You need an advisor

I’ve got some bad news: If you and your co-founder have the same background and skill set, you’re at a severe disadvantage… But this doesn’t mean you’re doomed to fail.

The key to building a great founding team is all about a well-balanced bench. The combined knowledge, skillset, and bandwidth of multiple people is a superpower in the early stages of a company’s growth.

So, when a founding team exhibits a major skill gap, they’re often forced to buy that talent to make up for it.

The problem is that it forces founders to over-allocate their resources to make up for a homogenous founding team. This depletes the runway and pulls capital away from other areas such as product development, marketing, sales, engineering, etc.

So, if you can’t afford to hire a specialist to work for you, what do you do?

Find an Advisor.

The right Advisor can have a substantial impact on your business. While advisors cannot be dedicated builders or operators, they’re usually an effective way to shore up any expertise gap that your company may be suffering from.

That said, it’s important to remember that bringing on an advisor is a strategic decision.

An advisor is only worth your equity if they can bring one of two things to the table:

1. Expertise in the field
2. A massive network

🪖  Expertise in the field will help you avoid many of the critical mistakes made by young companies in your industry.

👥  A large network will get you in front of the right people far sooner than what would have been otherwise possible.

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And by the way…

If you’re in this position right now, I definitely recommend you check out Boardstream AI. It was built by entrepreneurs and investors Evan Kraut, Guy Poreh, and Avi Savar, as a service to source, screen, onboard, and manage advisors on behalf of high-growth startups!