Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 3, 2017

Many entrepreneurs I know are confused by definition and need for an Advisory Board versus a Board of Directors. By definition, Advisory Boards are voluntary and have no fiduciary responsibility. As an alternative, every CEO needs an Advisory Board to help them grow, which they can ignore or fire at their pleasure.

Advisory Board 174

Advisory Board IPO Angel Investor Acquisition 174

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 29, 2020

Investors want board seats and a vote on key decisions. But I suggest that a small advisory board with the right people might give you better guidance (no near-term financial bias), and you can always choose to ignore it if your insights are strong. Pre-defined milestones and deadlines in an uncertain world.

Bootstrapping 310

Bootstrapping Advisory Board Venture Capital Startup 310

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 6, 2022

Many entrepreneurs I know are confused by the definition and need for an Advisory Board versus a Board of Directors. By definition, Advisory Boards are voluntary and have no fiduciary responsibility. How much are you willing to spend on your board? Legally, Directors are accountable for corporate conduct.

Advisory Board 348

Advisory Board IPO Angel Investor Acquisition 348

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2021

INTERACTIVE CHART “ Average Cost of Hard Drive Storage per Gigabyte 1980-2014” Human Progress. Our guest speaker for our fourth class was John Hurley , former Member of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, an expert on semiconductors and supply chains, and former Captain, U.S. Lee Bell, “ What is Moore’s Law?

Technical Review 366

Technical Review Taiwan Technology Artificial Inteligence 366

Berkonomics

DECEMBER 14, 2017

Have you ever thought of creating an advisory board? Usually, you would want to create an advisory board to fill in the critical areas of need not evidenced in the board of directors or within the company itself. How many advisors should you seek for a board? How do you pay an advisory board?

Advisory Board 97

Advisory Board Dilution Vesting Stock 97

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2019

Image via Flickr by MDGovpics Many entrepreneurs I know are confused by definition and need for an Advisory Board versus a Board of Directors. By definition, Advisory Boards are voluntary and have no fiduciary responsibility. How much are you willing to spend on your board?

Advisory Board 247

Advisory Board IPO Angel Investor Startup 247

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 7, 2021

In her classic book “ Corporate Concinnity in the Boardroom ,” board expert Nancy Falls outlines the most common mistakes with boards, and I believe several of these apply to startups as well as to more mature companies as follows: Have too many or too few board members. Less than three is not a board. Size does matter.

Advisory Board 362

Advisory Board IPO Government Acquisition 362

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2021

Lorenz began a long description of the details of the bacteria, his founders’ research papers on bacteria, the scientific advisory board bacteria experts they had assembled, how the bacteria was made at scale in fluidized bed reactors, etc… This went on for at least ten more minutes. What was the current cost of low carbon concrete ?

Product 429

Product Advisory Board Green Customer 429

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2017

In the heat of scaling the business, it’s tempting to skip the cost and time of finding qualified job candidates, and enlist those close at hand, without paying them a competitive wage for the hard work and commitment you need. Things cost more than you expect, and cash-flow problems often are not recoverable.

Cost 180

Cost Advisory Board Entrepreneur Angel Investor 180

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 2, 2013

He also served on the advisory boards of several technology companies and currently sits on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Data Storage Institute of the Government of Singapore. People aren’t managing copies and that’s what’s taking up a lot of costs.

Advisory Board 150

Advisory Board Technical Review Singapore Startup 150

YoungUpstarts

JULY 5, 2011

It was during this time, while working with artists, Koutonin thought about a solution that would allow them to focus on cultural and artistic expressions instead of the stresses and high cost of marketing and promotion. He adds that, aside from event organizers, the service is also useful for startups and the non-profit sector.

Togo 222

Togo Africa Advisory Board Campaign 222

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

Executives interested in advisory roles often want the experience, intellectual stimulation, and opportunity to put advisory work on their resume as much as they want the compensation. Learn more about ExecRank and how they help companies of all sizes find board members and advisors at no cost.

