I set through a panel with partners from incubator/investor Y Combinator today here at WebSummit in Lisbon. The topic was about which advice is useful, which not, partly in the context of fund raising. Startup CEOs get bombarded with advice, while almost all advice sounds credible, not all the people who are given you advice (prompted, or unprompted) know what they are talking about.
As panels go, there was a lot of “noise” but these guys had a few pretty good points. Advice from these type of people might help you:
- People that have just done something that you are about to do, try to lift yourself up to the next level. They raised series A, you are getting ready for that round as your Seed funding dries up.
- People who have done that very recently and have “fresh” knowledge. The shelf life of advice is pretty short: technology moves on, the fund raising market develops, etc. etc.
Keep it in mind when someone critiques or praises your slides.