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9 Comments

Where do you go for advice?

I'm just hyper curious because I'm building something and I want to understand the uses cases. If you're part of a startup with a working product and some paying/beta customers, and you need advice on your startup's initiatives, where and who do you go to for advice? This includes offline and online resources.

Examples of technical or non-technical initiatives that you may need help with, include:
(a) understanding how to evaluate customers' needs
(b) growing customer retention rates
(c) B2B SaaS sales advice
(d) learning how to hire people who're culturally fit for your company

The more detailed you are, the better. Or you may also just respond via the poll. Thank you so much.

Where do you go to for advice?
  1. I try to get in touch with those who have the professional experience to help me
  2. I post on online forums (like IH.com) to get the public's opinion on it
Vote
  1. 1

    Well, that's why I created https://getadvice.github.io/ 🤗 (sorry! hehehe)

    1. 1

      Hey @gdi3d, thanks for the link. Pretty interesting workflow, and I love the prompt which is a quick test to see if the person read the page.

      How did you conduct your market validation prior to creating that, keeping in mind The Mom Test?

      1. 2

        Hey, i didn't look up too much into market since it's not a commercial project at all. It's just a small project for helping people every now and then.

        If you're interested in commercial project you can check https://joinhivemind.com/

        It's done by a user here on IH (don't remember the name, sorry)

        1. 1

          Awesome @gdi3d, thank you for the reference. I just sent the founder an email, because I want to learn more about his criteria for matching VCs / founders. Adriano, I wanted to ask you a few questions about your site since I'm building a similar one as well called Sparrow, where we connect founders with advisors. I'll reach out to you on LinkedIn and we'll chat there.

          Thanks man!

  2. 1

    You have paying customers? Those are the best source of answers for understanding customer needs / retention. If you're strongly oriented on customer success - helping your customers use your product to be more successful - you will get what you need.

    1. 1

      Agreed. If the challenges are with understanding customer needs, then interacting with your paying / beta customers would go a long mile.

      My question however, is more about getting advice / guidance from others on solving issues related to the business e.g. hiring, product management, SaaS sales, etc. and not on where exactly to put the "Okay" button to make it easier for customers to navigate a tool.

      @JHercules I think that in order to improve specifics of one's business / product, the founder would ideally consult with those who've led similar accomplishments in their own companies. BUT, I can't seem to figure out what topics founders struggle to find guidance on exactly.

  3. 0

    Quora or IH might help :). Twitter is a good way to connect with experts too.

    And if you want some B2B SaaS advice and hack ideas, I've built growth-cards.com for that need

    1. 1

      @BenjaminPoisson Hey! Thanks for the connect to GC. IH and Quora are great to spread a wide net for questions and try to see which answers make the most sense and are most relatable.

      I wonder though, in your experience, have there been specific startup topics where you preferred a 1:1 session over hoping for answers on a public forum?

      1. 1

        If you know the person... or if you have created a relationship. It's hard to convince for a 1:1, so we might create value before :)

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