CTO Hire 100

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Small Business Hiring 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Build qualified advisory board. If you can convince a couple of domain experts, or a couple of experienced executives to join your board and be your advocate, that’s traction. These are things that can cost very little money, but go a long ways in convincing someone that you are making progress.

Intellectual Property 281

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Sweat Equity CTO Hire 281

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 25, 2022

Proactive customer communication should be your first recourse, followed by cost and service concessions. Establish an advisory board of experienced peers. You may think it’s great that demand exceeds your supply chain, but customers only remember it as a loss of your credibility, and will tell others.

Advisory Board 336

Advisory Board Due Diligence Demand Partner 336

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 8, 2016

Investors want board seats and a vote on key decisions. But I suggest that a small advisory board with the right people might give you better guidance (no near-term financial bias), and you can always choose to ignore it if your insights are strong. Pre-defined milestones and deadlines in an uncertain world.

Bootstrapping 120

Bootstrapping Advisory Board Startup Venture Capital 120

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

Build qualified advisory board. If you can convince a couple of domain experts, or a couple of experienced executives to join your board and be your advocate, that’s traction. These are things that can cost very little money, but go a long ways in convincing someone that you are making progress.

Intellectual Property 260

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 260

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 7, 2023

We've moved from trying to make call centers a cost center to make it more of a revenue generation engine, right? My ask would be the next time you do or say something on behalf of the customer, like I've got a customer advisory board. Do you have an employee advisory board? Tiffani Bova (05:06): Well, yeah.

Employee 75

Employee Technical Review Advisory Board Sales 75

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

Build qualified advisory board. If you can convince a couple of domain experts, or a couple of experienced executives to join your board and be your advocate, that’s traction. These are things that can cost very little money, but go a long ways in convincing someone that you are making progress.

Intellectual Property 253

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 253

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2020

Every startup should have at least quarterly meetings with an Advisory Board or key investors to bring a new perspective to what is working and what is not. They try to do everything at once – sell online, go retail, expand their product line, and be the premium brand as well as the low-cost producer.

Advisory Board 308

Advisory Board Agile Social Media Metrics 308

BeyondVC

JANUARY 3, 2019

We are purpose-built to not only invest pre-product but also to help accelerate your path to product-market fit with our decades of entrepreneurial and investing experience along with our active CXO advisory board. AWS Reinvent Survivor Dinner with founders, Fortune 500 execs, and VCs.

Stealth 79

Stealth Advisory Board Cloud Virginia 79

Duct Tape Marketing

DECEMBER 15, 2022

20:02] Could you talk a little bit more about this idea of being a sounding board and how that differs from an advisory board or an actual board? [21:22] And then one we like to call the sounding board, which is the small five to seven people. That's either your advisory board or their own advisory board.

Community 82

Community Framework Advisory Board Viral 82

David Teten

JANUARY 19, 2021

That said, nothing is cost-free. More complex cost of capital calculation. This causes the cost of capital for Flexible VC, often calculated through IRR (similar to an interest rate), can be higher than that of venture debt or traditional RBI. Transaction costs. Legal costs typically $5K-$50K . Cost of capital.

Cofounder 78

Cofounder Technical Review Equity Dividend 78

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

Build qualified advisory board. If you can convince a couple of domain experts, or a couple of experienced executives to join your board and be your advocate, that’s traction. These are things that can cost very little money, but go a long ways in convincing someone that you are making progress.

Intellectual Property 222

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 222

Up and Running

AUGUST 30, 2017

Another thing to watch out for with monthly rent is all the added costs. so keep these all in mind when calculating the costs. What are the details of your ownership structure, board of directors, investor list, partners, and so on? Projected costs. Construction cost. Staff appreciation day costs.

Business Plan 93

Business Plan SBA Software Review Advisory Board 93

Board Effect

MARCH 4, 2020

Not all boards can handle these issues on their own accord and that’s the right time to considering working with a governance consultant. A governance consultant is different than a mentor or an advisory board. Beyond these important questions, you’ll want to agree on the cost and length of services.

