The once lush oasis of venture funding has been transformed into an arid desert landscape. Coupled with continued macroeconomic uncertainty, this protracted dip in venture capital investment is forcing fledgling and established to re-evaluate their businesses from the ground up.  


Recent data paints a stark picture. CBInsights reports a 13% quarter-on-quarter contraction in total funding for Q1 2023, coupled with a sobering 12% downturn in the total number of deals compared to the previous quarter. This marks the most substantial decline since the tumultuous year of 2020.


Cost-cutting measures have been the first line of defense, but there's a limit to how much you can trim. So, what's next? What other strategies can startups adopt to thrive in this challenging environment? As history shows us, adversity often opens new doors and breeds unforeseen innovation. 

A change in the business climate could mean a shift in your market's perception of your product. Take a step back and reevaluate your value proposition, the competitive landscape, and your target audience. An updated, relevant positioning can help you stand out in the crowd and communicate your unique offering more effectively.

Consider booking customers of your competitors’ products on Office Hours. We have thousands of verified software customers available to be booked on demand.

Or, book time with a product marketing expert to help refine your messaging strategy.


In times of financial stress, your customers are your strongest allies. Invest time in understanding their needs, their pain points, and their aspirations. Developing a community of passionate customers can pay significant dividends across the board.

Conduct surveys and spend time having candid feedback discussions. This not only strengthens your relationship with them but also provides invaluable insights that could shape your product or service in a way that resonates more deeply with your market.

Even if your product was designed with a specific use in mind, your users might be able to leverage it in ways you never anticipated. These novel use cases can open up new customer segments or even entirely new markets.

Stay open to these possibilities, encourage feedback, and be ready to capitalize on these opportunities to expand your reach.

If necessary, rigorously evaluate a pivot

Sometimes, the best way forward is to change direction. Pivoting can be a bold move, but it might just be the change your startup needs to survive and thrive. Whether it's a shift in your business model, a reimagining of your product, or a change in your target market, a successful pivot can breathe new life into your startup.

If you’re considering a pivot, what better way to validate a potential market than by booking time with potential buyers or experts in the space?

Office Hours gives you access to a network of people who have been there before — genuine experts who can provide you with invaluable insights, advice, and mentorship. They’re here to help you navigate common pitfalls, identify opportunities, and guide you through your journey in the startup world. Please let us know if we can be of any assistance on your journey.

If you'd like to explore how we can help, book a demo below. 


Sources: The State of Venture Funding in 5 Charts - CBInsights

As the funding dries up, startups are prompted to think creatively, to pivot, adapt, and overcome. Cost-cutting measures have been the first line of defense, but there's a limit to how much you can trim. What other strategies can startups adopt to thrive in this challenging environment?

Surviving the Venture Desert: Savvy Strategies for Startups

Booking your target buyer on Office Hours is a great way to get highly valuable feedback on your product. Given the size of our advisor network, our proprietary knowledge graph, and our world-class client services team, we are uniquely able to match you with the exact decision maker for your product.

Advisors don't join our platform to be sold to. They join to earn money, keep up with trends, discover new tools, and discuss emerging best practices within their industry (e.g. how generative AI is impacting their sector). 

That said, we've found that if your product seems interesting and valuable enough, some advisors are interested in trialing or purchasing it.


If that happens to you, that’s fantastic! Our team can help you navigate this situation if it arises. If the advisor expresses interest in your product, contact us here. Our compliance team will work with both parties to off-board the relationship from Office Hours so you can keep the commercial conversation moving. 

So, acknowledging that the advisor providing feedback might be a potential lead for you in the future, how can you make sure to put your best foot forward without turning your call into a sales pitch?

A successful Office Hours conversation requires focus. Having an initial plan helps you stay on track and facilitates a mutually beneficial discussion. 

Ask yourself, "What do I aim to achieve from this conversation?" Your goal should not be to “sell” your product. 


A more productive goal is to elicit genuine, unvarnished feedback from the advisor to determine if the product you’re building actually solves a problem for them.

Spend time getting to know the advisor from a professional perspective, and focus on trying to understand their current challenges. 

Active listening is key here—do your best to understand what motivates them. That feedback can help you refine your pitch in the future. 


