Personal Board Of Advisor Request

March 31, 2020

Just wanted to reach out about the idea of a personal "board of advisors". I read about the concept a while back, and think it'd be a good way to get feedback from a group of people I look up to (Most likely a few peers, a couple older mentors, family members, and close friends who know me well).

If you'd be willing to be on my personal board, I'd love to send you a quarterly update and ask for your advice on particular topics. If you accept this incredibly informal role, I owe you a quarterly dinner on me. Also, expect a crazy cool gift once I can afford crazy cool gifts.

Although I haven't ironed out exactly how this will look moving forward, I was thinking the quarterly report would have this general layout:

  • Progress since the last report
  • Any exciting news or high moments
  • Areas of weakness or low points over the last quarter (and what I plan to do to fix these if I conclude they're systemic issues)
  • Overview of the past quarter graphed out by the things I measure daily (productivity, health, personal development and a few habits).
  • Skills review covering technical improvement (perhaps a new programming language or tool) and values overview (maybe I was particularly generous or on the flip side, not as considerate as I'd like to be)
  • Update on my primary metric: subject to change but I'm currently maximizing for conviction in my own ability as a founder / head of product. The majority of my conviction seems to come from learning new skills and going through different experiences that will make be a better founder. These could be lessons learned, projects completed, etc.
  • Plan for the couple months ahead (what I'll be spending my time on)
  • An ask - don't worry, I'll never ask for money. This will likely be in the form of advice or your thoughts on a something I've been thinking through. Your opinion matters to me and I'd deeply appreciate having your views to guide me in the right direction.

If you're willing to be on my board of advisors, please respond here and I'll be sending you my Q1 update this week.