All of our Advisors articles

Starting Up

Advice for the Pre-Product-Market Fit Days — This Founder’s Playbook for Pivoting with Purpose

CEO Tara Viswanathan shares her biggest lessons from the early years of building Rupa Health — including how to pivot your way into the right product and build the winning team.

Starting Up

Starting a Company in a Space You’re Not an Expert in — This Founder Shares 6 Lessons

From the importance of founder naivety, to seeking out the doubters, to rigorously assessing founder/market fit, Irving Fain shares his lessons from building a company in a space he wasn't an expert in, as well as other takeaways from the earliest days at his startup, Bowery Farming.

Management

Advice is More Important — and Overwhelming — Than Ever. Here's How Founders Can Cut out the Noise

Unlocking the wisdom of your advisors has always been crucial for any founder, but it's even more important in the midst of massive uncertainty. We've rounded up six tactics from top experts for cutting through the noise and extracting the advice founders need to make meaningful decisions.

People & Culture

How to Be a Career-Changing Mentor — 25 Tips From The Best Mentors We Know

Powerful “aha” mentorship moments can change the course of careers. But while every mentor has experience and wisdom in spades, it’s not always immediately clear how to most effectively share it.

Management

The Founder’s Guide to Discipline: Lessons from Front’s Mathilde Collin

Front's CEO and co-founder Mathilde Collin shares why a founder’s discipline matters more than vision, unveiling her own best practices and templates for communication, time management, fundraising and team building.

People & Culture

We Studied 100 Mentor-Mentee Matches — Here’s What Makes Mentorship Work

Whitnie Narcisse runs First Round's Mentorship Program and has learned exactly what it takes to make mentor-mentee relationships truly transformative.

Fundraising

Step-by-Step Fundraising Tactics from the NYC Legend Who Raised $750M

Kevin Ryan has spent decades on both sides of the fundraising table. Here, he provides secrets seldom shared for getting and keeping VCs interested before closing the deal.

Product

The Habit Behind This Founder’s Fast Financings, Product Development and Book Deal

MissionU CEO Adam Braun has a habit that's helped him get term sheets in weeks, launch products and pen a bestseller. Here's an inside look at the practice that guides him.

Management

Snag the Best Advisors for Your Startup, from Best-selling Authors to Fortune 500 CEOs

Former Google executive Amy Chang has successfully courted heavy hitters and VIPs to advise her startup Accompany. Here, she breaks down how to score big fish for your braintrust.

Management

Advice is Cheap — Context is Priceless

Serial entrepreneur and angel investor Hiten Shah deconstructs the best advice he's ever received to extract what made it so remarkable. He draws from the standout experience to illustrate the tactics that he's used to become a skilled advice giver — and recipient.

Management

One Founder, Both Sides of the M&A Table — What All Startups Can Learn from His Experience

Jeff Seibert sold two startups back-to-back, and now regularly advises Twitter on acquisition deals from the inside. Here's what all founders need to know about this process.

Management

Square Defangs Difficult Decisions with this System — Here’s How

Gokul Rajaram shares a framework that he's used at Square and Caviar to make the most difficult decisions, all while assigning ownership, being inclusive and coordinating execution among all stakeholders.