Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 27, 2022

In my role as an angel investor to startups, I’m struck by the broad variety of advisor strategies I see in investor presentations and business plans that cross my desk. That’s the function of a good advisory board. Keep the advisory board to a manageable size. Advisors in name-only will hurt you.

Advisory Board 308

Advisory Board Angel Investor Startup Later Stage 308

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 26, 2009 A real Customer Advisory Board A reader recently asked on a previous post about the technique of having customers periodically produce a “state of the company&# progress report. One example is having a real Customer Advisory Board.

Advisory Board 151

Advisory Board Customer San Francisco Lean 151

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2010

By Bob Arciniaga In developing the content for this article, it was very apparent this advice is not only critical for startups but for most companies. The suggestions are even more vital in a startup environment with constrained resources. A properly built advisory board can be a huge strategic advantage to any company.

Advisory Board 225

Advisory Board Startup Liquidity Event Stock 225

The Next Web

JULY 12, 2017

Here’s something they might not have told you when you set up your startup to “be your own boss” — everyone has bosses. Every startup CEO knows that in theory their advisory board is just here to ‘advise’. Here are the four types of people you’ll encounter on every startup advisory board and how to deal with them.

Advisory Board 136

Advisory Board Startup Web Naming 136

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 4, 2019

by Bruce Cleveland, Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners and author of “ Traversing the Traction Gap “ As we continue our exploration of the Traction Gap Framework® – a step-by-step approach that startup teams can use to go from ideation to preparing to scale – I will walk you through the principles.

Framework 127

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 127

YoungUpstarts

MAY 24, 2019

by Bruce Cleveland, Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners and author of “ Traversing the Traction Gap “ As we continue our exploration of the Traction Gap Framework® – a step-by-step approach that startup teams can use to go from ideation to preparing to scale – I will walk you through the principles.

Framework 113

Framework Architecture Cleveland Early Stage 113

www.instigatorblog.com

MARCH 2, 2010

Home About Contact My thoughts & lessons learned on startups, entrepreneurship, marketing and other stuff. The Importance of Advisory Boards for Startup CEOs Tweet When a startup receives financing it will need to setup a Board of Directors. Advisory boards are not for the company, they are for you. .&#

Advisory Board 40

Advisory Board Startup Cofounder Equity 40

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. I knew he would bring immense value to me and the company.

Advisory Board 263

Advisory Board Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Stock 263

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. Funding for pre-revenue startups used to be the domain of angel investors, but they have moved up-stage. Register some intellectual property.

Intellectual Property 260

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 260

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. Funding for pre-revenue startups used to be the domain of angel investors, but they have moved up-stage. Register some intellectual property.

Intellectual Property 253

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 253

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

This post is written with B2B startups in mind, but should be generally applicable. For startup founders, it’s never too early to start thinking about putting together a target market advisory board. Having a target market advisory board is also helpful come fundraising time.

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board Sweat Equity Marketing Vertical 48

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. Funding for pre-revenue startups used to be the domain of angel investors, but they have moved up-stage. Register some intellectual property.

Intellectual Property 281

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Sweat Equity CTO Hire 281

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 6, 2016

In my role as an angel investor to startups, I’m struck by the broad variety of advisor strategies I see in investor presentations and business plans that cross my desk. That’s the function of a good advisory board. Keep the advisory board to a manageable size. Advisors in name-only will hurt you.

Advisory Board 151

Advisory Board Angel Investor Later Stage Stock 151

ConversionXL

AUGUST 11, 2021

But it’s not as simple as reaching out to a company you want to collaborate with and putting their name on your website in exchange for cash. If your audience isn’t interested in a sponsor’s product or service, then putting their name to your offer won’t deliver the ROI they’re looking for, ruining any chance of a long-term partnership.

Audience 139

Audience Social Media Email Ruby 139

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. Funding for pre-revenue startups used to be the domain of angel investors, but they have moved up-stage. Register some intellectual property.

Intellectual Property 222

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 222

Duct Tape Marketing

JUNE 7, 2023

Over the past two decades, she has led large revenue producing divisions at businesses ranging from startups to Fortune 500. 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? with Tiffani Bova.

Employee 74

Employee Technical Review Advisory Board Sales 74

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 80

Community Framework Advisory Board Viral 80

The Startup Magazine

MAY 28, 2019

From our hard working and talented employees, ‘smart-money’ investors, to our Advisory Board Members that include Gerry Calabrese founder of Hoxton Spirits or Tomasz Fajfer European Financial Director of Sephora and ex Board Member of Costa Coffee. Embargo is available to download from iOS and Android and at www.embargoapp.com.

Advisory Board 117

Advisory Board Angel Investor Startup Cofounder 117

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 19, 2018

Earlier this year at the FUND Conference in Austin, Texas, over 100 startups presented their early-stage companies in front of hundreds of investors and industry leaders. The startups ranked most highly by investors and startup enthusiasts in terms of scalability and longevity received votes on how well they connected with investors.

Texas 104

Texas Advisory Board Startup Angel Investor 104

BeyondVC

MARCH 14, 2006

Of course, as I dig in to understand what these advisors actually do for the company, 9 times out of 10 they are just high profile names that are thrown on a list to give a company a stamp of approval. Trust me, I am all for advisory boards. So the cash-hungry startup can add talent and help without breaking the bank.

