3 ms·

none, until you're years later or making a lot of $$$ but you do want advisors for now, and also to start testing some to be your own future board members when

none, until you're years later or making a lot of $$$ but you do want advisors for now, and also to start testing some to be your own future board members when you vs VCs start adding them. two types of advisors: - angel investors. they will give you money, and on-demand, a bit of really smart advice. mostly tiny bits as part of your monthly internal updates and your less frequent syncs (if many). some might get more involved, but you won't know who! - paid advisors (cash or equity). I probably wouldn't do yet as you don't know which you need, and an angel can help you figure that out (ceo coach, someone for tech vs sales vs marketing vs hr ...). cash or equity. if equity, look up advice columns. but basically, give less than you'd think and for 1yr (can renew next year, but make manual, not default) and for specific mutually agreed upon tasks and meeting schedule. especially early on as it seems here, you won't know who you need, so wouldn't go heavy here - edit: third type is your senior staff. also get VPs who have done your current + next stages before :) but generally not until raised 1M fwiw, it does sound like you would benefit from finding 1-3 senior startup-experienced angels (successful/serial ceo who have led seed stage + series a + m&a) to invest and help guide on basics. there are good answers here, but they're without context and thus prioritization & specialization. there are a lot of generic basics they can help save time on + avoid making timebombs + give leverage, and in turn , help you identify where you need specialists, and pragmatics like when & how, until you build your own intuition & recruiting process

ska 5y ago
> I probably wouldn't do yet as you don't know which you need, and an angel can help you figure that out This really depends on the industry and how much internal expertise overlaps with the market. You may very well need some targeted advice early on, and angels are a bit hit-and-miss, both in terms of engagement (unpredictable) and how their expertise really lines up with your needs. If you do need short term concrete advice in a very specialized area, a consultant engagement(i.e. purely transactional) might work best. For something longer term, an advisor that might grow to something more concrete later (e.g. advisory board, actual board, exec, whatever) is probably better.
- lmeyerov 5y ago
  100% on consultants! esp. for advisory after funding, great way to both get steady bursts VP level help, and potentially, mutual trialing before bringing them on full-time ("director of X"s getting ready to go VP, ...) re:specialists, i think the near-term + ultimate answer is "both". my reasoning was lacking an initial unicorn advisor, an experienced startup person should be in a better position to help identify the gaps, e.g., whether needing an insider, and if so, what kind of one in particular, how to find, how to vet, etc. In contrast, most insiders, unless they've actually started their own product company, are like the blind men and the elephant, and don't realize how tiny of a view they have. as a concrete example, if doing something like gov contracts, world of diffs between say an ex-general, an ex-agency-cto, an ex-procurement officer, an ex fed vp sales, etc., and each may be individually brilliant + connected to diff networks + appropriate for helping diff co's. a wonderful thing is for most smart people, "the first meeting is free", so not hard to get great advice from prospective people on this stuff!

ska 5y ago

> I probably wouldn't do yet as you don't know which you need, and an angel can help you figure that out This really depends on the industry and how much internal expertise overlaps with the market. You may very well need some targeted advice early on, and angels are a bit hit-and-miss, both in terms of engagement (unpredictable) and how their expertise really lines up with your needs. If you do need short term concrete advice in a very specialized area, a consultant engagement(i.e. purely transactional) might work best. For something longer term, an advisor that might grow to something more concrete later (e.g. advisory board, actual board, exec, whatever) is probably better.

lmeyerov 5y ago
100% on consultants! esp. for advisory after funding, great way to both get steady bursts VP level help, and potentially, mutual trialing before bringing them on full-time ("director of X"s getting ready to go VP, ...) re:specialists, i think the near-term + ultimate answer is "both". my reasoning was lacking an initial unicorn advisor, an experienced startup person should be in a better position to help identify the gaps, e.g., whether needing an insider, and if so, what kind of one in particular, how to find, how to vet, etc. In contrast, most insiders, unless they've actually started their own product company, are like the blind men and the elephant, and don't realize how tiny of a view they have. as a concrete example, if doing something like gov contracts, world of diffs between say an ex-general, an ex-agency-cto, an ex-procurement officer, an ex fed vp sales, etc., and each may be individually brilliant + connected to diff networks + appropriate for helping diff co's. a wonderful thing is for most smart people, "the first meeting is free", so not hard to get great advice from prospective people on this stuff!