Hanging Out My Advisor Shingle

In my consulting practice in working with software and Internet companies on strategy, product innovation and marketing issues, I often get approached by smaller, early-stage companies who, without a doubt, have needs for assistance.  The rub for me professionally is that, because of where they are in their maturity (and funding) cycles, they often don’t have cash resources to hire “consultants” per se.  In turn, I have made it SmokeJumper Strategy’s policy to not provide consulting services in exchange for equity.  I have attempted this a couple of times in the past and it doesn’t work out.  (I know the risk is I turn down equity in the next Google or Facebook, but I’m willing to live with the odds of that happening).

I do love working with early-stage companies and the entrepreneurs responsible for them – there is nothing more exciting, challenging and rewarding when you can see ideas come to fruition or changes in a product to better fit a market or insights about a market drive the direction and engineering efforts of a new product.  This feeling is universal in all the spaces I’ve worked in:  consumer, enterprise, education and developer tools.  I’ve struggled with how to help entrepreneurs who I know and who have approached me to get involved at an earlier stage with regard to the fact I am a consultant and to a large extent am “coin operated” in delivering the services SmokeJumper Strategy provides and the fees that charged for their provision.

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