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Forming entrepreneurial strategy is difficult, as the future value of strategy alternatives is uncertain. To create and capture value, firms are advised to consider and test multiple alternative strategy elements. Yet, how firms generate and test alternatives remains understudied. As entrepreneurial firms lack resources for broad search, they often draw upon advisory resources from outside the firm. However, advice can be difficult to extract, absorb, and apply. Although scholars have examined static attributes of the entrepreneur or advisor to explain whether advice is used, a dynamic explanation of how advice is produced and informs strategy testing and formation is missing. In an 11-month field study, we observed 25 founders of 12 food and agriculture firms interacting with a common pool of 34 advisors in an entrepreneurship training program. Leveraging the program’s structured design, we observed 165 advice …