Asking for Help Effectively

Everyone wants to help you. Even those advisors that I was talking about, people really want to help. The entrepreneurial community is incredible. There's so many people that have been on this journey before me and before you, and they really want to help. The big problem is time. That's the one thing that we all don't have enough of. When I was just getting started, I had time. But whoever wants to help me doesn't necessarily have it. And I remember just being extremely accessible myself. I would go anywhere that the other person would be willing to meet me at. I'd literally be time zone agnostic. I would meet anywhere, anytime, any, anyone that would be willing to help me. I would just make myself. I remove all constraints. And I think that's a big part of it. Another part of it. I'll tell you a story. I'm a storyteller. I think people learn really well from stories. This is me pretty much at the beginning of our journey, mind you. Everyone tells me that I'm probably wrong and this can't be done. I've heard a lot, but we've gone through Mass Challenge. I don't know if you've heard of the accelerator, but it's, it's a great one. And we just graduated and we actually won. We won Math Challenge. And the CEO of Math Challenge congratulated us. And I kind of said, I'm going to make it to Boston and then I'm going to ask for help. And it's like anything you need. So I sent this email and I thought I was completely over the top. Like, it was a well structured but relatively long email that said, hey, I've done the research, I'm coming to Boston. These are the dates, this is what I need. And here is why I need it. Here are the people. Here are a little snippet of what I would want you to forward to these people. And I would really love for you to do this for me. I was specific. I did the research. I want to say a word about doing the research. And I asked for very tangible things. I knew he had the connections. And all I asked for is literally forward my email or forward the snippet to the person. And I explained why he delivered on all of those. And when I actually made it to Boston, he came out and he shook my hand and was like, this is the best founder kind of like help email I've ever received. I was like, I thought I was completely over the line. I was like, no, because I really want to help. And most people will confuse me or will tell me, hey, please introduce me to investors. Do not do that. No one has the time to think for us, who's the right investor for us? Who do they know? What is your business about? And why would that connection even make sense? So if I want to help, I need to know exactly what you're asking me to do. So if I were to say, hey, I'm not even fundraising yet, which is what I did at the time, but I want to understand what it would take to get their money. And here is my question, and here is my why, then they would know whether to say yay or nay to even the meeting itself. If I don't have a product yet and I want to talk to customers, then again, I need to be very clear about the fact that what I'm asking for is to give them a glimpse of what the future looks like. I was kind of out there. I was like, they need to know what's coming, and that's what I have to offer in exchange for their time. And that worked like a charm. Today, when I get emails and founders do contact me for help, I think that's the first thing I say. Be specific. Make it easy for me to help you. And if you make it that easy, then people will help. Be specific. Do your research. Show me that you know exactly why you're even asking for my help and for my time. And chances are that I will help, just like everyone helped me earlier on in the journey and hopefully will keep helping me after I spill all my secrets.