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MenuWe are in the process of bringing on our first rock-star adviser - what can i expect?
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It can be as simple or as complicated as you need it to be.
For my first startup we have a few board members, compensation was .5 to 1% equity for monthly meetings vested at 1 year.
They are advisors and as such you should ask them what they expect from you, you from them and provide a framework of the future together - let them know what to expect - don't waste their time and only bring them in for meetings when you are absolutely confused in your immediate path or long term goals and have them provide feedback & their network
I have served on over 40 corporate boards and advisory boards. What you can expect from any advisor depends on the advisor's experience base and character. Some advisors take all the air out of the room and require massive amounts of care and feeding. Others are nearly invisible. Probably so long as you understand what you want from the advisor and communicate it to them clearly, you will have good results. Let me know if this was helpful and if you would like to discuss the matter further.
You can expect the following things from your Rockstar advisor:
1. Make clear and specific recommendations and explain how their recommendations will help you meet your goals.
2. Explain the risks involved with every investment they recommend.
3. Answer your questions about investment products and strategies.
4. Keep your personal information safe.
5. Get your permission before buying or selling investments on your behalf, and confirm it in writing (unless you have a discretionary account or you have given someone else trading authority or power of attorney over your account).
6. Send regular account statements and meet with you at least once a year to review your information, progress and update your plan, if appropriate.
Apart from those above you should not expect these things from an advisor:
1. Guarantee market performance.
2. Buy or sell investments with unclear instructions.
3. Achieve unrealistic expectations of profit or always recommend profitable products.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
Related Questions
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What are some good ways of finding mentors and advisors for you and your product?
Like anything to do with a startup, it's about proactive outreach. AngelList is a great way to research what people have done before. You want to optimize for relevant experience. AngelList however is very ineffective for making cold connections. Instead, I use LinkedIn and ensure to always write a personalized introduction with my connection request explaining why my company is something they would be interested in. After the connection is accepted, I then follow-up with a personalized email thanking them for accepting the request and then asking to buy them a coffee or schedule a meeting. I have built a great network of both formal and informal advisors and investors through this process. Formal advisors really should be limited to just a few. In these cases, granting options to purchase equity between 0.5 - 1% is standard for great advisors. But reimbursing expenses is far less standard. I'll always offer to pick-up the tab as a sign of respect for their time, but other than that, advisors (myself included) are generally happy to pay out-of-pocket unless for travel. Just like any relationship, be sure that you want to make a long-term commitment in equity before formalizing the relationship. Often, good advisors where there is a mutual chemistry will be happy to do many meetings without anything committed. Lastly, I would caution you to be wary of people who approach you to act as an advisor and/or people who are actively operational and also on many advisory boards. I limit myself to a handful of formal advisory relationships at a time and it's usually owing to a longstanding friendship that I am an advisor. You want your advisors that you're paying equity to to really be engaged. Happy to talk any of this with you in a call.TW
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With our product being developed, we are looking for a good team of advisors - we need input, challenges and connections, how can I find them?
Great advisors are driven by 3 primary variables: the industry/sector of your product, your existing network, and where you are physically located. Industry - Your industry may or may not be network driven, in the sense that industry members regularly come together organically (venture capital) or stay relatively separate (accountants). If they regularly come together, industry events are great ways to building your network and eventually finding advisors. If they do not, this is where the value of your network comes into play. Network - Your network is the first place to start, going first through 1st degree connections and then to 2nd degree connections. 2nd degree connections can ultimately be more helpful as the individual has less of a personal relationship with you and may be more amenable to a business relationship that is more objective than your close friends could ever provide. Physical Location - While this may be difficult to permanently change, your location matters, and your proximity to the circles you care about matters. If you are not already in the center of where you want to be, it may be worth a trip to where the highest number of potential targets are if you can stack enough meetings together. Happy to further expand on a call if you'd like.MS
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What is your best piece of advice for a first-time startup CEO?
Surround yourself with people who have done it before. Not consultants, not coaches, people who have walked the path you are embarking on. The good news is that the startup community is the most helpful business community of any industry, by miles. I'd be happy to do a call to help you figure out how and where to identify these supporters and champions. Good luck!TW
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What does a good advisor bring to the table for a startup?
A good advisor can help a startup in various ways. Here I describe what I do: I work quite a bit with pre-angel/pre-seed/pre-accelerator US-based tech startups (or sometimes even executives/scientists/technologists in corporate jobs toying with a startup idea that they'd consider leaving their jobs for), and have done this now for well over a decade while founding/growing my own companies. Most of these founders come to me from hearing about me from another founder, so I am assuming that founders are finding some value in their interactions with me. At this early-stage in the game, one of the key things I try to do is to separate founders' assumptions about various aspects of the business from facts that they have validated. Another thing founders find useful is examples/ideas of how other startups solved a similar business problem in a creative manner (my voracious reading helps a lot here.) Finally, I also try to take the devil's advocate position on key assertions that the founders make (e.g. why are they & their product uniquely suited to tackle this problem in face of competition) in order to point out counterarguments with the eventual goal of helping them strengthen their case. My engagements with founders tend to take the form of intense 30-75 minute brainstorming sessions (1-3 sessions), which typically provide them with enough food for thought to start executing on various fronts. A small percentage of these startups continue to make great progress over a period of 3-9 months and keep me in the loop via brief email updates. Those ones, I help by providing them critical feedback on their pitch decks (multiple iterations until I think that it is crisp and powerful) and then bring on the radars of my early-stage investor contacts (US-based).MB
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What is the standard equity stake for an advisor of a pre-funded and pre-revenue mobile app startup?
Standard here is 1% with a 12 month vest, assuming the kind of involvement you're describing. message me your email on Clarity and I'll send you the standard docs which also spell out involvement. I've answered this exact question before so I would suggest to all new Clarity members that you use the search to see if the answer to your question already exists. I would caution you that an advisor shouldn't be responsible for things that fall into the "execution" bucket.TW
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