"The T2P programme turned my interest in fractional work into reality. It opened doors, it's given me possibilities, and it's shown me that I can do this."
Len Bellemore, Board Advisor, Onboardly: What I expected from the Connectd portal when I joined was for it to introduce me to the world of board advisors and founders with interesting startups — because I really had no idea how to penetrate that world, to be honest. I also wanted to connect with other people on a similar journey, and find ways to use the skills and experience I've built up to help people who are just starting out.
Going through the course available on the Connectd platform was really useful in terms of articulating what that whole journey would look like — some of the challenges I might face, the learning resources I could tap into. In a nutshell, it was a one-stop shop for getting introduced to the world of becoming a board advisor or fractional advisor in the startup space.
Len Bellemore: I think it was the realisation that 25 years of experience is quite a long time — and that I've got something to give back to people in a way that is perhaps more flexible, and with more possibilities, than my day job. My day job is great, but it comes with the constraints of a large organisation.
Working with founders is refreshing. They've got energy, they've got ideas, and they're looking to you for help and guidance. They want to succeed, and they want you to help them get there. The energy they bring feels genuinely rejuvenating.
Len Bellemore: I was looking for a way into this world and came across the Connectd platform. One of the things that surprised me most — something I learned from the course — was the idea of repackaging myself. You're not looking for a job. You're trying to market yourself as someone with knowledge and experience who can share and guide others. That's very different from a traditional tech leadership role, where it's about how well you can manage a team, implement strategy, and so on. Looking at myself from a different perspective and identifying the traits and characteristics that would apply in this particular context — that was the most insightful thing the platform gave me.
Len Bellemore: The Academy, as well as the network side of it, was really useful in that regard. I had a value proposition for what I could bring to an organisation — but as it turns out, that's very different from the value proposition a founder needs to see in order to be interested in you. That was something I really learned from the platform: I needed to come up with a different value proposition, and even a different CV, to appeal to a different audience.
Len Bellemore: It was an introduction that Connectd facilitated. The founder, Alex, did a really fantastic job of pitching her vision for Onboardly — where she wants it to go and what she was looking for in an engineering advisor. She was quite clear on what she knows and what she doesn't know.
In the conversations we had, I could see the good work she'd already done on her own with very little help. But it was also obvious where the gaps were, and there was a light bulb moment where I thought, "Okay, I can genuinely help this person." It was a pretty cool experience.
The energy Alex brings — and still brings, to this day — is infectious. She invites you to believe in her, and that's something that's pretty easy to get behind.
Len Bellemore: She pitched the platform to me and took me through it bit by bit — front end and back end. And that's the beauty of it: it's not solving a simple problem, but it is a relatable one. If you explain Onboardly to someone in five minutes, they understand where the challenges lie and why the platform can be helpful. It didn't take a lot to think, "Yes, this can solve real problems." That relatability was a big part of what attracted me to it, along with the flexibility in how it was built and hosted.
Len Bellemore: Every conversation we have is a little different because in the startup world, things are constantly changing — which is really cool. It keeps things fun and fresh.
Sometimes Alex will come with a list of questions she wants my opinion on. Other times it's more open: "Here's what we've accomplished over the past few weeks, here are our wins and challenges — so what's next?" As we reach different stages in Onboardly's journey, those become opportunities for me to open up new topics of conversation — scalability, security, observability, data segregation. Right now we're at the point where trial users are coming on board, and the focus has shifted to how we maintain trust for those users — making sure their data is secure and that we have enough visibility to react quickly to issues. It changes on a regular basis, which keeps it interesting.
Len Bellemore: It's quite easy to code a workable platform — but that only gets you so far. A lot of the advice I've provided has been around the foundational stuff: security, hosting strategy, data segregation, observability, and authentication. But also, how to get the most out of a limited budget.
Founders are incredibly busy people. My goal is to help leverage technology and the limited team available in the most effective way — so that the people around the founder can work as independently as possible, giving the founder the headspace to sell the product, keep the vision moving forward, and not get bogged down in day-to-day tech. We're trying to give Alex the space to think big — about customers and revenue.
Len Bellemore: Give it a try — that's the first thing. Platforms like Connectd were really useful for me. It was easy to use and it demystified a lot of the questions I had about this world. If you're thinking about getting into this space, joining a platform like Connectd is the right thing to do.
Trying to do this on your own — particularly trying to find founders and build a network of like-minded people — is difficult. It can take a long time to build your own brand, and the way you see yourself constantly evolves. It would have taken me a while to realise that on my own. The Connectd platform was very good at helping me shape that personal profile and personal brand in a way I wouldn't have found as quickly elsewhere.
Len Bellemore, Board Advisor at Onboardly
Fractional work is it the career model senior leaders have been waiting for - learn how to make the shift yourself
