November 3, 2014
Realising that nobody else knows the secret formula for your venture is an important and valuable thing to learn.
Sadly, I don’t have any magic dust that I can sprinkle on any given startup to make it successful. Nor does any potential advisor, mentor or investor, even if they promise otherwise. Not even if they have worked on something successful in the past - indeed, this often seems to create a bias, where we incorrectly assume the things we did will also be relevant to your situation.
To have any chance of contributing much of value, I would need to dig-in for a long period of time, and really get to know you and your business, and to understand your current circumstances and constraints.
This will take longer than one coffee meeting (but, thank you for the invitation).
If you think you need some help with the thing you’re starting, but don’t even know what that is, look for somebody who knows you, believes in what you’re doing and is prepared to work with you for years to make it happen. And, before you even ask them, make sure that’s true for you too.
Or, if you think there is something specific I can do to help you, please ask.