Q Do you guys think you actually need, um, ex-entrepreneurs to be those mentors? Is it a credibility thing? Like, why can't it be unbundled where you can have, say, a mentor in distribution, Michelle, or a mentor for sales, or a mentor for, you know, marketing?
A Yeah, I think it absolutely depends on the kind of advice that you need. So one of my advisors is actually friends with Nick, Mike Bartlett, who worked at Skype as well, and I Sought him out as an advisor when he was still at Skype, but he's now gone on to start his own company, and at that time it was just, I needed to learn about how to run a product team, how to effectively ship products, and he could help me with that. Um, but I think a lot of the problems you face as a startup are inherent to the nature of starting a company and learning how to grow a business. I think the kind of advice you might get from somebody who comes from a big company might not be relevant to you, so that's kind of why that flywheel and that kind of cohort of people who've done it successfully is, is probably the most valuable place for that, for that advice.
AI assessment note: “cohort of people who've done it successfully is, is probably the most valuable place”