Well, we aren't as far along as a formal "advisory board" yet... just a couple of informal advisors drawn from the pool of people I've worked with, or know from other organizations or whatever. Actually setting up a "proper" advisory board and starting to have regularly scheduled meetings and what-not is on the TODO list.
In addition to giving advice, another element of having an advisory board, that I was only recently introduced to, is this: If you get advisors who are, for example, retired execs who don't want to work full-time, but still want to be "in the game", they can be very valuable in terms of connections, making calls for you to their friends who are still in the business world, etc. I heard a story related once about a startup who wanted to pursue defense contracts, and they recruited a retired general to their board and he was invaluable in helping them navigate that world.
These observations are spot on, I just encourage you to actually use your advisers. They are there to help, sometimes a startup will recruit an 'impressive' person as an adviser and then think "Oh this is too small a problem to be bring to this person, I'm sure they are too busy." or any number of rationalizations. Don't do that. Let the adviser tell you if you're over stepping your relationship.
In addition to giving advice, another element of having an advisory board, that I was only recently introduced to, is this: If you get advisors who are, for example, retired execs who don't want to work full-time, but still want to be "in the game", they can be very valuable in terms of connections, making calls for you to their friends who are still in the business world, etc. I heard a story related once about a startup who wanted to pursue defense contracts, and they recruited a retired general to their board and he was invaluable in helping them navigate that world.