How to Find Advisors Who Actually Make a Difference

How I built an advisor network with industry exits, $200M+ in financing experience, clinical expertise, and deep commercialization knowledge—and how you can start building yours while you’re still a student.

My Mentor & Advisor Experience

Building an emergency drug-device product means there are dozens of areas where I simply could not afford to learn everything through trial and error. I needed people around me who had already done what I was trying to do.

I personally recruited an advisory and core team that includes people with emergency drug-device exits to multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies, $200M+ in financing experience across the life sciences industry, NIH-funded researchers in my disease indication, and manufacturing and quality executives with successful exits of their own.

Most importantly, I did not start with a massive network or hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire these people. I started as a student, found people who knew far more than I did, reached out, asked for their advice, and slowly built relationships with them.

That network has the single most important aspect that has helped me develop my company and land funding.


Why Your Advisors Matter So Much Early On

When you are pitching at a competition or talking to investors, the team you have built is the most important part of your company, and at the earliest stages, you probably do not have enough money to hire a former pharmaceutical executive, experienced regulatory leader, industry specialist, or successful founder full-time. That is where advisors can be incredibly valuable.

A strong advisor does two things at once.

First, they help you make better decisions. They have already made mistakes, built products, raised money, navigated industries, or solved problems you are going to encounter.

Second, their involvement validates you and your vision. If someone who has spent 20 years in your industry, successfully commercialized products, or exited a company believes enough in what you are building to spend their time helping you, judges and investors notice.

It also tells them something important about you as a founder. Building a strong advisory network shows that you are willing to admit when you do not know something, seek out people who know more than you do, listen to advice, and use that advice to make better decisions. Investors and judges do not expect an early-stage founder to know everything. They want to see that you are self-aware enough to recognize your gaps and capable enough to surround yourself with the people who can help fill them.

That is especially powerful as a young or first-time founder.


Quality Over Quantity

Do not go overboard trying to fill an entire slide with 15 advisor headshots.

Quality matters much more than quantity.

Generally, I would try to have someone around the company who can advise you on each of the major areas you are going to have to navigate. But that does not necessarily mean you need a different person for every single category. Great advisors can wear multiple hats.

For a drug-device company like mine, I want experience around areas such as:

  • Commercialization and product development

  • Fundraising and company building

  • Regulatory strategy

  • Manufacturing and quality

  • Clinical expertise

  • Direct experience with patients in the disease indication

One person may cover several of those areas. A former executive who has developed, raised money for, and commercialized a regulated product may be able to help with commercialization, fundraising, regulatory strategy, and company building all at once.


Find Someone Who Has Already Done What You Are Trying to Do

If I could choose only one type of advisor to bring around an early-stage company, I would look for someone who has successfully commercialized a product as similar to yours as possible.

This person can become incredibly valuable because they know the road ahead of you.

They may already understand:

  • The major development milestones

  • What mistakes to avoid

  • Who you should be talking to

  • What investors will care about

  • How much money certain stages require

  • Which partners or vendors are worth considering

  • What your market actually looks like

  • What needs to happen before customers will adopt the product

For regulated companies, this becomes even more important. If you are going through the FDA or another regulatory body, someone who has commercialized a similar product has probably encountered many of the same regulatory questions you eventually will.

That means the same person may be able to wear a regulatory hat, commercialization hat, executive hat, and fundraising hat depending on their background.

If this person tells you to rethink your development plan, listen.

If they tell you that you are approaching the market incorrectly, listen.

If they tell you to switch the socks on your feet... probably listen!

Finding someone who has already traveled a road similar to yours can save you an unbelievable amount of time, money, and unnecessary mistakes.


Start With Your University

As a student, finding advisors may actually be easier than you expect.

Your university is probably filled with alumni, professors, researchers, physicians, entrepreneurs, executives, and staff who have experience relevant to what you are building. Better yet, many of them already have a reason to want to help you: you are part of the same university community.

Start there.

Use LinkedIn filters, Google, your alumni directory, university faculty pages, entrepreneurship programs, professors, and people already working in your industry. Search for alumni who have founded companies, commercialized products, worked at companies in your space, raised venture capital, or held executive positions relevant to your startup.

