Advisors: Who are you listening to?
Nobody knows everything, so how do you find a great advisor? In the latest episode of The Early Stages Podcast by APX, host Søren talks to his guests about how to pick people that can actually help build a successful company.
In the ninth episode of the second season, Elena Engel and Anya Nazarova, co-founders of the Virtual Language Assistant Marq, join Søren, as well as Esranur Kaygin, CEO of Hirize, and her advisor Jer Langhans. Hirize is a SaaS based ATS and API that uses data science and predictive analytics to automate the early stages of hiring.
The early stages of a business venture can be a bit lonely, but there is an ocean of people out there that can help to navigate that ocean. Elena Engel knows: “The main idea with advisors is to get knowledge in a field where you don’t have enough experience. Every team has natural blind spots, so having someone observing from the outside is extremely important.” For her company Marq, the main gap was in the field of Marketing. They had people for product, design, and development, but were missing an advisor who was going to work with Marq on marketing in the long term. Elena Engel and Anya Nazarova met with big names in the industry as well as friends of friends to help fill this gap.
In the case of Esranur Kaygin and Jer Langhans, it was precisely their long-standing friendship that has transformed into a business relationship. “Since Jer is in the US and our company focuses on that market, it was only natural to contact him,” says Esranur. “Because we are friends, it is so much easier to turn this into an advisory thing, because the communication is very different. When I come up with something that is not so great he just calls me out.” Their key: brutal, honest feedback. “If you can provide that based on your experience — that’s the best thing you can do for the founders. Don’t be agreeable, you have to be extreme with your opinions sometimes,” Jer explains.
Elena and Anya got help with pivoting through their advisors — they found the matching product market and even pivoted from an event aggregator to a language learning app. But their first experience with advisors wasn’t successful. “Get an advisor that is not too far ahead and also has experience at your level,” Anya suggests. Esranur agrees that every stage of a start-up needs a different kind of advisor. “That’s why we keep our advisory contracts between one to two years,” she adds. Currently, Hirize works with three advisors.
But to who and what should one listen? “Surround yourself with people that you respect, but they also need to have a proven track record — they have to know more than you do,” Esranur says. Knowing what the start-up needs as it moves along with knowledge and data and knowing the subjective role of the founder inside that process is also important in her opinion. “The most passionate people and valuable advisors are those that are the target audience,” Jer adds. “They don’t have to be executives, investors or founders, but also users.” In his view, people that are not willing to be monthly or weekly available don’t make great advisors. Esra and Jer celebrate all milestones and place human involvement next to the business part. Esra laughs and says: “Sometimes it is just sending memes.”
Elena agrees that the personal interest of the advisor is extremely important. “If you don’t feel like it’s your person, the chances that it is not going to work are really high.” Esra adds that one should not take an advisor only for the sake of it. “Of course, it helps a lot in your pitch deck if you have all these amazing names in there,” she explains. “But don’t give away shares of a very early stage start-up to an advisor that doesn’t fit. And: If you can’t find advisors but have investors like APX, ask them.”
Finally, Elena highlights the importance of networking. “The more people you know, the more people they can recommend to you that potentially help you.” And, networking is important to get other people excited about the product. Jer says: “Advisors hyping others up about it can unlock a lot of doors.”
Listen to the full episode for more insights and subscribe to our podcast series on your preferred podcast platform to listen to a new episode every other week. If you have feedback or topic ideas, send an email to soren@apx.vc or leave a comment on the episode through our social media channels. We hope you enjoy it!
Our podcast series “The Early Stages” discusses all the relevant questions for your “Startup-Journey” in 24 episodes. We touch on topics like hiring a team, brand building, fundraising, and leadership. In each episode, host Søren sits down with founders and an APX expert to discuss one stage of the company building process, sharing their personal experiences, learnings, and advice for other up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
