Hey Steven Andre's basically nailed it.
A few comments I would add: - I'm against giving equity to advisory board members. The people you want are already rich and successful - what they want is public recognition (as Andre pointed out) but often, they also want to live vicariously through you. By joining your advisory board, they get to impart wisdom and get all the satisfaction of watching a startup grow, without all the hardwork and sacrifice that the founders have to go through. It's not a bad idea to give them first bite at the apple when you start raising capital though. - You don't just ring random people up and ask them to join your advisory board. That's not how it works. Instead, put together a list of people who have relevant experience, or know something that is crucial to your business that you are not an expert in. Buy them a beer. Come with a list of questions, and bounce ideas off them. Some of these people you will really click with. Others you will get useful feedback, but not feel the need to keep going back to them all the time. That's fine. The point is, that it takes a while to get to know someone well enough to ask them to join your advisory board. So get started ASAP! - I understand that your product is quite technical, but I'm still not a huge fan of teams that are too tech-heavy. I can't code though, so I'm biased, but a common pitfall I see technical founders make through Cofounder Speed Date is that they just keep building and building and building without ever actually putting anything in front of customers. I'm glad that you've run focus groups etc, but to be honest the best way is just to put it out there and see how many people buy it. Someone saying they will buy it and someone shoving money in your face are two completely different scenarios. - Have you considered finding a cofounder who is a UI/UX gun? Or an online marketing whiz? O someone who has experience selling website benchmarking services face to face? They will already have a list of potential customers and a deep understanding of the market. What you want in a cofounder is someone to balance you and complement your skills - not just more of the same. - I realise it's very early stage, but your sales page needs a lot of work. Split testing sales copy is not the answer - you've got bigger problems than that. For a start, there's no clear call to action above the fold, and there's way too much text. Your value proposition needs to be clearer. If you just want to capture email address prior to launch, why not just use LaunchRock? Ryan On Friday, November 2, 2012 12:32:15 PM UTC+11, Steven Noble wrote: > > Hi all, > > I'm thinking about recruiting an advisory board, partly as a foil against > the isolation that comes from being a sole founder. > > (See my 'seeking cofounder' post: > https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/silicon-beach-australia/OdpjJeXbPbk > ) > > I'm assuming most of the advice about how to do this is obvious -- e.g. be > clear about what you want from the board, be clear about what you offer the > board in return, take the board's advice but still make the final > decisions, etc etc. > > But I'm wondering if anyone in this group has personal experiences in this > area they might want to share? > > I'm thinking a board would consist of: > > # Someone with direct knowledge of my target market > # Someone with direct knowledge of the service I want to provide that > market > # Someone with direct knowledge of the process of developing > a successful web application > # Someone with direct knowledge of the process of creating > a successful startup > # Someone with direct knowledge of business and legal fundamentals > > I'm thinking quarterly catch-ups with the entire board and then regular > Skype one-on-ones with any board member depending on the current issues the > startup faces. > > What are your experiences with this? > > Steven. > Founder & CEO, Testivate (http://testivate.com) > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more Forum rules 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
