Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.
Advisor gap map for the next eighteen months
Most founders recruit advisors they happen to admire, then discover nobody on the bench has done the thing the company is about to attempt. Listing the four or five bets of the next eighteen months, such as a first enterprise contract, a regulated launch or a hire you have never made, shows exactly which experience is missing and which is already covered by the team or investors.
First tasks
- Write the company's five biggest bets for the next eighteen months
- Mark beside each bet who on the team or cap table has done it before
- Rank the uncovered gaps by the cost of getting them wrong
- Draft a one-line ideal advisor profile for the top three gaps
Advisor, mentor, consultant or investor for each gap
Founders often offer equity for help that a mentor would give for free, a consultant would deliver faster for cash, or an angel would give in exchange for investing. Deciding the right relationship for each gap before any outreach keeps advisor equity for the people who will carry ongoing responsibility, and stops the bench growing by accident.
First tasks
- Label each gap as advisor, mentor, consultant, investor or board seat
- Write one sentence per gap on why that relationship fits
- Move any one-off question out of the advisor column
- Share the labelled list with your co-founder for challenge
Role cards for the first two advisor seats
An advisor asked to help with go-to-market will interpret that as anything from one coffee a year to rewriting your sales deck, and the mismatch surfaces months later as quiet resentment on both sides. A one-page role card per seat, stating the outcomes, the time expected and what the advisor will not be asked to do, becomes the basis of the conversation, the agreement and every later review.
First tasks
- Write the two or three outcomes for the first advisor seat
- Set the expected hours per month and the form of each contribution
- List what the advisor will not be asked to do
- Repeat the card for the second seat and add a review date to each
