Hacker News Reader

Comment by danieltillett | Hacker News Reader

As a former angel investor (I am too busy these days) it is not that angel investors give bad advice, just advice that matched their experience. Good advice, wrong situation.

The advice I have given that seems to have been most useful is not around product or market fit, but how to resolve internal conflicts. Human nature seems to have not changed much.

View on HN

Isn't the quality of advice categorically contextual? It doesn't make sense to call inappropriate advice good, any more than cutting your arm off is good advice because there are some situations where it is warranted.

I would tend to categorise bad advice as advice that is always bad, while good advice that just doesn’t fit the situation is on a different level. In some ways this sort of advice is more dangerous since it can make a lot of sense and seem logical, but it just is not the right for the exact situation.

Anyway my experience is very few people are looking for advice, they are looking for validation and cover to do what they wanted to do before speaking to you.

Some angel investors are in it for the short term - flippers so to speak. I have seen them give bad advice to new founders. And since they control the money the bad advice is followed in spite of good counsel otherwise.

Yes I can imagine this sort of advice is always bad, but most of the angel investors I have worked with have not fallen into this group - I don’t want to co-invest with them either.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com