Ask HN: Have You Consulted with Experts?

Have you found yourself looking for technical experts and paid them to consult on a pain-point in your company? AWS Shield Advanced service charges $3,000 per month. Are there places where you go for consulting on issues of scaling, security or otherwise (besides friend referrals)?

I am building a consulting as a service company for early founders and wonder about people who have done consulting/contracting or paid for consulting. What have you found to be under-developed in this area?