The Personal Advisory Board

Jeremiah Owyang tweeted this earlier today, and it got me thinking......the premise here is that the individual gets advice and the adviser gets something in return - what Jeremiah calls the "equity". This is analogous to the corporate advisory board where advisers receive equity or options in a company in exchange for their advice. So, what is this value that the personal adviser receives?

First, I think we need to look at the value that the individual setting up a personal advisory board gets.

What I've found to be the most powerful force in the personal advisory board structure is accountability. It's an interesting phenomenon, that the individual who creates a personal advisory board gains more from just having someone (or a team of people) to "report to" than from the advice they might receive. It's like that old adage about writing down your goals. If you don't write them down, you're less likely to achieve them. The same is true here.

By just having a "personal advisory board", you will achieve what you set out to accomplish more times than not.

That's because you will be more realistic about what you can achieve when you have to say it out loud to those that you respect. Additionally, you're more likely to succeed at your goals when you know that failure means having to justify to others why you failed. Self-justification is easy. Facing up to others is hard.

Image by lunaweb via Flickr

And so the "equity" for the adviser is really just the satisfaction of seeing a friend or a respected colleague succeed. It doesn't require a lot of time and resources to be a "personal (accountability) adviser"; you just have to "be there" for them - a listening ear. And to me this means that the kind of personal adviser that one should seek out should be someone they have a good relationship with - because these are the people that want to help. And they're the ones that gain value (aka equity appreciation) in helping others.

On a related note, I find that many of the "social tools" that we use online are an extension of this accountability factor. Your "social graph" is in many ways your personal advisory board.

Imagine how accountable you would feel if you tweeted your goals. That's the power of "social media". Give it a try. Tweet your #goals. Your advisory board is listening.

One of my Favorite Non-Profits: PCRM

Image by breezeDebris via Flickr

I'm really excited about Zemanta's new campaign to raise awareness and funds for the non-profits that bloggers care about the most. Corporate sponsors have provided the cash, and Zemanta is giving the money away to the non-profits that are blogged about the most over the next few weeks.

Details are here: Blogging For A Cause, by Zemanta

And so, I thought I'd put in a plug for one of my favorite non-profits, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. They publish the handy Vegetarian Starter Kit pictured at the right. Putting 2 + 2 together, you're probably not surprised to hear that they're medical doctors that advocate a vegetarian diet. I think the science is very compelling. Here's a brief description of them:

Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is a nonprofit organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research.

Please do your part by blogging about your favorite non-profits. It only takes a minute, but the great feelings last a good long time.

This blog post is part of Zemanta's "Blogging For a Cause" campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Blogging For A Cause (zemanta.com)

About Blue Venture Community

[This was a test post I did while doing a live demo of Zemanta for the Blue Venture community Meetup on March 10, 2009]

Blue Venture Community (BVC) is a private community for Columbia students, alumni and employees interested in all aspects entrepreneurship. The group welcomes members from any school, sector or industry function (e.g., entrepreneur, VC, lawyer, etc.).

Image via Wikipedia

BVC seeks to foster entrepreneurship by facilitating communication, providing access to resources and creating community. Through BVC members meet every few weeks to participate in an array of events. Event formats include idea incubation, demo events, educational panel and speaker events and happy hours.

Individuals must possess a Columbia email address to join.

This group is a privately operated group not affiliated with Columbia University.

Related articles by Zemanta

• TheFunded.com: The VC Apocalypse: Careful with Your Time (tsurch.com)
• Tough Times Call for New Entrepreneurship Efforts (gigaom.com)
• What do you really want in a VC? (marsdd.com)

Stuff You Don't Get Paid For

This post is about the work entrepreneurs do for free.

It's easy to hoard your knowledge, shield your contacts, or be resistant to helping others unless you're compensated in some way. It's human nature to want to know "what's in it for me?"

But the truth is, we live in a world of abundance, not scarcity. If everybody came to the table asking, "wha-jya get me?" then no one would get anything. If, however, everyone came to give, all would receive.

