideally, you would find one that has
experience in a range of areas.

Have a read of: <http://venturehacks.com/articles/advisors>

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dustineichler
Would you ever trust a VC to be an advisor? (A VC not funding you.)

@All, thanks for the input so far. Given me a lot to think about and consider.

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aneesh
Umm ... if they're a VC and they're your advisor, why are they not funding
you? One possible explanation is that they don't believe in you, and
unfortunately this is what most outsiders will automatically assume.

It's not really a question of trust.

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dustineichler
Really good point. More to it than that, but thanks.

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aneesh
There's not a formal line you cross where you say, "OK, now I need advisors".
Talk to experienced people, get advice, and make the people that give you good
advice your informal advisors. It's easier if you let it be a natural process,
rather than a forced "advisor recruitment drive". It's never too early or too
late for good advisors. A Board is a different matter entirely, and something
that someone more qualified can comment on.

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SteveC
A good business mentor/advisor can be extremely helpful at the start, although
finding one can be difficult if you don't know what you're looking for, which
was my experience. My first business mentor, while excellent at running his
business, didn't know anything about running a startup or web business. While
much of his advice on running the business on a day to day basis was
invaluable, he was pointing my business partner and I off in the wrong
direction long term. We ended up wasting a lot of time focusing on the wrong
areas. We had similar problems with other advisors. We even had one attempt to
defraud us into giving him control of the business. Basically, our advisors
were no wiser than us on how to do a startup (rather than a lifestyle
business) but we were too naive to see this and far too often blindly followed
their advice.

Over time we became quite jaded about having advisors due to repeated bad
experiences. We decided to implement the policy 'never take advice from
someone who's not a millionaire'. We also learned to trust our own judgement
and gut instinct a lot more and it often proved correct (not always though
:-). Eventually we found a successful entrepreneur in a comparable field who
was able to give us excellent advice. Because of that advice our startup is
now growing in leaps and bounds.

I know I probably sound quite negative about advisors but I believe the right
advisor at the right time to can mean the difference between success and
failure. I experienced what happens when it goes wrong and the business was
lucky to survive it. If you can't get the right advisor (someone who's both
successful and in a similar field) you're probably better off with none at
all. I don't want to sound like I'm blaming them though, most were well
intentioned, excellent at their chosen professions, and I'm still grateful to
the time they gave to me. However, I was 19 years old when I began my startup
and still very naive and in a catch 22 situation. I knew I needed advice but
didn't have the experience or someone to advise me as to who to get advice
from. In hindsight, had Paul Grahams essays been available back then it would
have saved me a lot of pain as that's exactly what I needed to know. I expect
that since everyone here has access to them they'll be better equipped to
avoid making my early advisor mistakes.

Oh, and just a small observation I've noticed with advisors. The better suited
they are for your business the less they need to say. They can just cut
through the crap and tell you what you need to know. The more they talk the
more it's likely that they're well meaning but don't really know what to tell
you so they tell you everything.

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pg
Just get investors. All good investors are advisors. And if an advisor isn't
willing to invest, that's a worrying sign.

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rrival
Isn't that a little more complicated than finding an advisor? Investor-
advisors would be preferable, but not all good advisors are investors (?)

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pg
You can have informal advisors who aren't investors. But it's usually a bad
idea to have a board of advisors, for example, or to give stock to people who
want it in return for being an advisor, yet for some reason don't want to
actually invest in you.

The one exception is when you're a grad student and start a startup based on
your research. Then it's common to give your (faculty) advisor some stock.

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vidleet
1\. IMO yes. My first action--after carefully sketching and editing a two page
business plan--was to seek a team of advisers to provide feedback and advice.

2\. No. All I had was an idea, a 2 page document with bullet points outlining
the idea and key issues (and seven months experience at an Internet startup
following graduation).

3\. Right away. I reached out to a co-founder of Google and a partner from
Sequoia, both of whom I hadn't met, and they both have been kind enough each
week to give me 45 minutes or so over coffee or the phone. Along with two
friends I've known for the past two years this advice has been instrumental in
helping me get the demo going.

CAVEAT: Don't confuse advisers for team members. Although they are great and
essential to have, my team is definitely more key to me.

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sonink
Startups are freaking hard - simply because it is very easy to screw up lots
of things and any one of those could be easily fatal.

You might already know that startups are hard, but in all liklihoods you won't
know what 'hard' means.

Value an experienced startup entrepreneurs advice more than anything you
learnt at school, and hunt one down as soon as possible.

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tptacek
We've had "brand name" advisors before. I suppose you think of them like
decals on NASCAR cars. The question ought to be, "did anyone on Hacker News
ever get any benefit out of having advisors?"

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rrival
I'd like to have more seasoned advisors.

Is this a situation where a market could exist? Some kind of matchmaking
system for founders/mentors independent of the YC/YC-clone world?

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aneesh
You need your advisors a lot more than they need you.

That said, this is not a bad idea. StudentBusinesses.com is a site that's
solving this problem for young entrepreneurs who need advice & resources.

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rrival
Looks interesting except for the student slant =) I think I just reinvented
the Go Big Network. I'm going to see what that's all about.

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ALee
Discussed here at another thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=105144>

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blader
1\. No.

2\. Yes.

3\. When you find you are out of your element, for example when raising
financing or negotiating an acquisition.