Here are some effective questions you can lead with: 

What are your team's biggest challenges today?

Can you describe your team's current workflows?

What are your primary pain points related to these workflows?

Insights into the inadequacies of current market solutions can be valuable, and suggestions from your advisor might become key features in your product.

Introduce your solution & seek genuine feedback

Giving the advisor a live product walkthrough using Office Hours' screen-sharing feature helps ensure you're on the same page. 

What you choose to show will depend on the conversation. You may choose to focus on the features that you believe would be most valuable to the advisor, or features that your product has which competitors don’t. 

The latter is especially useful if the advisor uses a competing product—they’ll know hands-on what you can do to stand out.

Remember! Avoid turning this into a sales pitch.

The advisor is here to provide genuine feedback on your product's viability or usefulness. Use this opportunity to understand how your product might meet or miss their needs. This engagement can spark their interest in a potential future business relationship.

Feel free to book another meeting if needed, and keep the advisor updated on your product's progress. Consistent updates and a focus on your achievements showcase the growth and potential of your product.

A simple “who else do you think I should speak with?” can open the door to more demo calls. What’s important is that you focus on building the relationship first and proving your product’s value before discussing referrals. After all, you want to make sure your advisor speaks with the same enthusiasm about your product that you have.

Office Hours is a powerful tool to establish and nurture relationships with industry leaders who can offer valuable feedback on your product.

Keep the focus on value and feedback, and you never know where the conversation might lead. Happy knowledge sharing! 

Booking your target buyer or end user on Office Hours is a great way to get feedback on your product. We’ve found that if your product seems interesting and valuable enough, some advisors are interested in trialing or purchasing it.

“Can I meet qualified sales leads on Office Hours?”

Founders of venture-backed startups are constantly being told by investors and others how important networking is to successfully building a company:

“You should be talking to one investor per month, even when you’re not raising”

“You should speak with this expert" (even if you don’t have an immediate need for their input)

As a founder, it's likely understand the value of networking and mentorship, but the brutal realities of running a business can often relegate development of these crucial relationships to the back-burner.

Let's face it: building a business is a herculean task. You're navigating product development, hiring top talent, managing finances, and juggling a thousand other pressing priorities.

Amidst all these, building a robust network of mentors and peers can start to seem like an insurmountable challenge. 

We've been there, caught in the cycle of knowing we need to do something but struggling to find the time.

Office Hours can help you build your network in a focused, strategic, and time-efficient manner. Our platform connects you with mentors, functional experts, and other founders who've been there, done that, and are ready to share their invaluable insights with you.

It's a chance to learn from the best, get answers to your toughest questions, and to not just survive, but thrive in the competitive landscape of software startups.

Curated connections: You can search our marketplace of thousands of experts, or, with Office Hours Pro, our team will handpick experts and mentors based on your specific needs, challenges, and industry niche. You'll be matched with individuals who truly understand your journey and can offer targeted advice.

Continuous learning: With Office Hours, you're not just gaining contacts, you're building a knowledge base. Our experts provide actionable insights and strategies that you can apply immediately to your business.

Community: Office Hours provides an opportunity to connect with other founders who are also navigating the stormy seas of startup life. Share experiences, exchange ideas, and grow together.

Streamlined logistics: We understand that your day is jam-packed. That's why Office Hours offers flexible sessions that work around your schedule. Whether it's a quick lunchtime chat or a deep-dive in the evening, we've got you covered.

The challenges of running a venture-backed software company are many, but you don't have to face them alone. We at Office Hours are committed to providing you with the networking opportunities you need, tailored to your busy schedule and specific needs.

Don't let the essential task of networking and mentorship fall by the wayside. Make it an integrated part of your growth strategy. With Office Hours, you're not just surviving the startup jungle, you're mastering it. Get the support you need, when you need it, and watch as your network, and your success, grows.

Growing your network shouldn't be so hard. Instantly book time with thousands of top experts in software & tech.

Founders: Put your networking on autopilot

High Quality Advisors = High Signal Feedback

Do you have a brilliant product idea or prototype but aren't quite sure if someone will pay for it? Or are you mid-product development, and in need of live perspectives from your target buyer or end user?

