Advised to Death: Pros & Cons of Advisory Boards for Startups
For early-stage founders, advisory boards can be a source of credibility, connections, and real support - or just a drain on time, energy, and equity.
Are they actually useful, or just another slide in the deck?
We will cover:
Why advisory boards matter early on - and when they do not
How to keep things simple and useful
Common mistakes (and how to avoid them)
What good advisory relationships look like
Equity, fees, and expectations
What investors really think about your advisory board
Who it’s for:
Early-stage founders thinking about building or improving an advisory board.
Speakers:
David Burrows
David is a seasoned Technology industry executive, investor, board advisor, and NED/Trustee with over 40 years of experience across the IT/Tech sector. His extensive career spans various senior roles, providing him with deep international expertise across multiple geographies, markets, and business sectors.
David is widely recognised for his leadership in driving business impact through innovative ICT solutions, playing a key role in developing strategies that introduced world-first products and established leading brands in the ICT industry.
Currently, David serves as a board advisor and investor at a number of high-potential tech start-ups, leveraging his extensive industry experience, network, and credentials to influence, support, and enable the success of these ventures. He also holds external board positions and chairing committees for several organisations.
Roei Samuel
Roei Samuel, founder and CEO of Connectd, is a successful serial entrepreneur, angel investor and board advisor.
Having been featured in the BBC’s Million By 30 after his first business Realsport was acquired by Gfinity in a multi-million pound deal, Roei founded Connectd in 2019 after noticing the lack of support for startups.
In short, Connectd is a three-sided ecosystem that connects startups with expert talent and investors through a powerful combination of unique technology, data insights and reporting, and unrivalled support.
Over the last 5 years, Connectd has formed partnerships with the likes of Google Cloud, Capchase, Vestd, Pearson and more.
Roei is also a leading voice on startup development having been a Virgin Startup Mentor and sits on the Independent Advisory Board for the UK Government’s Digital Growth Grant, led by Barclays. He’s also a huge advocate for neurodiversity, speaking from his own experience as ADHD being his entrepreneurial superpower.
David Gilgur (moderator)
David is a co-founder of Blue Lake VC - early-stage VC firm investing in exceptional immigrant founders in the UK. Prior to Blue Lake VC, David founded an international trade consultancy and before that worked in Global Data at Bloomberg in the City of London. His vision is to foster a more diverse and inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem where talent and innovation are celebrated regardless of their origin.