Melissa Tan: belief

Transcript context

…Just a couple more questions. One is, you mentioned that it sometimes makes sense to bring on an advisor. I know sometimes companies have a bad time with advisors that just don't provide much value and they're giving equity. Other times it's transformative. Some of the stories you've shared, when is it appropriate to hire an advisor and is there any, I guess advice for what to look for in a growth advisor at this early stage, especially? I would add an advisor if there is probably a knowledge gap on the team is I would say. And their advisors come in so many different forms too, and everyone does it slightly differently. For some folks, it's a monthly call for other times, especially when I'm full-time advising, I'll have weekly calls. I'll even join some team meetings. I'll look at mocks. And so everyone does it slightly differently. And so I think it depends on what you're looking for. I would definitely say that even getting to know the individual and making sure you're on the same page on what you're looking for and what the goals are. And then what I've done in the past too is initially set up a shorter engagement, like a quarter long engagement and then decide if you want to go longer. And I also think it's fine to, let's say you have an advisor agreement, you're not getting value to basically part ways. If it's not, you're not finding value. I think every advisor wants to make sure they're adding value. So I definitely think to summarize, being really explicit on what advice you're looking for and making sure you're on the same page of what you want. And then also set up a try before you buy if you want to do a quarter long engagement first. And knowing you can always part ways if it's not a fit even before that period of time. Last question before we get to a very exciting lightning round. You've brought up this concept of first principles thinking. I'm curious how you measure that and how you get a sense of, is this person strong at first principles thinking?…

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