Comments on: Everything you ever wanted to know about advisors, Part 2

By: Rohit Nallapeta

Rohit Nallapeta — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 23:24:01 +0000

Nivi,

This article is simply great and I am glad I chanced upon it. This gives me a great framework to decide in my current situation ( where I am thinking of signing up an advisor). Awesome post, keep such things coming!

By: Nivi

Nivi — Sat, 01 May 2010 18:05:07 +0000

Almost all new stock issues dilute everyone.

By: Sog

Sog — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 08:47:48 +0000

Great post guys.

Quick question:

I’m a very early employee at a pre-revenue, pre-investment start-up, being paid in equity. We are currently assembling an advisory board of three, who will receive approximately 1% each. Should this 3% come directly from the founders’ pot of equity, or should the founders and the early stage employees all be diluted to give the 3%?

Thanks for your help!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:04:16 +0000

It’s obnoxious when you’re JUST making an introduction of someone to an investor to ask for a cut of that.

If someone actually goes out and raises the money for you, that’s a different story, though.

By: SKMurphy » Common Questions about Advisory Boards

SKMurphy » Common Questions about Advisory Boards — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:09:30 +0000

[...] Everything you wanted to know about advisors, Part 2 [...]

By: Advisory Board Compensation for your Startup : Texas Startup Blog

Advisory Board Compensation for your Startup : Texas Startup Blog — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:48:16 +0000

[...] advice was pretty straight forward suggesting that “1% is rich“. Nivi suggested there are two types of advisors ‘normal’ and ’super’: [...]

By: FirstTime

FirstTime — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:41:17 +0000

An advisor is offering help on fund raising, corporate, business strategy front in lieu of stake. Out of these, only fund raising is critical for us.

- What percentage stake is “reasonable”? You say upto 2.5%, but in this case, if s/he helps us raise money does that stake go up?
- Does this stake need to have vesting schedule? Especially if he/she is helping only for fund raising.

By: Suzie Dingwall Williams

Suzie Dingwall Williams — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:13:01 +0000

Men: it’s an advisory RELATIONSHIP. And in relationships, words are not enough. You need an agreement from day one that protects the company by: (a) indicating that anything that advisor provides to you (written amterials, technical assistance) belongs to the company, and (b) representing that the provision of advisory services does not breach or interfere with any other commitmetn of the advisor. While an advisor typically does not agree to non-compete or non-solicit terms, he/she should agree to notify you if and when he/she begins to work with a potential competitor.

After dealing with these items, you can throw the option grant into the agreement.

By: Nivi

Nivi — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:23:50 +0000

Why wait until after the Series A?

By: David

David — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:52:18 +0000

When I find an advisor and decide to work with him/her, what legal paperwork should we sign to secure that 1-2% stock after series A for the advisor? I don’t think we can just SAY it, right?