It's always a good idea to find advisor's/mentor's that can help guide you along a successful path, and with whom you can bounce ideas off. I found the best way to find advisor's is to just find someone experienced in what you need advice in; if you keep going back to them for advice, then they naturally become your advisor's.
There are also different types of advisor's: business advisor's, technical advisor's, funding advisor's. Therefore, the type of advisor you need really depends on what stage you're at. Ideally, you would find one that has experience in a range of areas.
Have a read of: http://venturehacks.com/articles/advisors
@All, thanks for the input so far. Given me a lot to think about and consider.
It's not really a question of trust.
I tend not to limit who I talk to to just entrepreneurial or software industry people either, I like to throw ideas at anyone I can. But the closer to the line of business, obviously the more they can speak on it.
I'm really lucky to have a dad who's also self-employed (that must be why I lean that way too), but regardless of the line of work they're in, it's interesting to hear different business owners talk about their experiences, and I think that helps to think about my business from different angles too.
Startups are just new businesses in a fairly new area, so experience in other areas of business are totally applicable. You can talk to anyone you know (friends' parents who own businesses, for example) about how they got started, how they got from idea to profitability, how they got through rough patches, etc.
The one exception is when you're a grad student and start a startup based on your research. Then it's common to give your (faculty) advisor some stock.
Of course, it's better for advisors to have skin in the game and be investors too, but just the fact that a competent, experienced and passionate person is not investing does not necessarilyy make them bad advisors.
On a related note, not all startups need (or should have) investors. Trying to get investors just to get good advisors seem arbitrarily limiting.
But, point conceded.
2. No. All I had was an idea, a 2 page document with bullet points outlining the idea and key issues (and seven months experience at an Internet startup following graduation).
3. Right away. I reached out to a co-founder of Google and a partner from Sequoia, both of whom I hadn't met, and they both have been kind enough each week to give me 45 minutes or so over coffee or the phone. Along with two friends I've known for the past two years this advice has been instrumental in helping me get the demo going.
CAVEAT: Don't confuse advisers for team members. Although they are great and essential to have, my team is definitely more key to me.
Over time we became quite jaded about having advisors due to repeated bad experiences. We decided to implement the policy 'never take advice from someone who's not a millionaire'. We also learned to trust our own judgement and gut instinct a lot more and it often proved correct (not always though :-). Eventually we found a successful entrepreneur in a comparable field who was able to give us excellent advice. Because of that advice our startup is now growing in leaps and bounds.
I know I probably sound quite negative about advisors but I believe the right advisor at the right time to can mean the difference between success and failure. I experienced what happens when it goes wrong and the business was lucky to survive it. If you can't get the right advisor (someone who's both successful and in a similar field) you're probably better off with none at all. I don't want to sound like I'm blaming them though, most were well intentioned, excellent at their chosen professions, and I'm still grateful to the time they gave to me. However, I was 19 years old when I began my startup and still very naive and in a catch 22 situation. I knew I needed advice but didn't have the experience or someone to advise me as to who to get advice from. In hindsight, had Paul Grahams essays been available back then it would have saved me a lot of pain as that's exactly what I needed to know. I expect that since everyone here has access to them they'll be better equipped to avoid making my early advisor mistakes.
Oh, and just a small observation I've noticed with advisors. The better suited they are for your business the less they need to say. They can just cut through the crap and tell you what you need to know. The more they talk the more it's likely that they're well meaning but don't really know what to tell you so they tell you everything.
You might already know that startups are hard, but in all liklihoods you won't know what 'hard' means.
Value an experienced startup entrepreneurs advice more than anything you learnt at school, and hunt one down as soon as possible.
Is this a situation where a market could exist? Some kind of matchmaking system for founders/mentors independent of the YC/YC-clone world?
That said, this is not a bad idea. StudentBusinesses.com is a site that's solving this problem for young entrepreneurs who need advice & resources.
2. Yes.
3. When you find you are out of your element, for example when raising financing or negotiating an acquisition.