Sharing and helping others will benefit you by demonstrating your worth and goodwill. The beneficiaries of your advice and support will want to return the favor. At worst, you'll be known as a facilitator (nothing wrong with that). At best, you'll have a large network of people that are ready and willing to help you.

I look at this unpaid work as the price of entry.

Another instance where we end up working for free is when we take risks, such as starting a company - and end up having to shut it down for any number of reasons. It's easy to be angry, disappointed, and embarrassed by this failure. But to move forward, we need to learn from our mistakes and the forces beyond our control.

I look at this unpaid work as the cost of an education.

Zemanta - A cool blogging tool

I'm writing this piece to test out a new blogging plug-in - well, at least it's new to me. I think Image via CrunchBasethey've been around for a year or so. It's called Zemanta and it recommends articles, pictures, tags, etc that are related to my blog post as I'm writing it. It just proposed that I link the word "Zemanta" to their website. I didn't have to leave the browser window that I'm in, and I didn't have to type out the URL.

And I just dragged in that image of their logo. Pretty cool stuff.

I had heard about these guys - vaguely - from reading various tech blogs. But it caught my attention when Albert Wenger at Union Square Ventures (USV) told me about them. USV invested in them a while back.

They integrate nicely with Blogger and just about every other blogging platform out there.
I recommend you check it out.

Early-Stage Education

It's one of those attributes of being an entrepreneur - the desire to start a company. Turning your ideas into something tangible and productive (among other things) drives this desire. As someone recently pointed out, having an idea and executing that idea are two very different things. I can't seem to find the recent blog post on this topic, but the post also pointed out that you may not be the best judge of whether your idea is good or bad. Great points.

I'd like to point out that many early entrepreneurs may not be adept at starting companies. (Ya think?) There are a lot of resources available (books, blogs, and communities). However, I think the best resource is to actually work for a start-up. If entrepreneurship is your chosen path, you would do well to join an existing early-stage company and observe what works, and what doesn't.

I'm not saying there aren't plenty of examples of young first-time founders out there. Certainly the media likes to feature the successful young entrepreneur, but they are the exception, not the rule.

So, if you're strong enough to admit that your idea isn't marketable or that you're not ready to go out on your own, be a student of entrepreneurship at an existing venture.

Board of Advisors - Accountability is the Driving Force

In my work consulting for early-stage companies - or just speaking with entrepreneurs at networking events, the question of professional advisors often comes up. Every early stage company should have a formal Board of Advisors (BoA). Ironically, what I've found is that most entrepreneurs look at these advisors as merely a networking opportunity or as outside validation. These are two very important components of a BoA, but accountability is just as critical.

Established, credible, intelligent, and well connected professionals within an entrepreneur's target market sector can indeed accelerate the development of a business. And getting suitable professionals on board is a must if an entrepreneur's idea is going to sprout legs. If an entrepreneur can't attract an impressive set of advisors, then one should ask whether there's really a business there at all.

A big trap that entrepreneurs fall into is that they "acquire" a set of advisors, post their bios to the company's website, and then they move on to another task - having achieved a "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" through association with their advisors. It seems silly to have to say this, but advisors WANT to advise. That's why they agreed to be on the BoA. Too often, however, they're ignored or under-utilized. A truly wasted resource.

A bigger issue is that many entrepreneurs - some out on their own for the first time in their careers - have no one to hold them accountable for their actions. They may not even have a Board of Directors yet. Entrepreneurs love independence - being their own boss, on their own time, running the show, and doing it their way. This is a double-edged sword. Entrepreneurs need to have someone there to tell them that they're not progressing quick enough or that they're making mistakes.

So, my advise to entrepreneurs is to document your goals with a timeline of projected milestones - and then send these goals to an advisor. This advisor might be a trusted friend or an established professional on your BoA. The point is that by having them come back to you in 30, 60, 90 days and asking you how you've done against those goals, will make you more compelled and responsible with regard to achieving your dream.

In summary, a Board of Advisors accomplishes 4 things: 1) credibility by association, 2) a source of advice, 3) a network of connections, and 4) accountability for your actions. Leverage them all.