Advisory Board 60

Advisory Board Vesting Portfolio Naming 60

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Entrepreneurs who are looking to attract investors need to develop and pitch a plan -- preferably written -- that answers every potential investor question about your startup before it is asked. Name the three top ones, and present your sustainable advantage as well as barriers to entry for new startups.

Sweat Equity 120

Sweat Equity Advisory Board Liquidity Event Startup 120

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014

I was excited to see that GLG (formerly Gerson Lehrman Group), the industry leader, is now offering a professional network service geared to the needs of the startup community: GLG Share. Like many established finance & media companies, GLG knows that the tech startup sector is a growing part of the economy.

New York 114

New York Technical Review Networking Advisory Board 114

The Startup Lawyer

AUGUST 30, 2010

Advisors are great for startups. They can provide your startup with guidance on a wide range of topics and typically take a seat on your startup’s advisory board. The Genesis of the Startup Creeper. Most startup founders do a tremendous amount of networking. cash, equity, geek cred).

Advisory Board 99

Advisory Board Startup Cofounder Equity 99

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. The VP of Sales and I flew to Providence to convince Andy van Dam at Brown to join our company, or at a minimum lead our advisory board. We were sitting in our cheap hotel room when the phone rang.

North Carolina 129

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 129

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 2, 2011

By Bob La Loggia, CEO StormSource Software Are startup founders who play poker statistically more likely to succeed in business? Business history has proven time and time again that it’s not necessarily the best product that wins in the marketplace, and having a superstar founding team, VC partner, or advisory board doesn’t guarantee success.

Advisory Board 250

Advisory Board Entrepreneur Founder Software 250

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

What’s the name of the company? Dan: The name of the company is Member Desk. 10 a month, $50 a month, whatever, and then they get the user name and password to access their membership site; Then they get access to all the content that you allow them access to based on how long they’ve been a member. Jason: Hey.

Cofounder 199

Cofounder Technical Review Chicago Technical Cofounder 199

Life Beyond Code

JULY 16, 2013

Reading about startups and trying to build one is like reading a book and jumping into the battleground to fight. Life in a startup is very different for those that are living in one of them and how it appears to someone from outside. That does not mean that there is no point in reading about startups. Verify now and often.

Startup 151

Startup Advisory Board Audience Framework 151

Austin Startup

JUNE 27, 2017

For investors outside of Austin and LPs: Austin is a a vibrant startup market and this list of capital sources can help you identify firms to co-invest with and funds to invest in. We’ve compiled a definitive list of sources of startup capital in Austin.

Venture Capital 54

Venture Capital Austin Texas Private Equity 54

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

(Maybe youd like to start with The lean startup , How to listen to customers , or What does a startup CTO actually do? ) 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.

San Francisco 155

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 29, 2018

As I mentioned at the beginning of this series/ebook, over the years I’ve noticed that I tend to frequently share certain Lucky7 posts with entrepreneurs we’ve backed , team members at data.world, or other startup investors I know. You are in for a rude awakening if you expect that type of treatment from anyone at a startup.

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Austin Technical Review Advisory Board 48

Small Business Force

MAY 31, 2011

There are two types of boards that you can use - an advisory board or a board of directors. Typically, an advisory board is an ad hoc group that you might meet with or talk to either, individually, or as a group, primarily as a sounding board. You can always use an advisory board.

Advisory Board 28

Advisory Board Warrant Social Network Entrepreneur 28

Up and Running

AUGUST 30, 2017

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. Budget-friendly marketing strategies are the name of the game here.

Business Plan 93

Business Plan SBA Software Review Advisory Board 93

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

If you plan to seek funding, you should describe your advisory board here, as well. Your company name , your company logo , and your website design should all grow from the concepts you laid out here. Remember that your business name plays a role in almost every aspect of your business. Operating plan. Don’t believe us?

Angel Investor 85

Angel Investor Small Business Business Plan Intellectual Property 85

The Startup Lawyer

FEBRUARY 4, 2011

Great news — your startup just got accepted to an incubator! But before your startup signs up and cashes that $[XX,000] check, your startup’s co-founders should sit down and evaluate the incubator’s offer. Pre-money valuations startups receive from incubators are typically low…really low.

Incubator 105

Incubator Pre-Money Valuation Option Pool Advisory Board 105

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2012

Include Advisory Board members and key industry people connections. Rest assured that potential investors will ask for names, and place some calls. Convince investors that your team is experienced in starting a new business, and have great expertise in the selected business domain.

Business Plan 283

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 283

Small Business Force

MAY 31, 2011

There are two types of boards that you can use - an advisory board or a board of directors. Typically, an advisory board is an ad hoc group that you might meet with or talk to either, individually, or as a group, primarily as a sounding board. You can always use an advisory board.

Advisory Board 20

Advisory Board Warrant Social Network Entrepreneur 20

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 13, 2011

Include Advisory Board members and key industry people connections. Rest assured that potential investors will ask for names, and place some calls. Convince investors that your team is experienced in starting a new business, and have great expertise in the selected business domain.

Business Plan 290

Business Plan Sweat Equity Exit Strategy Intellectual Property 290