Good Advisor / Bad Advisor

Plus see my recommended standard offer to advisors

Hey y’all 👋

One of the most common questions early stage founders ask me is how to work with advisors.

But most of the commentary about advisors just emphasizes that they can help by giving strategic advice. That’s definitely true but finding, vetting, and working with the right advisors has a lot more to it than that.

Let’s get into it 👇

Read time: 5 minutes

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How to Find, Vet, and Work With Advisors

Why Would You Want Advisors, Anyway?

The most legitimate reason to not want advisors is that it’d be better for your startup if they invest a small check, rather than just collecting advisory shares.

While true, the early days of a startup are incredible hard for founders and risky for investors. Not everyone who wants to help the startup succeed is willing to put in a check right away, even if they believe in the mission and the founders.

Getting access to connections and learnings that would otherwise take intense trial and error can be like a cheat code for a startup.

With that said, definitely test the waters and see if they’re willing to put in even a small $10k check. It’ll be more meaningful when they make intros for you when you’re fundraising if they’ve invested.