Nine out of ten advisory boards I encounter are resume decoration — impressive names that never show up. A great advisory board is a strategic weapon. A bad one is a distraction.
Rule one: advisors must have a specific job. "General advice" is worthless. Each advisor should own a domain: one for enterprise sales introductions, one for technical architecture review, one for regulatory navigation. If you cannot define what each advisor specifically does, you do not need them.
Rule two: structure the engagement. Monthly one-hour calls with a written agenda and action items. Quarterly reviews of progress against goals. Advisors who do not show up to two consecutive sessions should be replaced.
Rule three: compensate fairly but not excessively. 0.25-0.5% equity over a two-year vesting period is standard for an advisor who contributes 2-4 hours monthly. Anyone asking for more without committing proportional time is extracting value, not adding it.
The best advisor relationships I have seen are ones where the startup treats advisors as extensions of the team, not as names on a website. Give them real problems to solve, and the right advisors will deliver outsized value.