Where can I find gender and diversity information about a company's board members?

The point of advising is to have fun but it's also to align with the upside of the business. So the things to consider / ensure are. - Are they venture backeable ... if they don't plan (or you don't see them being able to) raise venture capital, then being a formal advisor (with equity) won't matter. - Do you trust them. As an advisor, you're extended your brand and credibility to the team so you need to ensure they'll be good stewards of it. - Are they coacheable ... when you talk, do they listen and are open to the advice. Do they take action? As for compensation & commitment, here's what's normal. - 0.1-1% equity in the early stages .. usually over 2 years vesting monthly. - You make yourself available for 1-2 hour per month, and help throughout making introductions, reviewing documents,etc Personally, I think it's super important to ensure you tell what you won't be doing. Ex: I won't be accountable for a work product, as in - I'm not going to run your marketing / development team :) You never know what people expect, so it's best to discuss it upfront. Also, if you plan on doing formal advisory (for compensation) - it's ideal to get atleast 10+ companies to help out in that format to ever see a financial return ... your essentially acting much like a VC. So just understand, there's a very high likely hood that it won't go anywhere financially .. but it can be super rewarding. The key is that you enjoy spending time with the team and learning about their journey.

I think the premise of your question is wrong. The best way to recruit experts that are most likely to be helpful is not by building a Board of Directors. Being on a board has a tremendous set of responsibilities that most people aren't prepared to take-on initially. Furthermore, most early-stage investors believe that a working board is "overkill" for companies that haven't raised at least $1m in seed funding, so you might be exposing yourself to negative signal by actively building a board. Given that you live in SF, you probably have already experienced the tremendous spirit of helpfulness that exists throughout SF and the Valley. If you are able to get through to people you consider a potentially good mentor, you'll most always be able to get at least a 30 minute coffee. If there's strong personal chemistry between yourself and a mentor, they might be willing to formalize an advisory relationship where in exchange for equity, they might agree to do more work for you including making introductions. But I'd be very cautious about formalizing a board relationship with anyone at this early stage. I find LinkedIn and AngelList to be very powerful when combined. AngelList can be used to find people who are actively investing and advising, and LinkedIn is a better means of cold contact if you make your request contextually relevant. Happy to talk to you in a quick call to share more of what I've learned in recruiting great advisers and investors.

It’s pretty simple, your offering has a lot of issues for what and how you’re targeting - you product, money, it’s a “commodity” so why you, your money, your firm? - The big boys (public) have tremendous relationships with big, known, credible capital sources. - They’re sophisticated so they know your capital has to be roughly at the same costs as the many trusted avenues they currently have for capital - I mentioned “trusted” a few times as it’s KEY. Does the firm you represent have a well known brand or known trust elements? - They are public companies and risk adverse so the likelihood of them entertaining a cold call or cold email from an unknown capital source is very low. Why? All things being similar they’re much better off taking and announcing capital from a trusted branded bank or firm. - Trust: with all the capital scams out there triggered, especially online, they are likely also reacting to scam risk first. Unless you have a trusted product (brand, people, story etc) and a way to get in front of prospects in a trusted way (conferences v email) i think the odds are really tough the bigger the company. Perhaps your product offering fit smaller or growth stage companies who have less options and aren’t public facing where Capital brand is so important. B

Approach it as if you were applying for a position in an organization. You will want to find the right industry, the right management team, the right opening on the board [either governance or advisory], the right person to help you. Next create a statement that says why you on this board. Then sell it.

You need to create a profile on Linkedin and be active, post and comment on others profiles. It's a process but people help people they know. Executives are extremely busy people and they protect their time. Also try Facebook groups, again you'll have to join and interact- that's networking in social media. All the best.