How to find and choose a startup advisor

Irrespective of the exceptional skills possessed by a group of founders, the journey of establishing a startup is never without its challenges. Obstacles arise continuously, taking on diverse forms contingent upon the specific developmental phase. Especially during the initial stages, when the team remains compact, the incorporation of additional perspectives, insights, and expertise becomes indispensable. This is precisely where the role of startup advisors becomes prominent.

Who is a startup advisor?

A startup advisor is an expert possessing experience, expertise, or formal training within a specific sector or industry. Their role involves offering guidance, mentorship, and avenues for networking to founders of startups.

What does a startup advisor do?

1. Expert Guidance: Startup advisors share their industry knowledge and experience, guiding founders in making informed choices for their business strategy and growth.
2. Mentorship: Advisors provide one-on-one mentorship, offering advice on product development, marketing, team building, and other crucial areas.
3. Networking: Advisors connect founders with valuable contacts, investors, and resources, helping startups access opportunities that accelerate their growth.

Pros of a startup advisor Startup advisors bring unique assets to the table such as:

-Fresh perspectives and support for tough decisions -Proven strategies, frameworks and tactics -Startup advisors’ networks can also assist in hiring key staff and winning new clients. Also, since they’re external, good advisors aren’t biased by your company’s current strategy. Instead, they’re free to bring creative and even controversial ideas to the table without consequence.

According to Dan McCool, founder and CPO at Trustworthy, the benefits of advisors extend past professional networks and fresh perspectives.

“Leverage advisors to the fullest. Look at all the ways you might squeeze value out of them,” he says. “Their experience, their domain expertise, their abilities, their network (personal and professional), and their location. Everything.”

How to find a startup advisor?

1. Startup Networking Events Be it meetups, demo days, or startup groups. If you want to make the right connections, startup network events are usually where investors and advisors are looking to hear your ideas. If you work in a specific industry and visit those events, you will also benefit from finding people experienced and well-connected in those industries. When it comes to signing up an advisor to your team, it’s always good to show others what you can do. Participate in presentations and demo days or directly pick out who you want to talk with and give it your best.
2. Partners It wouldn’t be the first time that someone signed a business partner, customer, or supplier to come on board as an advisor or even an investor. Exploring the business partners you are close with is a great way to get an introduction to advisors in your industry. Even better, there is no need to make things formal right away. Instead, you can start by asking a few questions, meeting once in a while to get some advice, before moving on to the next stage.
3. Online Communities Especially nowadays, startup events and networking increasingly happen online. There are online communities where super-smart engineering students share the same space with 8-figure business owners. The possibilities are endless. Even better – people in the right communities love to interact with others. So whereas with cold emailing, your biggest challenge is to even get a reply, in communities, you will find many people with the same mindset as you. In many cases, you will find long-lasting and valuable contacts in these communities.
4. Mentorship Platforms Mentorship platforms are popping up left and right, and indeed, they are one of the easiest ways to connect with an expert for advice. Besides offering sessions and long-term mentorships with experts all around the tech industry, plenty of other players in the market can help you.
5. Incubators and Accelerators Finally, if you want to go the full way, you can get very close 1-to-1 mentorships and advisors if you join a renowned incubator program. For example, the well-known YCombinator and Techstars programs each give you a personal advisor when you join their program.Of course, incubators and accelerators also come with the most baggage out of all of them. It’s not uncommon for these programs to have rigid investing rules and extended presence programs and are usually bound to take a free equity stake, so make sure you know what you are getting into!

How to choose a startup advisor?

Especially during the early stages of a startup, the right advisor can be vital to a company’s success. They can help you determine direction, acquire funding, and build your confidence.

But how do you know if an advisor would be the right fit for your company? If you’re a first-time founder, it can feel as if everyone you meet on the street must have more experience than you and would be able to contribute something valuable.

Here are five traits startup advisor should have:

1. Deep industry knowledge A good startup advisor knows their industry inside out; they will have invaluable insights, deep knowledge, and real-world examples to share with you, whatever the subject matter.
2. Strong reputation for their area of expertise When choosing advisors, check their referrals. Have they helped others with the discipline you’re looking for support? Do they share their expertise in thought leadership pieces? Which other companies do they advise?
3. Great communicator and networker Startup advisors should be well-connected and have strong communication skills. Assess their communication skills when you speak to them about a potential advisory role. You want them to open doors for you, so find out about their connections before taking them on.
4. Passionate about startups It’s not just subject matter advice and field expertise you should look for when hiring an advisor. The ideal person needs to be passionate about supporting an early-stage startup, local business, or small business. Great advisors will understand the struggles that high-growth startups face and the challenges that lead so many startups to fail.
5. Excellent ability for problem-solving You want solution-orientated advisors on your team, people with vision who can see a problem arising and understand how to address it.

Finding the right advisors for your business may take some time as you want to hire somebody with relevant experience who also understands your vision. Once you find the right person, the value they can add to your business is incomparable to anything else.