Booking advisors on Office Hours for product feedback interviews can be a game-changer. Our network includes thousands of software key decision makers and users available on-demand who can provide insight into their workflows, key pain points, and provide feedback on your product.

In this step-by-step guide, we'll walk you through the process of finding and connecting with industry professionals, obtaining valuable feedback, and refining your product to accelerate your path to product-market fit. Let's dive in!



Product validation is the process of confirming that your target audience indeed needs your product and will be willing to pay for it, and is crucial for any new startup or existing startup launching a new product. 

Booking advisors on Office Hours for product feedback interviews is an excellent way to gain high quality, high signal feedback, refine your product, and learn from the best in your industry.

We provide on-demand access to thousands of top minds across software, technology, healthcare and other industries. 

Try searching our network for a preview into the types of high quality advisors we have ready and available.

Our advisors could be key decision makers or daily users at your target customer companies. They are also product managers, engineers, and marketers willing to share their insights and advice on the development of your product in general.

The next step is finding the right advisors to speak with. Here are a few tips to help you identify the perfect candidates:

Define your target buyer and/or primary end user: Be as specific as possible about the type of customer or user your product is designed for. Who are they? Where do they work? What do they care about?

Aim for a diverse set of perspectives: Aim for a mix of advisors from different backgrounds, roles, and industries to obtain a well-rounded perspective on your product.

Use our search functionality: Our search and recommendation allows you to search in unique and helpful ways. Not only can you search by title and company, but you can also search for customers of specific products or product categories.

Send booking requests: In only a few clicks, you can send a booking request to your selected advisors. Choose your duration, select whether or not you’d like to transcript the conversation, and include a note to help the advisor prepare.

Did you know? If you can't find the exact profile of person you hope to speak with, inquire about a trial of Office Hours Pro. With Pro, you’ll have support from a dedicated client services rep who will proactively recruit the right individuals from outside of our network.


Once you've identified the advisors you'd like to speak with, it's time to prepare for your interviews. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your conversation:

Have a clear agenda: Define your objectives and the specific feedback you are seeking. This will help you stay focused during the interview and ensure you cover all essential topics.

Prepare your product demo: If possible, create a demo or prototype of your product to showcase its features and benefits. This will give the advisor a better understanding of your product and enable them to provide more targeted feedback.

Craft open-ended questions: Ask open-ended questions that encourage the advisor to share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences freely. This approach will help you gain deeper insights and uncover opportunities for improvement.

With your preparations in place, you're now ready to conduct your product feedback interview. Keep these best practices in mind:

Be punctual and professional: Respect the advisor’s time by arriving on time (or early) for your Office Hours session. Present yourself professionally and be ready to dive into the conversation.

Set the context: Begin the interview by providing a brief overview of your product, its target audience, and your goals for the conversation. This context will help the advisor understand the scope of the feedback they should provide.

Listen actively: As the advisor shares their insights, listen attentively, take notes, and ask follow-up questions. Avoid interrupting or getting defensive. Remember, their feedback is meant to help you improve your product, not criticize it.

Be open to feedback: Embrace both positive and negative feedback with an open mind. This receptivity will help you identify areas for improvement and make your product even better.

Remember - your objective is not to sell the product - it’s to validate whether or not your product is something this person would find real value in.

On Office Hours, you have the choice of dialing in via phone or joining via web on your desktop. We suggest joining via web, which gives you the ability to video conference, and show the advisor your product via screen share.

After your product feedback interview, analyze the insights you've gathered and determine your next steps. Here are some suggestions for moving forward:

Review your notes: Go through your notes and highlight the key points and actionable suggestions made by the advisors. We highly suggest leveraging our automated recording & transcription service to take the hassle and stress out of note-taking. 

Identify themes: Look for common themes, patterns, or recurring issues mentioned by multiple advisors. These areas may warrant further exploration or immediate action.

Prioritize improvements: Determine which feedback items are most critical to address and prioritize them based on their potential impact on your product's success.

Create an action plan: Develop a plan outlining the steps you'll take to implement the advisor’s feedback. Include deadlines, resources needed, and any potential roadblocks.

Follow up with the advisor: Express your gratitude to the advisor for their time and valuable insights. Share your plans for implementing their feedback and offer to keep them updated on your progress.


