A conversation that often comes up when speaking to founders, their teams, and their investors is how to grow the commercial engine.
They have got to the point where they know that hiring a better sales team is not the answer; the easy wins have been exhausted. At this point, they know they want advice from outside, whether from us, their board, mentors, or others. Of course, a founder doesn’t want advice. They want the result – the growth.
Our own experience of building Cruxy and my experience at Exonar taught me that there are key qualities that help navigate to the right sort of advisors who can deliver positive, practical outcomes:
- They look you in the eye as an equal – They have been through the pain of being a founder (or something similarly bruising!) and can share their battle wounds.
- They recognise you’re still building – Your problems are likely to be solved by finding what works, then solidifying that formula and iterating. The temptation for anyone that hasn’t walked a mile in your shoes is to try and turn you into the world’s tiniest corporate. Adding process, control, and documentation to parts of the business that are still trying to find their feet will probably be fatal.
- They recognise your unique story – Every founder’s journey is their own. The challenges, highs, and lows are also unique. The lessons of past experience are crucial to help you navigate the issues, but even the same problems can have vastly different solutions. The best advice is formed from asking the right questions to get to the right answers, not leading to answering based on a different set of experiences.
Paul Graham wrote a nice piece on “being a noob”; counterintuitively, we always find that the best advice comes from those who approach problems in this way. Or as Tony Fadell says in his TED talk: approach every problem as a beginner.
This is exactly how we approach the problem of where a company can succeed next and how they can get there – with fresh pairs of eyes and a healthy appetite for being surprised.
