The Founder’s Dilemma: Quick Wins vs. Long-Term Growth

There are two types of founders signing up for my startup advisory program:

1. Seeking quick wins, closing deals ASAP, focused on getting immediate value out of time spent directly with me answering specific questions

or

2. Understanding short-term and long-term goals, adopting new workflows and techniques, and realizing the value added out of networking, PR, relationships, intros for events, a proprietary data pool of insights, and access to long-term opportunities

It’s really easy to tell them apart after the first month – and the first group tends to churn in about 60 days or so.

I’ve said that before, but I run this program at loss. It’s $297/mo (and half the members run some discounted versions) while I’ve spent several hours per month for some members going through decks and recording Looms back.

I’ve coordinated strategic backlinks and PR opportunities, intros for industry events, investment and personal diversification tips, along with some life coaching tips as needed (because entrepreneurship is a lot about vocalizing the overarching issues of running a business and juggling with life).

And I personally spend 4 figures a month on each of my advisors. Some months I can’t get to them, but the right piece of feedback is often worth north of $10K. So there’s no sense in canceling whatsoever.

Money management should be taught at school. The transactional aspect of professional networking undermines how alumni groups work, how country clubs operate, or industry circles like YEC or Forbes Council exist at all.