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Ask HN: How do you find experts?
When evaluating the merits of the next Big Thing™, sometimes one needs to get an expert opinion, or to find a partner who's deeply entrenched in a specific vertical or skill. Not a co-founder, mind you; a consulting partner or simply a consultant in the purest form of the word.
If I was looking to find someone versed in, say, event planning, I might visit /r/EventPlanners as a first go. Possibly see if there's an SO site where such topics are discussed. Then what? Where else would you start looking? When you've found someone whose brain you'd like to pick, how do you broach that topic?
There are a lot of great ideas floating around here in this community, and I think knowing how to find validation avenues or how to find subject matter experts (especially when the topic is too specific for a gently-marketed MVP) would be a great help for those of us stuck on that classic trap: you don't know what you don't know.
So how do you find people who know?
- spdustin 11y agoThe event planning topic is one I plucked from thin air, but I think I (and others) probably have a laundry list of fields in which we'd like to find someone who knows what they're talking about. Maybe that would be an interesting recurring thread, along the lines of "who's hiring" and "who's looking for work"? I've thought about posting in a "who's hiring" thread, but I felt it would be disingenuous, since I wouldn't actually be filling an open position.
- gscott 11y agoMake yourself an expert instead. The advice you are looking for is specific usually. Better to just learn what you need yourself
- smt88 11y agoNever used this myself, but a friend uses (and likes) it: https://clarity.fm https://clarity.fm
- jv22222 11y agoI have found this to be a great way to get expert advice if you don't mind paying for it: https://clarity.fm https://clarity.fm
- brudgers 11y agoMy friend Mike had success using Linkedin for specialized professional expertise related to his field. That would probably be where I would start. That said, Mike was in a position to evaluate the experts because it was related to his expertise.