Wow. That was fast. I was just about to submit this as an Offer HN, when I saw your submission.
Just wanted to add that MindTribe is a product development firm specializing in products that integrate hardware, software, and mechanical engineering (though not all of our programs feature all three). We're opening up free office hours to give entrepreneurs and startups 1-on-1 advice for getting their products from concept to market. There's no catch and no strings. We love talking about product development and we've been doing this informally for years. We're finally able to support this on a regular basis so we can more formally offer the service publicly.
Yes, we've talked about phone, videoconference, and email sessions for those not in Palo Alto. We'll likely open up those options soon.
We've purposely not specified selection criteria yet. We're waiting to see what kind of response we get. If it's manageable (which might be helped by the initial physical presence requirement), we'll help as many people as we can on Dec 9th and begin scheduling the remainder in January. If the response is somehow overwhelming, we'll probably triage it based upon our opinion of the product's chance for success--though technically interesting projects will stand out as well.
We'll write about our experience with this experiment, which will likely include a retrospective of our selection process. We're also hoping to synthesize common advice into blog articles that should be generally helpful.
Just wanted to add that MindTribe is a product development firm specializing in products that integrate hardware, software, and mechanical engineering (though not all of our programs feature all three). We're opening up free office hours to give entrepreneurs and startups 1-on-1 advice for getting their products from concept to market. There's no catch and no strings. We love talking about product development and we've been doing this informally for years. We're finally able to support this on a regular basis so we can more formally offer the service publicly.