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Board advisory lets experienced executives shape a growing startup’s biggest decisions and build board-level experience, in just a few hours a month. A board advisor gives the leadership team non-binding strategic advice, an outside perspective and network access, without a formal board seat.
Submit an application, then a short call with our team to review your background and goals. No board experience is required. Once approved, you move into the Academy.
Self-paced, on-demand training and practical exercises, including a module on the specific difference between advising and executing. Fully CPD-accredited, at your own pace.
Our placement team matches you to an ambitious startup based on your specific skills and sector. You don't pitch or cold outreach for it. The placement is pro bono and runs 6 to 9 months, across one of 100+ sectors.
You give non-binding strategic advice on real business challenges, not simulated case studies and not day-to-day execution. This is what builds the verifiable track record boards look for.
When your placement ends, you and the startup can agree to continue on paid terms if you both want to. Michael Horsley agreed paid terms with his startup around five months into his placement: "The Transition to Portfolio program has given me the confidence and assurance, with proven experience, that I can work with founders and secure my first fractional role."
Based in Miami, Florida, Pascal Kornfuehrer spent over 20 years in multinational corporates before joining Connectd's Transition to Portfolio program. He converted his pro bono placement into a paid role within four months, then secured two further remunerated engagements.
After 30 years helping marketing teams harness data and technology, Grant Keller joined Connectd's Transition to Portfolio program to become a board advisor for startups and scale-ups. Within 18 months, he'd converted two paid engagements through the platform, with a third in the pipeline.
Julie McFadden spent 30 years as a hands-on technologist before finding her fit with Otterkin, a fine art commissioning platform, through Connectd's Transition to Portfolio program. She joined as a board advisor and has since stepped up to become its fractional CTO.
Program breakdown
Strengthen your reume and build practical advisory skills through a guaranteed pro bono placement with high-growth startups. Learn to apply your expertise to real business challenges, offering strategic guidance as you step away from an operational focus. Develop your ability to think objectively, solve complex problems, and lay the groundwork for further roles.
Build confidence, experience and expertise during a 6 month advisory placement
Create lasting connections within the startup ecosystem, laying the foundation for further engagements
Placement opportunities across over 100 sectors including emerging and disruptive industries
Program breakdown
Tap into curated content designed to support your transition into board advisory roles - where strategic thinking, big-picture insight, and expert guidance replace hands-on operational work. Sharpen your ability to add value to ambitious companies and broaden your impact across sectors, building advisory roles into a varied and rewarding fractional career.
Learn the fundamental skills, behaviors and attitudes of a board advisor
Earn up to 30 CPD points upon completion of the course
Curated by industry-leading specialists the Academy will give you the foundations to succeed
Program breakdown
Harness one-to-one support from an experienced expert with a proven track record and their own varied fractional portfolio. Our mentors offer practical advice for building your brand, growing your network, maximising placements and securing paid positions.
Work with expert mentors spanning over 60 sectors, matched to your skills and goals
Benefit from impartial insights and confidential conversations in dedicated one-to-one sessions
Our flexible mentoring approach means you can enjoy support that fits around your schedule
Program breakdown
From day one, you'll have access to a collaborative community of fractional leaders and dynamic companies. Join the the conversation on our dedicated community platform and access peer-to-peer support from other experts working in this space.
Join our engaged fractional community to create connections and build your reputation
Upskill through webinars, roundtable discussions, and thought-leadership sessions
Stay up to date with the latest advisory trends and industry insights
There's no formal qualification required to become a board advisor. What matters is relevant senior experience and sector expertise, built into a curriculum that gets you ready for your first placement. This program is built for commercial, startup-facing advisory work, not the nonprofit governance issues a formal advisory board typically handles.
Hone your research abilities to provide insightful, strategic advisory guidance.
Grasp the unique dynamics and impact of advisory roles within startups.
Learn to provide impactful oversight and strategic guidance as an advisor.
No prior board seat required. Convert your executive specialisms into valuable, actionable advisory insights.
