Your startup questions — answered.
Meet with experienced founders and operators for guidance
tailored to your venture, not generic advice.
Expert guidance when you need it.
How Startup Advising Works
Startup advising gives you direct access to experienced entrepreneurs and subject-matter experts who can help you work through a specific question, challenge, or decision facing your venture. Sessions are virtual unless otherwise stated.
Come with a challenge
Bring a specific question, decision, or roadblock where an experienced perspective can help.
Get focused, expert guidance
Work directly with an advisor who can challenge your thinking, identify blind spots, and help you evaluate your options.
Leave with a way forward
Walk away with greater clarity, practical recommendations, and concrete next steps you can put to work.
Repeat
Come back as new questions, decisions, and challenges arise. We’re here to support you as your venture evolves.
Startup Advising is free.
The service is offered only to NYU students, alumni, faculty, and staff.
Advising appointments are limited and in high demand. Our advisors generously volunteer their time. If your plans change, please cancel or reschedule as early as possible so we can offer the appointment to another founder. We reserve the right to charge a $25 fee for no-shows or last-minute cancellations received with less than 24 hour notice.
Where should I start?
Pick the line that sounds most like your primary concern or the last option if you’re not sure.
Help Desks
1:1 advising from subject matter experts
Customer Discovery & Validation
Customer Insights
Host: Ashley Jefferson Duration: 25 minutes Format: Virtual
Learn how to ask the right customer questions and design better discovery processes that center your users. Move from assumptions to customer insight to design the right brand and product.
Positioning, B2B Sales, Go-to Market Strategy
Brand Elements
Host: Chris Gorges Duration: 25 minutes Format: Virtual
Build a brand that resonates with your target customers. Get guidance on naming, visual identity, messaging, marketing materials, websites, and more.
Market Positioning
Host: Allen Adamson Duration: 25 minutes Format: Virtual
Clarify how your venture should compete and stand out. Strengthen your value proposition, brand story, positioning, and go-to-market message.
B2B Sales & Marketing
Host: Lloyd Grant Duration: 25 minutes Format: Virtual
Get guidance on customer segmentation, go-to-market strategy, lead generation, and the B2B sales process.
Product & Tech
Product Development
Host: Eric Chan Duration: 25 minutes Format: Virtual
Turn your ideas into physical or digital products, from concept to MVP, with efficient user testing and prototyping, product roadmap, and funding strategies.
Tech Product Strategy
Host: Ayush Singhvi Duration: 25 minutes Format: Virtual
Designed to provide guidance on tech strategy for your startup, learn cost- and time-efficient ways to validate your physical or digital product at each development stage by conducting user tests and experiments.
General Legal & IP
Legal Help Desk
Host: Peter Rothberg Duration: 40 minutes Format: Virtual
Get legal advice on common startup issues such as corporate structure, contracts, company formation, partnership agreements, term sheets, founding team formation & employment issues.
NOTE: Legal Help Desk sessions are intended to provide direction and guidance, but not pro bono legal services.
Intellectual Property
Host: Joel Bock Duration: 25 minutes Format: Virtual
These sessions will cover various forms of intellectual property (IP). Perfect for founders with questions about what’s patentable, how to get a patent, the benefits of patent copyright and trademark protection, open source licensing questions, etc.
NOTE: Legal Help Desk sessions are intended to provide direction and guidance, but not pro bono legal services.
Financial Modeling and Fundraising
Financials
Host: Lauren Pearl Duration: 25 minutes Format: Virtual
Learn how to develop business financial models, pricing strategy, setting and tracking metrics and more.
NOTE: These sessions are for educational purposes only. Nothing should be construed as professional legal, tax, or investment advice.
Pitch Deck Review
Host: Andrew Chang Format: Written Feedback
Offered by the Lynx Collective, Beacon combines AI investment analysis with review from 3 active venture capital investors to produce a candid, honest read on your startup. Choose the depth of feedback that fits where you are. Fee refunded to students who submit through their NYU email address.
NOTE: This is not a meeting. Founders are invited to submit their pitch decks for feedback from VC’s
Ideal for those in the earliest stage of the startup journey
Sounding Board
Host: Khoa Ma Duration: 20 minutes Format: Virtual
Sounding Board is for founders at the very beginning—before launch, before customer discovery, and often before the idea is fully formed. Use the session to talk through what you’re considering, pressure-test your thinking, identify the questions you should be asking, and figure out the most useful next steps.
Host: Steph Shyu Duration: 20 minutes Format: Virtual
Sounding Board is for founders at the very beginning—before launch, before customer discovery, and often before the idea is fully formed. Use the session to talk through what you’re considering, pressure-test your thinking, identify the questions you should be asking, and figure out the most useful next steps.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can sign up for Startup Advising Help Desks?
Current or past NYU students, faculty, and employees can book help desk appointments and invite non-NYU team members to join.
How much do appointments cost?
Appointments are always free! However, due to the volume of appointment requests, a $25 fee will apply for no-shows, and repeat no-shows may be barred from future bookings.
I’m an expert in my field and I’m interested in hosting a Help Desk. How can I get involved?
If you would like to host a help desk, please fill out this “New Volunteer form.” New requests are reviewed each semester.
I’ve already filled out the Intake Form for a previous Help Desk appointment. Do I need to fill it out again for a different appointment?
Yes. Please complete the intake form for each new appointment and provide information relevant to the help desk you are booking. To make the most of your time together, your advisor will review your responses in advance so they can come prepared with the right context. If we don’t have enough information to ensure a productive session, we may ask you to provide additional details or reschedule the appointment.
I need help, but don’t know which Help Desk to use. What should I do?
When in doubt, use your best judgement to select the help desk most closely related to your current pain points. Be as specific as possible regarding the topics you’d like to explore. If we think you’d be better served by another expert, our team will direct you to a different help desk if needed.
