YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

The right advisor can have a greater impact on the success of your small business than any other hire you ever make. Start Exit Planning Your Small Business for Sale to a Strategic or Financial Buyer in the Coming Years. Serve as a Sounding Board for Sensitive Challenges & Opportunities You Face as a Small Business.

CTO Hire 100

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Small Business Hiring 100

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Advisory Board. At one of our initial board meetings we had agreed on the general principle of an advisory board and put together an overall stock budget to compensate advisors. Over the next week we exchanged emails over advisory board stock. He was having too much fun at Sun and turned me down.).

Advisory Board 260

Advisory Board Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Stock 260

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 1, 2014

Member of the Advisory Board. This is one of the key roles in a growing new company which can benefit from someone who clearly has experience dealing with people – whether it be hiring and firing, assisting in performance reviews, or dealing with the day-to-day crises of any growing business.

Entrepreneur 266

Entrepreneur Advisory Board Dividend Angel Investor 266

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2018

An easy way to connect with people you can learn from, and keep your pulse on where things are heading, is to hire team members who are smarter than you in complementary business areas, including marketing and sales. Make it a point to surround yourself with smart people. Build and listen to an effective group of advisors.

Customer 144

Customer Advisory Board Technical Review Angel Investor 144

www.instigatorblog.com

MARCH 2, 2010

The Importance of Advisory Boards for Startup CEOs Tweet When a startup receives financing it will need to setup a Board of Directors. The Board probably existed beforehand, but was made up only of the founders. Mark Macleod spells it out beautifully in his post on Advisory Boards. Why wouldn’t you?

Advisory Board 40

Advisory Board Startup Cofounder Equity 40

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

For startup founders, it’s never too early to start thinking about putting together a target market advisory board. The target market advisory board should consist of 2–4 industry veterans who have connections to C-level execs and VPs in your target market. Never discount the power of a warm intro.

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board Sweat Equity Marketing Vertical 48

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

The sales professional. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. The combination of technical insight, founder authority, and sales experience is a hard-to-beat advantage in a competitive market. These people also have the credibility to attract investors.

Technical Cofounder 144

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Startup 144

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

The sales professional. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. The combination of technical insight, founder authority, and sales experience is a hard-to-beat advantage in a competitive market. These people also have the credibility to attract investors.

Technical Cofounder 245

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Startup 245

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 3, 2012

The proactive solution is to hire sparingly, and spend the time and effort needed to hire existing experts in all cases. Don’t hire your friends and family, don’t assume they can learn on the job, and don’t assume that cheap is best.

Advisory Board 240

Advisory Board Forecast Early Stage Product Development 240

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

Key components of revenue architecture go beyond simply predicting sales to include: the name and attributes of the startup’s category, a messaging matrix, a pricing strategy, a sales strategy and other business model elements. Revenue Architecture. One of the biggest causes of startup failure is related to team dynamics.

Framework 118

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 118

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

Key components of revenue architecture go beyond simply predicting sales to include: the name and attributes of the startup’s category, a messaging matrix, a pricing strategy, a sales strategy and other business model elements. Revenue Architecture. One of the biggest causes of startup failure is related to team dynamics.

Framework 104

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 104

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 19, 2009

.&# I would discover that there was a more effective alternative in building a marketing department than hiring traditional marketers with MBA’s. I set up an advisory board as a vehicle to get these industry experts engaged with the company and product. These hires were definitely not your standard marketing types.

Engineer 198

Engineer Silicon Valley Part-Time VPE Advisory Board 198

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2011

The proactive solution is to hire sparingly, and spend the time and effort needed to hire existing experts in all cases. Don’t hire your friends and family, don’t assume they can learn on the job, and don’t assume that cheap is best.

Advisory Board 232

Advisory Board Startup Forecast Early Stage 232

Hunter Walker

OCTOBER 20, 2013

Advisory boards come up often in conversations with founders, especially early in a company’s life when they’re looking to build out expertise, industry relationships and social proof. While not everyone is a fan of Advisory Boards , I believe they can be valuable. Does your startup have advisors?

Advisory Board 91

Advisory Board SEM Equity Conversion 91

Board Effect

NOVEMBER 18, 2020

Your founders and board members won’t always have the necessary expertise you need in every area to be competitive and sustainable. An advisory board can be of great assistance to your startup by filling crucial gaps in your leadership talent. Let’s begin with the definition of the role of a startup advisory board member.

Advisory Board 84

Advisory Board Angel Investor Technical Review Startup 84

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

The sales professional. A sales fanatic on the founder team helps to contain that risk. The combination of technical insight, founder authority, and sales experience is a hard-to-beat advantage in a competitive market. These people also have the credibility to attract investors.

Technical Cofounder 120

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Stock Options 120

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] Jason Bay is a leading sales expert and he talks with other leading sales experts to get you the information you need. Connect with Liz on LinkedIn.

Community 82

Community Framework Advisory Board Viral 82

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

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 12, 2010

The proactive solution is to hire sparingly, and spend the time and effort needed to hire existing experts in all cases. Don’t hire your friends and family, don’t assume they can learn on the job, and don’t assume that cheap is best.

Advisory Board 125

Advisory Board Startup Forecast Early Stage 125

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 17, 2013

Hire A Players. Build an advisory board. Command a board room. Conduct customer interviews. Segment a market. Understand a term sheet. Recruit and Train. Train an intern. Replace B Players. Cold call C level executives. Write a novel. Raise Money. Tell an investor they’ve lost all their money.

