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

Agreed. I say talk to anyone you can. You don't want to be pushy or anything, but most people love giving advice and being asked about their business or what they do.

I tend not to limit who I talk to to just entrepreneurial or software industry people either, I like to throw ideas at anyone I can. But the closer to the line of business, obviously the more they can speak on it.

I'm really lucky to have a dad who's also self-employed (that must be why I lean that way too), but regardless of the line of work they're in, it's interesting to hear different business owners talk about their experiences, and I think that helps to think about my business from different angles too.

Startups are just new businesses in a fairly new area, so experience in other areas of business are totally applicable. You can talk to anyone you know (friends' parents who own businesses, for example) about how they got started, how they got from idea to profitability, how they got through rough patches, etc.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

This doesn't seem right. I'd venture to guess that there are many people that would make great advisors for a startup, but are not in a position to be investors.

Of course, it's better for advisors to have skin in the game and be investors too, but just the fact that a competent, experienced and passionate person is not investing does not necessarilyy make them bad advisors.

On a related note, not all startups need (or should have) investors. Trying to get investors just to get good advisors seem arbitrarily limiting.

I'm not saying an investor has to invest millions. $10k would be a significant angel investment. How many people can you think of who would be great advisors for a startup who couldn't invest $10k in it?

Fair enough. Not suggesting that advisors wouldn't have the funds to invest -- just that there might be other things keeping them from making one -- like the logistics/paperwork.

But, point conceded.

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

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.

It's less complicated in some ways. It's easier to tell if they have invested in you than if they are giving good advice.

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.

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.

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.

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?"

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?

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.

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.

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

1. No.

2. Yes.

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