Do You Need a Technical Advisor?
If you are not a developer and don’t have the background required to build the product or manage the process, then you should have a technical advisor on your team.
What’s A Technical Advisor Do?
There’s a few basic things that you want your advisor to help you with:
- Assist with the hiring process, particularly the more technical parts of the interview
- Evaluate work product from your development team
- Help you think through decisions on platform, language, etc.
- Help you answer the question “Am I getting what I’m paying for?”
A good technical advisor will also do the following:
- Be a sparring partner on product decisions, and how much of the app to build now vs. later
- Bring subject matter experts in when needed where they may not be an expert
- Help you set up the right processes at the start to make your team successful and productive
How Should You Compensate a Technical Advisor?
There are a few options for how to handle this relationship.
- No compensation – Very informal / no compensation except for free beer or the occasional lunch
- Hourly – Slightly more formal, but you only pay for what you use. No upside is offered
- Monthly – A small retainer for a few hours a month. Again, no upside offered
- Cash / upside combo – I don’t recommend this, particularly early in the relationship. It’s too complicated.
- Formal advisor role – They are on your formal board of advisors and agree to the same terms as all of your other advisors. Typically this is a small option grant in return for services rendered.
How Do You Structure the Agreement?
Unless they’re a formal advisor, the agreement can be very straight forward. A simple one-page agreement that details exactly what you’re asking them to do, the amount of time they agree to spend per month / week, and the compensation being offered. Here’s a link to a really simple agreement template you can use as a starting point.
As with all other agreements, ensure that there is an assignment of intellectual property and confidentiality included in the agreement. After all, they’re going to be seeing a lot of your company’s product and internals. And, as always, I’m not an attorney and what I use may not be right for you. Have your attorney review all agreements.
How Do You Find a Technical Advisor?
The best way to find an advisor is through referrals from friends / other advisors. I don’t recommend that you try to do this yourself. Ask your advisors / investors who they know that might be interested, and ask for a warm introduction. Make sure they are a fit for you personally (you get along) and professionally (they have a number of years of experience in leading companies where you’re trying to go).
If you find the right advisor, it should be no more than a few hours a month for them to keep you on track. You can always increase the engagement as needed if there’s more pressing / urgent needs.