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Want Entrepreneur Advice over coffee? That’ll be $1,000

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I’ve been wrestling with this one for a while, and I think many entrepreneurs have as well. See, as soon as you start a company, raise some money, and launch your business, suddenly people want to ‘buy you coffee/lunch’ to ‘pick your brain’ and ‘get networking introductions’.

I can appreciate that. I did it too. But, when you’re accommodating (as I, Andy Sack, Marcelo Calbucci, Joe Heitzeberg, and many others try to be), you tend to get overwhelmed with the requests. And, then, my days disappear on me, I end up working nights to catch up, and sit here on the weekend with 5-10 favors in my inbox which take 1-2+ hours to complete (I met with a woman last week, who I really liked… I told her I’d be happy to make some intros… she wrote back with 9 companies in the list… acck!)

So, here’s my offer:

  1. I’ll meet with you for free, at Hops and Chops (I helped organize it for exactly this purpose… sort of a lightweight office hours… I think Andy Sack created Seattle Open Coffee for the same reason) or another Seattle startup event that I happen to attend. I’ll be happy to talk with you, give you advice, and make any in-person intros, assuming the other folks are there in person. But, that’s it. Don’t ask for more, because it comes at the expense of my family, loved ones, and personal sanity.
  2. You pay me $1,000 for up to 3 hours of my time talking with you about entrepreneurship. That will likely be spread over two 1-hour meetings, and another hour of my time making introductions, if I think they’re warranted. If I don’t, I’ll be honest with you, and we’ll spend that last hour working on your plans, or whatever. Then, when you’ve started your company and booked your first $1,000 in revenues, I’ll give you $700 back. That’s it. I want you to get off your ass and build whatever it is your dreaming up. But, if you don’t, I keep your money, because you took up 3 hours that I could have been spending on other tasks. Sound fair? Do I think my advice is worth $100-333/hour? No! But, you seem to think I’ll help you somehow, and I likely will — and, if you don’t want to pay, there are tons of other folks around who will surely help you.

I look forward to any feedback about this setup. I’m sure it will upset some, but I’m not sure why — I’m still out there, and incredibly available. But, there’s now a market rate on my “premium services”, and it comes with a 70% refund, assuming you deliver the goods!

Comments

  4. Dan Shapiro says

    For the right entrepreneur, one for whom you can move the needle, you're time's clearly worth that. I can say that, speaking purely for myself, my karmic debt is still in the red zone. Founding Ontela I had more lunch/tea/coffee/beer/whatever meetings, often with the person I was learning from buying, than I could possibly remember and without them there's no doubt in my mind that we would never have gotten off the ground. But you're also right that paying it back is a big drain on your current affairs.

    One of the aspects of temporary unemployment I'm particularly excited about will be catching up a bit.

  5. John Calian says

    I agree with the spirit of your argument, that your time is valuable and please people dont waste it, but not sure I agree with your offer.

    Charging for your time is definitely one way to ward off folks who would suck your time, but it forces you into becoming a service provider. The last thing a start up needs is to start paying for 'advice over coffee'. I would never have done that, and I doubt many people would. Ultimately, it might make you appear arrogant and unapproachable (though I recognize this is not your intention). And this in turn starts keeping you out of the loop.

    I think there are better ways to manage your time in this regard. Andy Sack's effort to funnel all his coffee advice meetings to Tuesday mornings is one method that works well.

    Stick with your first option of posting your available 'free' time.

  6. Bill Bryant says

    Dave,

    THANK you for so clearly articulating what I've felt for years now. When time carries no cost yet provides (high levels of) value, the demand sky rockets out of control. A few years back I took a hard look at my calendar and realized that I was spending 5-8 hours each week in these kinds of "pick your brain" meetings. As you point out, this was coming at a personal cost to me of working on projects where I had a stake, family time and personal time.

    I've since adopted a personal policy that I will talk to anyone at an event that I'm already at, and will also meet once with pretty much any entrepreneur with a credible back story working on a new project, but otherwise have eliminated social networking, "get your advice on…", "pick your brain", "can you introduce me to…", "what companies do you know that I should be in touch with…", "I'm looking for X and hoping you might be able to help me" type meetings.

    Good on you.

  11. JJSOmaha says

    Great article & plan Dave. It's tough to draw the line and say no when you need to…

    I'd be curious to know what "productivity tips" you try to use as well…for instance, I'm working hard to push meeting requests to phone calls at 2 times during the week and eliminating some meetings…

    Keep up the great work and chat soon

  13. Anonymous says

    This is a joke, right? My bet is you'll do $0 in revenue this year with this idea.

    When you sell your company for millions and/OR your company is profitable, you might have some takers. For now, what is the difference between you and the other 50,000 entrepreneurs in this city? That to which you are hardly in the top 50% of. Part of being an entrepreneur is not being greedy or selfish. It seems you are breaking rule #1… shame on you.

    Before reading this, I was curious to run into you some day. Now, I'll pass on saying hello in fear of that it may cost me $20.

  14. DaveSchappell says

    Hey folks — I was sort of surprised by all of the comment activity on this one — I want to reiterate that my goal isn't to make money here. My goal is to funnel great conversations to Hops & Chops every Thursday (we've been averaging 25+ startup folks every week!), and to limit the amount of distraction at other times during the week. I'm actually hoping NOONE takes me up on the offer, but if they do, I'll actually be very serious and committed to making an impact, vs. a fleeting 1-hour coffee.

    Onward…

  15. Bob Crimmins says

    While we could debate the precise parameters, in principle I think the idea is solid. Dave is an experienced entrepreneur and a respected and generous contributor to the startup community and with a $700 refund in the offing his proposal has little risk — I've never heard any of the other entrepreneurial consultants around town offer a refund for the entrepreneurs success — usually quite the opposite!! A "Reductio ad Absurdum" analysis of the way he currently shares his time would put Dave in the poor house with no family left… and no further demand for his advice. I realize that Dave isn't really expecting to start a business giving advice and that he's fine with it if no one ever took him up on his offer but I hope someone does.

  18. Steve Judkins says

    When his company sells for millions, I'm sure his rate will go up and $1K will seem like a bargain. No one balks at paying an experienced advisor, lawyer or other service provider equity or cash for their time. I think it's a fine idea to concentrate what limited 'free' time you have to that one event that creates a sense of community. I for one appreciate all of you who are providing office hours, social events, or contributions to online forums like STS.

  19. daveschappell says

    Actually, Steve, the goal would be to just enjoy Hops and Chops each week, and help where possible in the gaps that appear every few days! Hope to keep seeing you out at Hops and Chops — this last one was a great one, as we welcomed Jennifer Cabala as new Editor of Seattle 2.0

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