Advisory Board 279

Advisory Board Balance Sheet Term Sheet Entrepreneur 279

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Create a sales plan. Are you an expert in short sales? It includes key players, industry trends, and estimates of industry sales. Sales and marketing plan. If you plan to seek funding, you should describe your advisory board here, as well. Write a business plan. Decide your legal business structure.

Angel Investor 85

Angel Investor Small Business Business Plan Intellectual Property 85

Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 20, 2021

I’m a big proponent of startups hiring talented high-ceiling people who are earlier in their careers and haven’t necessarily yet done the job they’re being recruited for. You’ll be setting the new hire up for success and this should pay off in multiples. They’re hiring in a variety of roles across US, Canada, Europe and Remote.

Advisory Board 150

Advisory Board Equity Vesting Startup 150

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Create a sales plan. It includes key players, industry trends, and estimates of industry sales. Sales and marketing plan. If you plan to seek funding, you should describe your advisory board here, as well. Write a business plan. Decide your legal business structure. Purchase business insurance. Crunch the numbers.

Business Plan 64

Business Plan Small Business Administration Hiring Social Media 64

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2017

Reduce stress by hiring people who don’t challenge you. Very few people are experts in all facets of a new business, including finance, sales, marketing, and operations. The best strategy is to hire people who are smarter than you (in their domain), and allow you to learn from them, rather than the other way around.

Cost 180

Cost Advisory Board Entrepreneur Angel Investor 180

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

I had last been in Chapel Hill on a winter’s day in 1986, traveling with the VP of Sales of our new supercomputer startup, Ardent. My ex-boss was going to be the VP of Engineering and I would report to the CEO whose marketing acumen and sales instincts seemed at the time to be telepathic and sense of theater was legend.

North Carolina 125

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 125

Duct Tape Marketing

APRIL 11, 2022

Running a business is hard But with a good referral program it doesn't have to be As a small business owner you are probably thinking about helping your current customer or trying to figure out how to increase sales. Shorten the sales cycle A strong referral program can significantly shorten the sales cycle.

Programming 87

Programming Small Business Advisory Board B2B 87

Up and Running

AUGUST 30, 2017

What criteria will you use in hiring staff? What are the details of your ownership structure, board of directors, investor list, partners, and so on? List an advisory board if you have one, list all employee salaries, incentives, referral bonuses for recruiting, and all such details. What’s your curriculum based on?

Business Plan 93

Business Plan SBA Software Review Advisory Board 93

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 19, 2016

In my role as an advisory board member for several startups, I’m always excited to see that initial surge of revenue from a great rollout campaign. Too busy to focus on hiring, training, and managing employees. Hiring the wrong people, or not training them, will destroy your business faster than running out of cash.

Advisory Board 120

Advisory Board Startup Revenue Finance 120

Austin Startup

MARCH 31, 2019

Fast forward to Bazaarvoice, where we were initially obsessive about both our hiring process (which I detailed in The Entrepreneur’s Essentials #10 ) as well as checking references. I most likely am going to hire them but I could really use your advice about how to best coach them to perform at their best from day one.”

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board Cofounder Hiring Partner 48

OnlyOnce

JULY 9, 2013

What About Sales & Marketing?, Chapter 10: The Hiring Challenge…Unique Challenges for Startups, Recruiting Outstanding Talent, Staying “In-Market”, Recruitment Tools, The Interview: Filtering Potential Candidates, Two Ears One Mouth, Who Should You Interview? Scaling Your Team Over Time.

Startup 95

Startup Advisory Board Elevator Pitch Forecast 95

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

You’ll realize you’re ready to exit the Search step when you have customer validation: You’ve found a sales channel that matches how the customer wants to buy and the costs of using that channel are understood. writing the HR manual, sales comp plan, expense reports, branding guidelines, etc.). There was tons of advice and resources.

Startup 120

Startup Lean Venture Capital Advisory Board 120

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 3, 2015

Hire smart and committed people. Hire for character as much as for qualifications. Develop an advisory board. CEO of Selective Search Mitchell Berk is a successful business owner/operator whose entrepreneurial style combines creative vision with superb sales and management skills. Get used to it.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Advisory Board Equity Exit Strategy 100

David Teten

JANUARY 23, 2021

The next best move is to build your core team, e.g., recruit an Advisory Board, Venture Partners, and EIRs. Either they hire a fund or funds or discretionary advisory firms to create sub-vehicles to explore prospective co-investment opportunities, or don’t have mandates at all.” Lastly, gather feedback.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review 78

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

They understand that now’s not the time to hire a senior VP of Sales to start to scale the sales force or to look for a finance department to create income statements that say zero each month. Investors who have successful ex-founders who you can call for advice, grab a coffee with or get on your advisory board is a good sign.

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

My advisory board matters – if you mention you’re advisors too much, there’s something wrong with the team. I can hire someone else to make sales – It has to be the founders for a while, don’t hurry to hire a salesman. We have no competition - if that’s really the case, perhaps you’re in the wrong business.

Advisory Board 101

Advisory Board NDA Entrepreneur Early Stage 101

Duct Tape Marketing

NOVEMBER 11, 2021

Success story features Q and a sessions with successful business leaders, keynote presentations, conversations on sales marketing. So they're not necessarily say you should, you should hire these people. John Jantsch (05:20): That's not why I told my friend that they should hire you. You should buy from this company.

Affiliate 96

Affiliate Advisory Board Networking Programming 96

Business Plan Blog

DECEMBER 10, 2013

Founding Team, Key Hires, Advisory Board. If you cannot afford to hire the individuals with key expertise you may need to bring them on as co-founders with an equity stake or hire a part-time, interim individual or company. You can also bring these skillsets to the organization via a board of advisors.

Angel Investor 55

Angel Investor Intellectual Property Seed Capital Advisory Board 55