How To Help A Startup If You Have No Experience

Credit: Streetbonersandtvcarnage

Let’s establish this first: We don’t have many successful entrepreneurs in Singapore, or in the Southeast Asia region. So as budding entrepreneurs, it is already an uphill battle finding the right people who can give the right advice.

And ‘right people’ means you must at least have some startup experience or at least have experience in the topic at hand. It is best if you have at least gone through the crazy roller-coaster ride of ups and downs in a typical startup lifecycle.

Throughout our journey, we have been very enthusiastic to learn from others. We take in all advice and also filter some out. Some advice is just total crap talk, especially those from corporate ladder climbers who know nothing about running a startup.

Some are easy to spot but some are not. Because often the “gurus” package their bullshit so artistically that it sounds very convincing. As entrepreneurs, you need to listen and filter such feedback. But for the inexperienced and the young, it can be very tough to spot these kinds of bullshit landmines.

I understand that the intention of giving advice is good (assuming there’s no ego boasting agenda on the part of the advisor). They want to help and that is why they spend time giving their thoughts.

But hey, it doesn’t hurt to think through real hard next time when an entrepreneur seeks your advice. Before you start opening your mouth to give your thoughts, be sure that you have the know-how to give real solid feedback, and don’t overstep your expertise. Otherwise, your advice is just another piece of trash in their minds.

Or worst, it can kill the startup as it misleads the entrepreneur off the right track. We have been through that shit. And it almost got us killed because we listened to the wrong advice from the wrong person. I don’t blame him/her because I understand that the person only meant good. Nonetheless, it is also a good thing that our team survived that hurdle. It made us stronger.

So for advisors who have no experience in the startup world. It’s better to keep your mouth shut. You can give the entrepreneur your opinion, but please be transparent about your experience if you have no experience in that particular area. That would be certainly be helpful to our growing community of young entrepreneurs.

With less bullshit advice, it makes spotting and absorbing the right nutrients easier, and makes this startup playground more fun and competitive. Getting your startup killed by listening to a piece of silly advice is just a shame. Die in the battlefield, not because of some bullshit landmines.