Steve Blank

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Building an Advisory Board In my travels outside the building I kept my eyes out for articulate and visionary scientists and engineers who had expertise we lacked, and were willing to help in an advisory capacity. I set up an advisory board as a vehicle to get these industry experts engaged with the company and product.

Engineer 198

Engineer Silicon Valley Part-Time VPE Advisory Board 198

Feld Thoughts

JULY 31, 2014

I know many entrepreneurs who feel that VCs have played them, gamed them, deceived them, or bullshitted them. But this doesn’t only happen to entrepreneurs. In 2007, when we set out to raise our first Foundry Group fund, early stage tech VC was in the shitter. VCs play this game with VCs all the time.

LP 155

LP Advisory Board Venture Capital Early Stage 155

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 19, 2012

We have a straightforward meeting – a dinner for our advisory board the night before, drinks after for all LPs, our advisory board meeting first thing in the morning, and then the full meeting until lunch time. We always talk about our key principles that we established when we started Foundry Group in 2007.

Advisory Board 133

Advisory Board Vertical New York Community 133

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

In 2007, BusinessWeek named Ries one of the Best Young Entrepreneurs of Tech and in 2009 he was honored with a TechFellow award in the category of Engineering Leadership. He serves on the advisory board of a number of technology startups, and has worked as a consultant to a number of startups, companies, and venture capital firms.

San Francisco 155

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 20, 2015

Through YEO, I got to know Mike and Cindy (who is also an entrepreneur and was in YEO) very well. When we started Foundry Group in 2007, we stated that we would invest in companies throughout the United States. Before making a decision to invest, we talked to each member of our advisory board to get their feedback.

North Carolina 70

North Carolina Finance Charlotte Advisory Board 70

venturehacks.com

DECEMBER 9, 2012

Some entrepreneurs set up quarterly advisory board meetings and that probably works well for them. But we find savvy entrepreneurs tend to be transactional—they ping their advisors as needed and skip the advisory board meetings. Including advice from successful entrepreneurs. How do I apply advice?

Advisory Board 50

Advisory Board Cap Table RSS Cofounder 50

Feld Thoughts

APRIL 23, 2015

Scott and I were both on the Microsoft VC Advisory Board that Dan’l Lewin organized and ran. We had a blast together and as we went out to raise our Foundry 2007 fund, Scott made several introductions which resulted in two wonderful, long term LP relationships. They ignored us. We didn’t want associates.

Advisory Board 70

Advisory Board Venture Capital LP Seed Stage 70