Investors, board members, advisors, mentors, consultants, coaches and “friends of the company”. They’re all terms in standard startup culture — but some of these people offer far more value to your company than others.
As startups boom, technology extends its reach, and every industry and segment is disrupted. In turn, the role of advisors has evolved and customer, market, finance and operational experience is more important than ever. The most valuable advisors have the right domain experience, and can see the mission, vision and goals at each stage. This three-part webinar series on how startups and those seeking to advise startups should approach selection, connection and the ongoing relationship.
Series Presenter
After seeking out everything from consultants to coaches, former CEO and founder Doug Levin has invested, advised, mentored (and served on several boards) with highly-developed companies and early stage startups alike. He intimately understands executing on the vision of a startup, identifying key hires, and promoting leadership. He was the sole founder and first CEO of Black Duck Software, and earlier in his career held senior management positions at Microsoft Corporation. Doug has helped companies in Boston, Silicon Valley, and world-wide experience “disruptive potential” through growth. His technology interests and specialties include AI/ML, cybersecurity, edge computing and Internet-of-Things (IoT), and certain open source projects (such as, Kubernetes).
While serving as an Executive-in-Residence (XIR) at the Laboratory for Innovation Sciences (LISH) at Harvard, Doug has developed a 3-part webinar series about all things advising. First, you’ll learn what you should know about choosing advisors and how to best leverage their value. Then the series tackles what it takes to advise properly, and how to understand what companies to take under advisement. Finally, Doug brings together some top tech startup CEOs and advisors in a panel format to discuss both sides of the coin.
