You find one by naming the job first, then testing whether this person can actually do it: a good startup advisor has made the specific mistake you're about to make, can open a door with their own reputation attached, or lends credibility you haven't earned yet. A real one can tell you which of those three they are. Everyone who has ever sold a company now calls themselves a startup advisor. I know, because I'm one, and I've sat on the founder's side of the table too. Some are worth more than the round they help you raise. Some are a LinkedIn title and a monthly call you dread. This is how to tell them apart, what to pay, and when to skip the whole thing.
What an advisor is for
An advisor does one of three jobs. They've made the specific mistake you're about to make and can name it before you do. They know the people you need to meet and will introduce you with their own reputation attached. Or they lend credibility you haven't earned yet, which is real, and depreciates fast.
Anything else, the strategy sessions, the brainstorming, "being a sounding board," is what a cofounder is for. If you don't have one, that's a different post.
The four kinds, and what each should cost
The mentor. Free, informal, no equity. Often the most valuable and the least reliable, because you're not on their calendar. Buy them lunch. Send them the win.
The formal advisor. A named role, a quarterly cadence, a small equity grant that vests. The common templates land between a quarter of a percent and one percent, depending on stage and involvement, vesting over one to two years. If someone asks for five percent to "open their network," the network is not that good.
The paid consultant. Cash, scoped, time-boxed. Right for a specific problem: pricing, a fundraising process, a first sales hire. Wrong as a standing relationship, because the incentive is to keep the problem alive.
The fractional executive. Part-time, real authority, real cost. Not an advisor at all, and the difference matters. An advisor tells you what to do. A fractional exec does it and is accountable when it's wrong.
Three questions before anyone gets equity
Ask what they'd do in the first ninety days, in specifics. A good advisor answers with names and steps. A weak one answers with frameworks.
Ask who they've advised before, and call two of them. Not the two they suggest.
Ask what would make them quit. An advisor who can't name a condition under which they'd resign isn't planning to do enough work to have one.
When you don't need one yet
If you're pre-product with no customers, you don't need an advisor. You need a customer. Advisors are useful when there's something to advise on, and the thing that creates that is traction, not counsel. I've seen pre-seed decks with more advisors on the team slide than customers in the traction slide. It looked great. It didn't move the deck.
Where the AI version fits
Part of what a startup advisor does is now something a managed agent can do well, and part of it isn't. Full disclosure first: Alex, the managed agent we built at Coworkers.Global, does the first part, and we sell it, so weigh this section accordingly.
The pattern-matching part is the part that transfers. Read the plan, name the gap, tell you which of the five red flags you're about to trip. An agent that has scored a lot of plans against real investor decisions does that quickly and without flattering you.
The introduction part doesn't transfer. No agent can walk you into a partner meeting with its reputation attached. If what you need is a door opened, get a human. If what you need is a straight read of where you stand before you spend equity on the human, that's the part we built.
Current view, subject to change
I think most early advisory equity is spent too early and on the wrong job: credibility, instead of introductions or mistakes avoided. I'd change that view if I saw data that founders with large early advisory boards raised faster or failed less. I've seen the opposite more often. That's a sample, not a study.
Final thoughts
The best advisors do one thing. They tell you the thing you didn't want to hear, once, at the right time. That's the whole product. Everything else is calendar.
Pick people who've made your mistake. Pay them in proportion to the work. Get a customer before you get a board.
If you want the straight read first, Alex runs your plan against the same evidence-first rubric: the weakest part, the gate you'd trip, what to fix before you talk to anyone. Every plan gets a free screen. Drop it at coworkers.global/ai-business-plan-review.
Regards,
Charles Stack
Founder, Coworkers.Global
Cite this: "A good startup advisor is doing one of three jobs: naming a mistake before you make it, opening a door with their own reputation attached, or lending credibility you haven't earned yet. Formal advisory equity commonly runs a quarter of a percent to one percent, vesting over one to two years (common template practice, not a market survey)." Charles Stack, Coworkers.Global, September 2026. Source: this post.