How to Find Strategic Investors and Advisory Board Members

The best strategic investors or advisory board members are

people who know something about your specific business. Experienced business executives — either people who have retired from key positions at a competing company or who work in a complementary field — can be very helpful, but they are not a guarantee that your company will succeed. There are no guarantees when it comes to starting a business.

Advisory boards can be structured two ways:

1. As a list of experts and consultants willing to be associated with your business and referenced as advisors. These advisors might give you their input one-on-one.
2. As three or four individuals who operate almost as a board of directors, meeting periodically as a group to form a sounding board for you and your management team.

Either approach makes sense, and sometimes they work in tandem.

The best way to recruit advisory board members is to talk to your professional advisors and other members of the business community. Be sure to prepare an effective executive summary that presents the business in a positive light. Circulate this document in advance of your meetings to prepare everyone with an understanding of what you want to discuss. When you get together, share your vision and ask for suggestions for good advisory board members.

Once you assemble a list of potential advisory board members, contact them one at a time. Make time to meet and get to know each one of them. Again, email or send a copy of your executive summary in advance of the meeting. Then, follow up promptly after the meeting with a letter summarizing a few major points you learned from them.

Lastly, don't rush, and don't feel the need to extend an invitation to everyone you meet. Rather, consider your meetings with potential advisory board members as exploratory research. The process can take six to nine months, or even more.