Create an account to explore our network for free, or schedule a demo below.

Discover how booking advisors on Office Hours for product feedback interviews can help you validate and refine your product. Our step-by-step guide walks you through the process, from finding advisors to conducting interviews and implementing their valuable insights.

Step-by-Step: Conducting Effective Product Feedback Interviews

In today's unpredictable macroeconomic climate, the most valuable asset a startup can possess is adaptability. Surviving the early stages requires more than just managing burn and hiring a great founding team; it demands a tenacious pursuit of product-market fit. Like a sculptor molding clay, founders must shape their startup in response to the fluctuating demands of the market.

The underlying principle is that your customers seek solutions to their problems, and it's your job as a founder to grasp the essence of their struggle. This concept is well understood, but truly understanding your customers’ needs is easier said than done.

Startups of all stages and sizes book Office Hours with prospective customers via 30 and 60 minute knowledge-sharing consultations.

These calls aren't sales calls - they are interviews, led by founders, focused on gaining a deeper, truer understanding of your customers' needs and desires. And they allow founders to develop potentially deep, enduring relationships with the exact people who may need their product in the future.

Odds are one of our thousands advisors in technology or healthcare will meet your criteria, but if not, you can sign up for a trial of Office Hours Pro - which includes dedicated support from a team member who will source the perfect profile for you and bring them on to our platform.

As a founder, you should start by introducing yourself and your company, and explain that your aim is not to make a sale - it’s to validate whether or not the product that you’re building is something the advisor needs, or at least would be genuinely willing to pay for. Then, focus on asking them questions focused on understand the challenges they and their teams are dealing with every day:

What are the most significant pain points or challenges your team is facing in this area?

Can you walk me through your current process for tackling these pain points or challenges?

What existing software tools or solutions do you use to address these issues? What do you like or dislike about them?

If you could envision a perfect software solution for your needs, what key features would it have?

How do you measure the success or effectiveness of the software tools you currently use?

What are your must-have features or functionalities in a software solution for your line of work?

Are there any specific integrations with other tools or software that would significantly improve your team’s workflow?

How important are features X, Y or Z when selecting a software solution for your needs?

What kind of support or training do you expect when implementing a new software solution in your workflow?

Can I get your live feedback on our product?

What if the advisor is interested in becoming a customer? 

Great! While we don't want our advisors feeling like they're being sold to on Office Hours, we understand that the advisor might legitimately have an interest in learning more about becoming a customer. If that happens, our team will work with you and the advisor to determine the appropriate next steps. 

Book calls with your prospective customers to truly understand their needs.

Office Hours: A “cheat code” for finding product-market fit

Are you a content or product marketer searching for ways to make your content more unique and impactful? Booking industry experts on Office Hours for interviews is a fantastic way to incorporate perspectives from known industry voices outside of your company.

For example, Grata, a leading deal sourcing platform, booked several advisors on Office Hours to gain insights into M&A software preferences among corporate development directors. With the approval of the experts they spoke with, Grata then packaged these insights into a blog post titled: “The M&A Software Helping Corp Devs Close Deals”.

Why should content and product marketers book expert calls?

Interviewing experts offers content and product marketers a more personalized, efficient, and in-depth method for gaining insights, making it a powerful tool to use in conjunction with traditional research methods.

Access to real-world perspectives: Office Hours advisors offer first-hand experiences and insights from their work in the industry. These insights are often more relevant, practical, and up-to-date than what can be found via traditional research sources (e.g. Google, industry reports, etc.).

Efficiency: Expert interviews can yield valuable information quickly, allowing product marketers to stay agile. The Office Hours platform makes finding, booking and compensating relevant advisors safe, fast, and easy.

Rich qualitative data: Expert interviews can yield nuanced, in-depth information that goes beyond numbers and statistics. This qualitative data helps marketers better understand the motivations, challenges, and preferences of their target audience, which can drive more effective messaging and positioning.

Networking and relationship building: Conducting expert interviews not only provides valuable insights but also helps marketers expand their professional networks. These connections can lead to future collaborations, partnerships, or even new business opportunities.


Interested in booking experts to improve your marketing output?

Sign up to book experts on Office Hours today.

