My experience is usually more like being told to do X, me saying X probably isn’t worth the time and energy, doing X anyway at their prompting assuming they’ll take some accountability for it going sideways, it ultimately going sideways because it was a bad idea, and then them taking zero accountability for their bad idea and not helping with the fact we’ve now been materially set back by the attempt.
I’ve since learned to align our incentives around advice. If they’ll put their money where their mouth is to stand behind their advice, then it’s good advice. If they won’t, then it’s bad advice and I’m just their lab rat.
As someone who has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for venture capital backed companies, I can tell you that this absolutely does not change even at the highest level of the company.
My advice from experience - if the advice you're receiving is wrong and you know it's wrong, explain why it's wrong and if you're pressured to go against your advice, then that person is not a fit for you and you should part ways.
Thanks for the tip. That’s more or less where I’ve ended up with things. Initially I was obstinate to predictable deleterious result. Then I went through being compliant only to be hung out to dry for abiding when it didn’t work out. Then I went through a phase of trying to educate in hopes of them coming around to no avail. Now I just look for stronger signs of alignment right out of the gate before even bothering to spend the time engaging at all.
> My advice from experience - if the advice you're receiving is wrong and you know it's wrong, explain why it's wrong and if you're pressured to go against your advice, then that person is not a fit for you and you should part ways.
I've raised about 5 million from VC... and agree at least 100% with this advice.
I’ve since learned to align our incentives around advice. If they’ll put their money where their mouth is to stand behind their advice, then it’s good advice. If they won’t, then it’s bad advice and I’m just their lab rat.