Advisors for the company: where to look and how to work with them

Perhaps one of the most acute problems faced by entrepreneurs starting their first business is not the lack of money. In most cases, an entrepreneur is a person who has an idea and a rough plan for its implementation. Of course, you can and should read a few books on how to run your business. Excellent benefits: books and online courses of Blanc , Rice and Osterwalder . They can find everything you need to start. You can recharge your energy from a host of motivational reading . And what? There is an idea, there is theoretical knowledge obtained from books, and a great desire to do business.

After the first steps it becomes absolutely clear - there is no warrior alone in the field. That is, an entrepreneur, no matter how clever and well-read, is simply not able to cover all the competencies necessary to create a business. Books here help very conditionally: what to do 'in general' is understandable, but what 'specifically'? Need to look for a team. About who the team should consist of, you will find a thousand and one articles on the Internet. Suppose a team is assembled and even works together for some time. The first surprise is that there are no fewer questions. Moreover, every day there are more and more questions.

In fact, even the best team still cannot know everything about everything. There will always be a new tool, or a situation in which it is not clear how to act. Of course, you can google until enlightenment, but this method is effective only with small tasks for which there are sample solutions. You can take a team of specialists in all imaginable and unimaginable areas, but with this approach, salaries are not enough. Moreover, to solve the most complex and strategically important tasks, you need people with such competencies and experience that your newly born business can hardly afford.
')
The solution to this dilemma is to receive tips and advice from a group of people who have successfully passed the stage of creating a business that you are currently at (being there, done that). We need to look for advisers. Alternatively, you can go on start-ups and ask the speakers questions that interest you. You can listen to endless webinars and hengauti. It is almost free, but rather inefficient. Basically you will get quite general and little useful information. The way out is to get a constant connection with such people, bring them up one time and then ask questions in any incomprehensible situation. These people are mentors or advisors, and in our opinion are advisors.

The easiest way is to find such people at a startup get-together or through investors. For our Pics.io project, we gained access to advisors through the Global Technology Foundation ( GTF ). I must say that initially the main purpose of our participation in the GTF competition was not money at all: it was very tempting to get access to people from the top venture funds of Runa Capital, Almaz Capital and TA Venture. I was pleasantly surprised that businessmen and founders Sergey Belousov, Alexander Galitsky, Dmitry Chikhachev and Victoria Tigipko directly take part in the GTF activities. Their experience, expertise and support can provide much more than a good cash infusion, especially if your market entry strategy involves using someone else’s growth platform. Now the guys from GTF and the foundations that established it, thanks to their impressive network of contacts, make it easier for us to find advisers. So, I recommend trying to compete for the next grant and access to the network of contacts.

If GTF and start-up parties do not work, you can try to look for help on Clarity , which for money will connect you with the right people. I did not use his services myself, so I cannot recommend them.

Of course, you must have an interesting or promising project in order to interest a good advisor. You should have a strategic action plan, how true - a separate question. You should have questions that a potential adviser can answer himself or with the help of his friends. Finally, you must show that you can continue to ask interesting questions and jointly construct interesting solutions.

The issue of payment for the work of an adviser, which at the beginning seems very important, actually occupies one of the last places. The best advisers will become your investors and will help grow your business. There are people who believe in 'pay it forward' and will advise you absolutely free. Some advisors agree to receive payment for your company's shares. As a rule, the question is about fairly small amounts of equity (up to 1%). As far as I know, these shares are always issued for several years under the west.

I want to immediately warn you against working with experts who will announce to you their impressive hourly rate even before they know what you are doing. These people are not interested in your business, they are only interested in your wallet. I also refer to this category of people those who are trying to push the next SCRUM training or building their own business from scratch to live a full and happy life. As a rule, these are people who have read a couple of books and are now sowing their abstract understanding of theoretical reality. Do not rush, you still have time to enjoy communication with this fraternity after, when your company enters the top 100 of its industry.

Photo: Elliot Haney
Text: Evgeny Shpika