You can take the same approach with faculty and staff.

For example, my clinical advisor works within my university's health system. Because I am a student, I already exist within the same ecosystem. I can find his university email, reach out, explain what I am working on, and ask for a conversation. If you want an easy way to track this type of reach-out, check out our Tools & Templates page.

That is a massive advantage.

Before randomly cold-emailing executives across the country, look at the network that is already sitting around you. You might be surprised how many experienced people will give a student 30 minutes simply because you reached out thoughtfully and are building something interesting.

And don't just take it from me. Some of the most cracked student founders I know, like the founders of BRCĒ, who are already doing $1.5M+ in revenue and recently secured a deal on Shark Tank, say the exact same thing! Check out my interview with them here.


Do Not Open With “Will You Be My Advisor?”

Recruiting advisors does not have to be complicated, but I would not make your first message an invitation to join your advisory board.

Start with a conversation.

Tell them what you are building, explain why you specifically wanted their perspective, and ask for their opinion.

Ask about your product. Ask about the industry. Ask what you are missing. Ask what they would do differently. Use their experience to improve your understanding of the company and market.

If that first conversation goes well, stay in touch and have another one.

After a few conversations, if you genuinely value their perspective and there seems to be mutual interest, the ask can be incredibly simple:

“I’ve really valued your advice and would love to keep you involved as we build this. Would you be open to coming on as an advisor and being included with the team when we present the company to investors and competitions?”

At the very beginning, especially within your university network, you may find people willing to help informally and voluntarily. As your company becomes more developed, you can start having more formal conversations around advisor roles, expectations, and potentially equity where appropriate—especially for people committing substantial time or taking on greater responsibility.



Keep Your Advisors Actually Involved

Getting someone to agree to be an advisor is the beginning, not the end.

Do not recruit an impressive person, put their face on your pitch deck, and then disappear for six months.

Try to keep your important advisors involved on a consistent basis. That might mean checking in monthly, although the right cadence depends on the person and how involved they are.

Use those conversations to:

  • Update them on company progress

  • Ask what they are seeing in the market

  • Get feedback on major decisions

  • Discuss problems you are encountering

  • Ask for introductions when appropriate

  • Get their perspective before major milestones

  • Share wins that came from advice they gave you

Whenever possible, have real conversations rather than only sending occasional emails asking for favors.

You want your advisors to feel like they are genuinely part of the journey, because they should be.

And if somebody gives you advice that leads to progress, tell them. People enjoy knowing that the time they gave you actually mattered.


Remember: Investors May Eventually Talk to Them

This becomes especially important once you begin fundraising.

When investors start conducting diligence, they may want to speak directly with members of your team or advisory network.

At that point, the name on your slide cannot just be decorative.

If an investor calls one of your advisors, you want that person to genuinely understand:

  • What you are building

  • Why the problem matters

  • Where the company currently stands

  • Why they believe in the opportunity

  • What your biggest challenges are

  • Why they believe in you as the founder

That is why you should be intentional about who you bring on and maintain strong relationships with them.

A smaller group of advisors who actually know you, know the business, and believe in what you are building is far more valuable than a deck covered in impressive people you barely speak with.


The Biggest Takeaway

You do not need to personally possess every skill required to build your company.

Especially as a student founder, you probably won't.

What matters is whether you can recognize the gaps in your own experience and convince great people to help you fill them.

Start with your university. Find people who have already done what you are trying to do. Begin by asking for advice instead of asking for a title. Build the relationship naturally, and only bring someone on when they genuinely add something the company needs.

Then keep them involved.

The best advisors do much more than make your team slide look impressive. They save you from mistakes, open doors, improve your decisions, add credibility, and help convince other people that your company is worth believing in.

And when you are standing in front of a judge or investor without years of experience yourself, being able to say “I haven't done this before, but the people around me have” can be incredibly powerful.


See Who’s Behind Student Founder →

Want More Resources Like This?
Get new student founder guides, funding opportunities, startup stories, templates, news, and more delivered to your inbox weekly.