

Ask YC: How much compensation does a pre-revenue company offer an early outside director? - thorax

We have a large list of potential external directors for our board, but I've been putting off approaching them in early stages. I don't want to do that much longer.<p>What kind of compensation makes sense to offer the first outside director(s) for a small startup? The last thing I want to do is make an offer that might inadvertently be insulting or one that is too much. I just really don't have an idea of what is common practice.<p>Just to give back a bit for your great advice, so far the best resource I've found for helping entrepreneurs form their board is here:
http://www.fenwick.com/docstore/Publications/Corporate/Corporate_Governance_Guide.pdf
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skmurphy
See <http://venturehacks.com/articles/advisors-part-2> for a good discussion,
normally 1-2% of common but it's a negotiation. If you really mean early
advisors it may be more like 0.1-0.25% of common, but again it's a
negotiation. They have a good quote from Warren Buffet “make sure that, for
the people that count to you, you count to them.”

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jakewolf
A nice thank you card? You have to start somewhere.

