Building an AI-for-education product and struggling to find senior AI engineers to guide or work with me. Where do you actually find them?
I'm building an AI-powered learning platform for school students (classes 6-12). I have about 2 years of hands-on experience integrating LLMs into the product, but to take it to the next level I need input from people who've built agents, RAG pipelines, and large-scale AI systems in production.
Over the last 1-2 months I've reached out to 50-60 senior AI engineers on LinkedIn. A few replied and a couple said they'd help, but nothing stuck and most went quiet. I'm not blaming anyone. I know senior folks are busy and a cold message from a stranger is a hard sell.
So I'd love some guidance on:
- Where do experienced AI engineers actually hang out or pick up projects (communities, Discords, forums, platforms)?
- Is it better to start with a paid contractor/consultant, a part-time advisor, or go straight for a co-founder-type person?
- How do you approach senior people so they take it seriously? What makes you reply to a cold message?
- Has anyone been on either side of this (founder finding a senior AI person, or the engineer being approached)? What worked?
I'm happy to pay for time on a trial or consulting basis, and open to equity conversations for the right person. Any advice or pointers are appreciated, thanks!