Insights
Boards and Advisors: Insights for Early-Stage Founders
Mar 6
Reading Time: 7 minutes
The strongest board relationships are built long before Series A. Top founders build advisory relationships early by engaging with experienced operators, investors, and domain experts at the pre-seed and seed stages. These early partnerships help sharpen strategy, attract the right investors, and create good habits for managing boards down the line.
In this article, we break down key strategies and share insights from Gigascale portfolio founders and team members, including:
- HomeBoost’s Selina Tobaccowala on maximizing advisor relationships
- Arch’s Phil Krinner on building trust through complete transparency
- Gigascale’s Mike Schroepfer on treating your board as a resource
What Does a Board Do and Why Have One?
A startup board represents shareholder interests and provides governance. It approves budgets, fundraising decisions, and executive compensation. However, a board’s true value comes from having seasoned operators and investors as thought partners.
A strong board can become a competitive edge. Members can accelerate your company’s growth, open doors to major customers, expedite strategic partnerships, secure key hires, and connect you to future investors. Their pattern recognition from past experience also helps you navigate complex decisions and avoid costly mistakes.
Too Early for a Board? Work With Advisors and Angels
Working with advisors and angel investors at the pre-seed and seed stages gives you access to expert guidance before a formal board is in place. The right advisors help founders level up in areas where they lack expertise. Building these relationships is also good practice for managing a board effectively in the future.
Who makes a great early-stage advisor?
- Angel investors who combine capital with hands-on support
- Industry veterans you’ve met through accelerators or startup programs
- Former executives from your target customers or partners
- Technical experts who’ve scaled similar technologies
- Founders who’ve successfully built companies in adjacent spaces
Focus on Filling Gaps
Look for technical depth, industry knowledge, or operational experience. Consider advisors who can also act as mentors to the team or support interviews when you start hiring beyond your core competencies. Angel investors make for strong advisors when they offer deep expertise with direct financial alignment.
Set Clear Expectations
Establish focus areas, talk about time commitment, and be clear about whether an advisory role is tied to investment or compensation. Compensating official advisors is standard, with equity grants being the most common form, typically between 0.5-2% in restricted shares. Setting these expectations early helps prevent misalignment later on.
Set Milestones and Communicate Clearly
Your advisors and angels want to help, and it’s your job to make it easy for them to add value.
Be Specific with Asks
Instead of general updates, make clear, concrete asks.
❌ “We’re hiring. Any advice?”
✅ “We need to make our first manufacturing hire. Could you help us think through the key qualifications?”
Actionable requests make it easier for advisors to respond. It also shows that you’ve done initial thinking and builds confidence in your ability to execute.
Focus Your Updates
Monthly updates should highlight key metrics and areas where you need input. When sharing your customer pipeline, hiring needs, or strategic roadblocks, keep the headline clear and include just enough context for meaningful feedback.
Use Them as a Resource
“The best boards that I’ve seen, the most high-functioning boards, are the ones in which the founding team treats the board as a resource,” says Mike Schroepfer, Founder of Gigascale Capital and former CTO of Meta. The same applies to advisors. Treat them like partners, not obligations, and you’ll get much more value from the relationship.
Evaluating Early Investors for Future Board Roles
You may want your earliest investors and advisors to become board members as the company grows. When evaluating whether they’ll be a good fit down the road, ask yourself:
- Do they have a track record of being helpful before they have to be?
- Do they ask thoughtful questions that make you think differently about your business?
- Do they have complementary networks they’re willing to leverage on your behalf?
- Do they have the experience to help us see around corners?
“A good board won’t ask you to do things that break the laws of physics, but they will push you,” says Mike. Strong fits also understand the fine line between being helpful and controlling. They know when to apply pressure on important issues and when to step back to let you run the company. This balance is critical for maintaining a healthy dynamic as your company grows.
Founder Advice: Leveraging Advisors and Building Trust
Strong founder-advisor relationships are two-way partnerships. Here’s what two Gigascale founders recommend:
1. Focus on Strategic Alignment, Not Just Capital
For HomeBoost CEO and three-time founder Selina Tobaccowala, every advisor or board member should offer unique value. “What is this investor bringing to the table that can help you?” she says. Selina suggests value-adds can include their portfolio companies, industry expertise, or connections to entrepreneurs who can help in your space.
2. Build Trust Through Transparency
Candid conversations strengthen your relationships. Phil Krinner, CEO and Cofounder of Arch, learned this when he inadvertently showed an early investor an internal-only slide on 10 reasons the heat pump market will fail.
Ultimately, that visibility made the investor want to back him. “My takeaway, in retrospect, was that if a founder is the toughest critic of their own idea, that gives investors a lot of comfort and confidence,” says Phil.
3. Invite Challenging Perspectives
For Phil, the most valuable relationships are the people who push him. “I love working with investors who weren’t waiting for the founder to bring them all the information. They knew the market and really could challenge me,” he says.
He also values bringing together different perspectives. Arch’s advisors include climate-focused and channel-focused investors, giving his team industry expertise and commercial rigor.
4. You Set the Agenda
During the dot-com boom, Selina’s first startup raised way more than needed. The mentality at the time was to spend aggressively, which led to unfocused marketing investments. “The big lesson I learned is that, yes, the investor is giving you the capital, but how you use that capital is your responsibility as the founder and entrepreneur,” says Selina.
Build Relationships That Scale
Your needs from advisors and board members will evolve as your company grows. Some relationships may transition into board roles. Others may remain mentors and connectors. The key to building relationships that scale is having clear expectations from the start:
- Understand the specific needs of your company and team
- Find people who fill gaps and push your thinking
- Set clear expectations and make it easy for them to help
Ultimately, building and maintaining strong relationships, whether with advisors, investors, or board members, is a key accelerator of your startup’s success.
Visit the Gigascale blog for more insights on building and scaling startups.
