In my entrepreneurial journey, I have benefitted tremendously from the advice, help, and kindness of others. I pay it forward by advising founders running companies ranging from VC-backed startups to bootstrapped companies to social ventures.
In the last few years, it’s been my privilege to be a mentor at Stanford Startup Garage, Stanford Ignite, StartX, Innovation Endeavors, and Endeavor among others. I got to work with hundreds of entrepreneurs, who have gone on to raise billions of dollars in funding and create many thousands of jobs.
My advising focuses on 5 main areas:
- 💰 Fundraising – helping founders raise early-stage VC financing from Silicon Valley investors. I assist with structuring the fundraising process and figuring out how to pitch the company. I have summarized the framework that I use in The Fundraising Lore.
- ❤️🩹 Managing founder psychology – leading a startup means having to deal with a tremendous amount of mental stress. Fortunately, navigating the ups and downs of running companies is a skill like any other - meaning that it can be learned and mastered.
- 🎢 0 → 1 – which includes evaluating startup ideas, searching for product / market fit, and deciding whether to pivot hard or soft or stay the course.
- 📈 Distribution and growth – figuring out how to get initial users and then scale, leveraging a combination of marketing, engineering, and product.
- 🦄 Hyperscaling – including scaling organizations, dealing with difficult situations, and managing stakeholders.
When spending time with entrepreneurs, my goals are to be fully present, listen deeply, and connect meaningfully. My experience is that the value of advising is proportional to how much both sides invest in the process. That is why I kindly ask everyone I work with to try their best to reciprocate the above, and pay it forward when they get a chance.
While most of the entrepreneurs I work with come through referrals as well as selective startup communities, you don't need to be networked with me to reach out. Feel free to email me and I will do my best to help, logistics permitting.