Would mini-SAFEs be the answer? How would you compensate such advisors for their time and input?
At the risk of sound glib... anything that all parties involved find acceptable (and within the limits of the law, of course) is good. There's not really a "stock" answer to this. Probably the best thing to do is talk to these people, explain the situation, and just ask "is there something I can offer you besides cash up front, for you help?"
Some possibilities:
a. equity. Even if you're not a C-corp, you can sign a contract stipulating that they get equity worth X dollar, conditional on some event (raising a round of funding, conversion to a C corp, Y dollars in sales, etc.
b. deferred payment. Eg, promise you'll pay them, in cash, at some point in the future. Basically they'd be loaning you the amount that they would charge for the service in question.
c. access to your product. If these people are themselves potential customers for the thing you're building, offer them usage of your product for free (or super cheap) in exchange for their help.
d. washing their car. Offer to come wash their cars once a week for the next year. Or whatever. The point here is just to emphasize that it can be anything really.
d. can generalize (as you do say) into offering my expertise at something they're interested in (like, getting a Linux laptop); an expertise exchange as it were.
At the risk of sound glib... anything that all parties involved find acceptable (and within the limits of the law, of course) is good. There's not really a "stock" answer to this. Probably the best thing to do is talk to these people, explain the situation, and just ask "is there something I can offer you besides cash up front, for you help?"
Some possibilities:
a. equity. Even if you're not a C-corp, you can sign a contract stipulating that they get equity worth X dollar, conditional on some event (raising a round of funding, conversion to a C corp, Y dollars in sales, etc.
b. deferred payment. Eg, promise you'll pay them, in cash, at some point in the future. Basically they'd be loaning you the amount that they would charge for the service in question.
c. access to your product. If these people are themselves potential customers for the thing you're building, offer them usage of your product for free (or super cheap) in exchange for their help.
d. washing their car. Offer to come wash their cars once a week for the next year. Or whatever. The point here is just to emphasize that it can be anything really.