Id approach experts in the field, tell them what your working on in a sentence or two and see if they will help with a quick call/email. Have a few q's prepared, dont waste their time. People genuinly interested in helping further will let you know, or can put you in touch with someone who can (eg a great junior they know).
Some general tips
- Good founders will always try and pay it forward, even the big (locally) famous ones
- Check out trade associations, they are typically open and can hook you up with an expert.
- Avoid VCs & other people who are busy or only tangentially related to the industry
- Avoid people who are very publicly associated with an industry (usually just personal-brand folks and busy)
- Look for people who have been execs but are now semi-retired (commissioners etc)
You can use a simple template like this
"Hi xx, im building yy to do zz. I was wondering if I can send you some questions to learn from you?"
I did this before and a lot of nice people gave me time, some v big names in the field (to me, a randomer). Just come prepared, keep it short, be thankful, dont try sell them your product etc.
Edit to add: I used linkedin and email to contact.
I havent been clinically diagnosed and as its manageable I doubt its anything serious, but occasionally I suffer from some "light" health issues around anxiety, anger, very visible changes in longer lasting temperament etc. Heavier mental health issues are above avg in my family.
I found that the initial setup and early stage of our startup was a rollercoaster but not really a trigger. I guess it was because I had already framed the failure in my head and even when the expense was way more than planned and Id lost the bulk of my savings I still had my initial, though wobbly, frame to fall back on (had a month or two in salary and could likely find a regular job, kids weren't gonna starve).
Ironically it was when we got larger, well funded and more secure that it become more difficult for me. As the larger you grow the more time you spend dealing with people-stuff. The solution seemed to match general founder-advice when scaling. Hire good people, build process, delegate etc.
A caveat though, ive always been the type of person to thrive in situations adverse to me, but not social situations. I would probably have a worse time in a large corporate if I was psychologically invested in its success.
Some general tips
- Good founders will always try and pay it forward, even the big (locally) famous ones
- Check out trade associations, they are typically open and can hook you up with an expert.
- Avoid VCs & other people who are busy or only tangentially related to the industry
- Avoid people who are very publicly associated with an industry (usually just personal-brand folks and busy)
- Look for people who have been execs but are now semi-retired (commissioners etc)
You can use a simple template like this
"Hi xx, im building yy to do zz. I was wondering if I can send you some questions to learn from you?"
I did this before and a lot of nice people gave me time, some v big names in the field (to me, a randomer). Just come prepared, keep it short, be thankful, dont try sell them your product etc.
Edit to add: I used linkedin and email to contact.