Government 64

Government Merger Advisory Board Acquisition 64

thebarefootvc

AUGUST 13, 2013

The larger companies claimed that the cost of replacement and integration was not worth any savings that the enterprise could potentially realize, and that the risk of deploying with a startup was too high for mission critical functions. Or at least get some of them on your advisory board.

Advisory Board 70

Advisory Board Cloud Venture Capital Vertical 70

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Estimate your costs, including a 50 percent gross margin, as a lower bound on a price. Here again is your chance to make pivots for almost no cost. A small advisory board of outside people with experience in your domain can give you the unbiased feedback you need, as well as connections for setting up distribution and sales channels.

Technical Review 220

Technical Review Advisory Board Software Review Business Model 220

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 12, 2021

We have a handful of trusted mentors we utilize sort of like an advisory board. I find that, even as the mentor, I learn a lot from those I am mentoring, turning me into a better professional. . Thanks to Jeremy Yamaguchi, Lawn Love ! . #14- 14- Prevents costly mistakes. Photo Credit: Ryne Lambert. 15- Hones skills .

Entrepreneur 125

Entrepreneur Technical Review Advisory Board Leadership 125

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2015

In her new book “ Corporate Concinnity in the Boardroom ,” board expert Nancy Falls outlines the most common mistakes with boards, and I believe several of these apply to startups as well as to more mature companies as follows: Having too many or too few board members. Less than three is not a board. Size does matter.

Advisory Board 120

Advisory Board Startup IPO Government 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 30, 2021

Estimate your costs, including a 50 percent gross margin, as a lower bound on a price. Here again is your chance to make pivots for almost no cost. A small advisory board of outside people with experience in your domain can give you the unbiased feedback you need, as well as connections for setting up distribution and sales channels.

Technical Review 399

Technical Review Product Advisory Board Business Model 399

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 2, 2016

In her recent book “ Corporate Concinnity in the Boardroom ,” board expert Nancy Falls outlines the most common mistakes with boards, and I believe several of these apply to startups as well as to more mature companies as follows: Having too many or too few board members. Less than three is not a board. Size does matter.

Advisory Board 145

Advisory Board Entrepreneur IPO Government 145

Up and Running

MAY 20, 2014

Would I say that all of this has been worth the sticker price of ~$200k, plus the opportunity cost? That calculation needs to take into account personal financials, opportunity cost, and expected future salary.

Entrepreneur 88

Entrepreneur Advisory Board Silicon Valley New York 88

BeyondVC

JANUARY 6, 2018

We built out our CXO advisory board and further cemented our Fortune 500 relationships to help our portfolio cos scale from “founder-market” fit to product market fit in an accelerated timeframe ( meet our advisors ). Our partners include IBM and one unannounced Fortune 50.

Cloud 60

Cloud Cofounder Portfolio Advisory Board 60

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2013

It starts with a customer problem or need, and includes proving the technical concept, but starts earlier and goes much further, per the following key steps: Quantify problem cost-of-pain first. Factor in your margin, and you will have an upper bound on your solution cost. Changes at this stage cost almost nothing.

Business Model 235

Business Model Product Advisory Board Angel Investor 235

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

The Lean Startup is a practical approach for creating and managing a new breed of company that excels in low-cost experimentation, rapid iteration, and true customer insight. If youre interested in being part of my "customer advisory board" for this presentation, please get in touch. I would love to be on your advisory board.

Lean 68

Lean San Francisco Web Advisory Board 68

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2012

It starts with a customer problem or need, and includes proving the technical concept, but starts earlier and goes much further, per the following key steps: Quantify problem cost-of-pain first. Factor in your margin, and you will have an upper bound on your solution cost. Changes at this stage cost almost nothing.

Business Model 248

Business Model Advisory Board Entrepreneur Angel Investor 248

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 22, 2016

These need to go beyond the traditional revenue, cost, and volume metrics which may not yet have data, and can mislead you about real customer acceptance. Build an inside advisory board of influencers and experts. Early examples would include website traffic, positive reactions from potential customers, and blogger support.

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Metrics Advisory Board Startup Lean 143