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Ask HN: How to find advisers

23 points by liquimoon ↗ HN
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.

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?

Thanks in advance.

Jerry

14 comments

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[dead] spotter
An adviser is only going to generate you more work. They don't produce, by definition.

What you need is a co-founder - or a contractor. Use your full time job to pay for one.

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.
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...

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.

[dead] dreadlabs
Start looking into the local hacker/programmer/business meetups in your local area. You'll meet loads of contacts and everyones usually really friendly. The meetups i attend usually have 2-3 speakers each time, so you could volunteer to do a little presentation on your start-up, tell people what you've done, where you've got to and where you want to go. They'll enjoy it as your experience is still a learning experience of them and it also allows you to ask for advice on the problems you're currently facing.
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.

mediaman
Please don't listen to your lawyer for sound business advice. They can advise you on legal issues, but they generally will be very conservative when giving general business advice, because they view their job as eliminating risk rather than maximizing upside. Some of them can be very good negotiators too, within confines.

Lawyers can, however, be a great source for referrals to advisors.

retube
The value of a lawyer is that they'll likely have seen your situation before. They'll have advised companies through issues and decisions like yours in the past. They'll have seen this stuff over and over.
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.
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).

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!
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.