Define clear boundaries and mutual expectations for successful advisory relationships.
Strategies to strategically build and broaden your high-value professional network.
Cultivate a compelling personal brand specifically for board advisory positions.
Master effective interview techniques to secure desirable paid advisory roles.
Our platform brings together the world's most ambitious startups with experienced board advisors across the United States and beyond. We help startups prepare to join the ranks of household names like Google, Meta, Shopify, and more.
Wherever you want to take your career next, there’s a pathway to get you there.
Every applicant follows the same process: an application, a call with our team, a decision from Connectd’s membership committee, then the Academy before your guaranteed placement becomes available. That committee decision is where due diligence happens: candidates need 10+ years of senior executive experience and subject matter expertise across a shifting business landscape (not just a title) before moving into the Academy. The search for independent directors runs heavily on professional networks.
A board advisor holds no board seat and none of a director's fiduciary duties: non-binding strategic advice only, no formal vote, no legal exposure if a decision goes wrong. An independent director holds a formal board seat with real legal responsibilities and fiduciary duties of care and loyalty, and on a listed company's board must also meet the SEC-approved NYSE or Nasdaq independence standards. That gap in legal exposure is why advisory is the lower-risk way to build board-level experience first.
A guaranteed pro bono advisory placement is the usual way in: advise a growing startup's leadership team on real strategic decisions, and come out with board-level experience and a company reference. A board seat rarely starts with a cold application; it follows an invitation built on that track record. Paired with your operating background, that's what wins a first independent director seat, whether the company is raising its first round or preparing an exit.
The different positions on a board of directors typically include a chairperson, who runs the board, a secretary, who keeps official records and compliance, and a treasurer, who oversees financial health. Board members in these roles often also sit on specialist committees as a board scales. Not all boards fill every position from outside: at an early-stage startup, the founding team often holds these roles until the company grows into needing independent directors to fill them.
Pay and time commitment differ by role:
Board advisor: usually paid in equity, 0.25% to 1% of the company (pre-seed grants closer to 0.21%), vesting over two years with a six-month cliff, per Carta's H1 2024 data.
Independent director: a formal board seat with more fiduciary duty. Private companies and startup boards typically pay $1,000 to $3,000 per board meeting, a day rate, plus 0.1% to 0.5% equity vesting over two to four years, per Board Appointments' research. S&P 500 boards pay far more, $336,352 on average in 2025, but that's large public companies; not the startup boards Connectd works with.
Time commitment: roughly 150 hours a year for a private board seat, 240 for a public one, well above the advisory placement that gets you there, just 4 to 6 hours a month, 50 to 70 a year.
The role carries personal liability for board decisions, even ones you voted against, which is why boards typically carry directors and officers insurance. The time commitment is lighter than an executive role but isn't zero: board meetings, committee work and the occasional urgent call outside a normal week. There's a learning curve for any new director's first board, and sitting on other boards at once can create potential conflicts. Managing them honestly and openly is what keeps them from becoming a problem.
Not the same role: in structured finance, bankruptcy remote entities are special purpose vehicles set up so a parent company's financial trouble can't pull them into bankruptcy. Rating agencies require these entity types to appoint an independent director or independent manager, sometimes alongside springing members, whose voting rights activate only once the entity nears insolvency.
That appointee has one job: a vote on whether the entity can file for bankruptcy, a specialized, single-purpose role, distinct from the board-level, strategic independent director seat Connectd's program builds toward. Someone searching for independent manager services at a bankruptcy-remote entity needs a different service than this page.
Governance structure varies: a startup board has fewer committees and a tighter focus on runway and fundraising; a large corporation runs a full set of board committees and formal reporting lines; a not for profit board answers to its mission, its donors and other stakeholders, not shareholders. These differences matter for anyone moving between sectors, since legal requirements and the board's real priorities shift with them.
Once your placement ends, you can continue with the startup and negotiate paid terms if both sides want to continue. Board advisor Pascal Kornfuehrer made exactly this move, converting his placement into a paid role within four months.