Elevate your positioning and thought leadership efforts by incorporating unique expert perspectives.

Why content and product marketers should book expert calls

Building something new often comes with more questions than answers. 

Clarity and conviction on what product to build, for whom, and in what markets is the result of deep experience in an industry and high signal market research. 

Office Hours helps companies find and access these crucial perspectives. 

One of our customers, Heidi Yang, a product designer at YC-backed logistics startup, Qualli, used Office Hours to conduct user interviews. 

“Our target users are specialists with a demanding work schedule. Office Hours made it 100x easier to connect to those users, and the insights we've gained were extremely formative to our strategy” 

Office Hours helps teams conduct impactful primary research, giving leaders a way to prove or disprove their assumptions, and uncover additional insight to help inform their paths forward. 

Founders, product teams, and other key decision makers can leverage Office Hours to: 

Validate new opportunities: Whether it’s expansion into a new product, customer segment, or geography, Office Hours gives users the ability to find stakeholders who can provide valuable perspective to inform critical decisions.

Capture objective market feedback: Search the Office Hours network for specific titles, companies, and geographies and build a target list of perspectives to get objective feedback.

Refine product positioning. A stellar product doesn’t necessitate users. Making sure you communicate the right message to the right audience and through the right channels is an essential component. Book Office Hours with target buyers to make sure your messaging resonates.

Extend the bounds of your network: Asking for an intro? No need to exhaust your social capital or spend time and energy on cold outbound. Booking an Office Hours is clear and direct.

Save valuable time: Our startup customers have saved months, and in some cases, years of effort. Turn your speed to insights into an information advantage.   

For more information, check out our blog "Finding your compass" and sign up for Office Hours today. 

How startups can get access to expert and key decision maker insights to go-to-market faster.

Startup Looking For Expertise? 5 Benefits Of Using Office Hours

How will generative AI impact the legal services industry? Will traditional financial institutions commit to crypto for the long term or are they dabbling to appease their wealthiest clients? How is the shifting future of work impacting expectations for employee benefits? 

How a founder or a VC answers any one of these questions drastically changes the course of their actions in business building and company picking. 

At the same time, it's never been more difficult to find the signal in the noise to answer these crucial questions. 
 

Well-informed, fact-based conclusions are paramount to founders and investors as they serve as a compass for driving successful product roadmaps and picking venture-scale investments. 

But if you were to answer some of these hairy questions, how would you go about it today?

You might say, secondary research, which is certainly an essential part of this diligence and conviction-building process. 

But in many ways, secondary research has become the status quo, not because it yields better results, but because it's the easiest way to get to some baseline understanding.  

Primary research, despite being one of the most elusive and time-intensive, oftentimes drives some of the most meaningful learnings and leads to the discovery of nuance if done right. 

Despite the value it can lead to, the process for primary research today is cumbersome. 

Likely, it resembles a lengthy process of reaching out to people in your network, on Linkedin, asking for intros, and pleading strangers to meet with you, or exorbitant amounts of money to have someone do it on your behalf. 

Primary research 2.0: Professional knowledge on-demand

We’ve curated a network of thousands of advisors, all of whom have opted into holding Office Hours because they want to leverage their hard-earned expertise to help you answer your questions.

The Office Hours platform offers users an easy way to search for knowledge, find experts with relevant experience, and organize findings to help gain perspective and build conviction.

Our experts have deep expertise and knowledge in a broad range of industries from software, fintech, web3 to digital health, oncology, market access, and more. 

Investigating the corporate card market? Book an advisor like Gerardo Diaz, Head of Finance/CFO at Billpocket, who has on-the-job experience vetting these solutions, or Jess Toy, Head of Product Management at AngelList Venture to understand how to build seamless KYC journeys while incorporating stablecoin payments into your offering. 

Or maybe you're interested in understanding how the changing world of work is impacting employees' expectations of benefits? If so, set up time with advisors like Larissa Chirolli, Compensation & Benefits Coordinator at Gympass. 

The best part is that it’s free to sign up and browse our network, and entirely pay-as-you-go. Come sign up here, and happy knowledge sharing!

It's never been more difficult to find the signal in the noise.

Ready to explore the network?

Sign up to explore the network, or schedule a demo with a member of our team.