Strong convictions, loosely held
Have you changed your mind enough recently?
Photo by George Pagan III on Unsplash
Getting the best out of your advisors
As founders we all have blind spots and biases in the choices we make. We sometimes focus too much on the aspects of the business we enjoy and avoid the areas we find hard to get results with.
And we sometimes get stuck, effectively taking the same action again and again and hoping for different results. Or just stalling completely.
Building a new company is complex so getting stuck occasionally is common. But how long you get stuck for is ultimately down to you. Making clear plans, sharing them and being open to have them challenged are a great way to get the best out of advisors.
And good news is there’s lots of advisors out there happy to pay their experience forward. So how can you set yourself up to take advantage of it?
Some simple tips for getting unstuck
Start by finding three people (temporary advisors) with experience of solving your most important current challenge.
Ask each of them to a) share what they’ve seen be an effective approach and b) what they would do in your situation.
There’s no guarantees what they share will work for you. But you’ll have some fresh information to re-assess your current approach. Try and deeply reflect on what they’ve said, without being defensive or dismissive. Are you ignoring something pivotal?
For example, if you’re fundraising, speak to both founders and angel investors who have seen a similar, successful fundraise recently.
Set specific goals (what, by when)
10 investor meetings by the end of the month
Set a clear method that you think will achieve these goals
Send my deck to IfWeRaise angel advisors and ask for intros
Evaluate your progress regularly
After two weeks I want at least five meetings booked
If things aren’t working ask yourself, do I need more effort or a new method?
Return to your advisors and try diagnose what’s going wrong
We frequently put requests out to our IfWeRaise advisors, the breadth and depth of their experience is truly remarkable 🌟.
Which reminds me to welcome our three newest angel advisors 👏🏻
Week 3 of our Get to Revenue programme
We’re midway through our Get to Revenue programme at IfWeRaise - the focus is on creating early stage momentum and where necessary getting unstuck!
One of the things I think that is valuable about cohort programmes is it’s a rare opportunity for founders to see other founders at work. In my career I’ve found it incredibly useful to have the confidence boost to recognise things I’m doing well. As well as the opportunity to ‘upgrade’ my approach 😅 where I’ve been doing it all wrong and I didn’t even know it!
The course consists of a mixture of pre-work, pre-recorded video content, and live whole cohort workshop sessions. The recipe each week is learn a skill and try using the skill on your startup. And then get support and feedback through the programme both in the workshop and on WhatsApp.
This week we’re focused on how to test customer behaviour using the Minimum Viable Product model. In the final session next week we’ll be joined by some of the IfWeRaise angel advisors for networking and founder mentoring. Thank you angel advisors!
Interesting things
Angel Investing School are hosting a free Angel Investing Masterclass webinar tomorrow, register here.
Interesting and thoughtful long read on the role ChatGPT can play as an early stage (technical) co-founder. I personally think learning to use GPT technologies effectively as an early stage lever is worth evaluating… but it needs the right strategy and time invested in learning the tools.
Free pitch feedback on offer from experienced VC Tunde Adekeye, founder of PitchDoctor
See you soon.
Tim and Hattie