Dear SaaStr: Does Having a Board of Advisors Increase Your Chances of Getting Funding?
No.
Or maybe — only barely, a tiny bit. It does show you are hustling, if the advisors are truly great. If you get Eric Yuan or Marc Benioff to be an active advisor — well, then, you get some more attention. But that’s about it. They aren’t on the management team, they aren’t selling or building product or running a growth playbook.
Other than some minor social proof, a bunch of headshots of folks with experience in your industry does nothing.
It’s tablestakes.
You’re expected to attract some great advisors over time.
What is interesting is if you have a great, full-time management team already. Or even part of it. An amazing team. That’s always hard.
So net net, get great advisors to help you — for real. Ones that will truly do the work. But don’t do it to get investors.
A related post here:
(Note: an updated SaaStr Classic answer)
