At DataScaler, we have a work-late party every Thursday night. We bring in dinner, invite our technical advisors, and great things happen. It's a magical time. We also have a great set of business/strategy advisors; I'll post about them another time.
We have excellent technical advisors. They come from various backgrounds, all in some way related to our technology direction. Some are more talkative, some are more contemplative, but they all contribute in great ways. I am amazed at the good things that come out of our Thursday meetings. During the week we work hard on the product line, its architecture, strategy, etc. When we present the current state of affairs on Thursday nights, often one advisor or another will point out a flaw we hadn't thought of, or a simpler way to do things. It's very helpful to have this group's attention once a week and benefit from their broad experiences.
It's invigorating to see how people jump in and worked hard as DataScaler technical advisors. We don't offer much in the way of compensation: free food and a token stock grant. However, everyone seems to get really excited about helping out with the technology. I can't say I blame them ;-)
Again, I am reminded how blessed we are to be in Silicon Valley, where such awesome advisors are easily found. Some have come through personal contacts, others through networking or LinkedIn. It is really amazing how many talented people there are in the SV community. I am glad that we get to have some of the best and brightest over every Thursday for some magic.
