Instigator Blog

When a startup receives financing it will need to setup a Board of Directors. The Board probably existed beforehand, but was made up only of the founders. Once funding takes place, the angels or VCs will want a seat at the table. There’s no surprise there.

But there’s another kind of board that’s equally important. In some ways it’s more important (although it doesn’t have any control over the business), and that’s the Board of Advisors.

What many first-time CEOs might not realize is that they may need to setup an Advisory Board as a condition of receiving financing. Venture capital firms like to see CEOs with strong support (beyond the Board of Directors) and that’s what the Advisory Board is there to do. It’s unlikely you’ll have an Advisory Board before you get funded, but it will very likely come up after.

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I recently attended an event in Montreal where Albert Lai spoke. Albert’s a serial entrepreneur with a number of successes (and failures) under his belt. Great speaker. One of the things he said really stuck in my mind (which I’m paraphrasing), “It’s all about the market. Don’t do things based on your own personal whims of what you think is right or wrong, good or bad. Listen to the market. It’s always right. And you’re typically wrong.”

It’s important advice - especially for startups - because we often live in a bubble building our web apps till our heart’s content, thinking we’ve just invented the next Google. It’s not that entrepreneurs don’t seek out advice, but whether we listen to it is another story. One of the biggest hindrances to taking advice (even our own) is time. We’re rushing to launch, building as quickly as we can to get a head start on the competition, and we don’t necessarily have time to sit back, get good feedback, assess it and adjust accordingly.

Nowhere is this clearer than in people’s websites. Most people will agree on the importance of design. There are exceptions (think: Plenty of Fish) which in my mind just prove the rule. Where most websites fail is in their organization and navigation. And in their missions. What’s the goal of your website? If you don’t have a clear answer to that you need one as soon as possible.

Everyone will “test” design out — just ask a bunch of people, “Does this new design look good?” But information architecture, navigation and the effectiveness of a website in meeting your goals … people just don’t test those things enough.

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I’m late in announcing this because I’ve been swamped, but Heri at Montreal Tech Watch has the event listed on his blog. The show must go on!

On that note, please check out the Montreal Tech Entrepreneur Breakfast on Tuesday, February 12th @ 9am.

• Location: Bistro, Etc. - 1291 Avenue du Mont-Royal, E.
• Facebook Event Listing: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=7633234853
• Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5502019497

Anyone involved in technology startups - as entrepreneurs, VCs, angel investors, technologists, future entrepreneurs, etc. - is welcome.

We run the breakfast on the 2nd Tuesday of every month.

Note: On the same day, Heri and the BlitzWeekend crew are having a get-together at Blizzard Bar on St. Laurent (5-8pm) for drinks and to kick off BlitzWeekend festivities. Even if you’re not participating in BlitzWeekend as developers, come hang out.

Launching a startup isn’t easy. But what you quickly realize is that the real work comes immediately thereafter.

Our launch of Standout Jobs at DEMO was a big success. We generated plenty of buzz, brought in some great customers and the product held up to the initial onslaught of traffic, users and feedback. And for about 1 day I felt like everything was under control. Oops…

The honeymoon ended pretty darn quickly.

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