Company and investment
Advisor agreement
In the libraryThe door has this paper. Type its name at the composer. It offers to start from it.
For the person who is not an employee and not a contractor doing delivery work — someone giving you time and judgement, usually for equity or a small fee. It says how much time, over how long, and what happens to what they help create. Because the consideration is often equity, it usually names a vesting arrangement and says what happens to unvested shares if either side stops.
- Printed on the page as
- Advisor Agreement
- Where it can live
- Any of the 184 governing laws
Who uses one
- Startups formalising an advisory relationship that began informally.
- Experienced operators advising several companies at once.
- Founders bringing a named advisor onto a board or an advisory board.
What you are deciding
- How much time, and over what period
- What the advisor is actually doing
- What they get, and when it vests
- What happens to unvested equity if it ends early
- Whether they may advise competing companies
- What is confidential
- Who owns anything they help create
- Whether they may be named publicly as an advisor
Blanks you leave stay blank and wait in the room. Nothing is filled in from a guess.
The sections a draft usually has
- 1The parties
- 2The advisory services
- 3Time commitment
- 4Compensation and vesting
- 5Independent contractor status
- 6Confidentiality
- 7Ownership of work
- 8Publicity and use of name
- 9Term and termination
A general outline, not a required one. What turns up in a draft follows what you described. A contract is written in the order a contract is read.
What people call it
Type any of these at the door. It offers this paper. The matching happens in your own browser, on a wordlist you could read. No model runs before you sign in.
- advisor agreement
- adviser agreement
- advisory agreement
- board advisor agreement
- advisor letter
Questions people ask
- How is an advisor different from a board member?
- A board member holds an office with duties set by company law; an advisor is a contractor giving guidance. Advisory boards usually have no formal powers, and the agreement says so.
- How is advisor equity usually structured?
- Commonly a small grant vesting over a period, with the vesting stopping if the arrangement ends. The mechanics come from the company's own share scheme rather than from this paper alone.
- Can an advisor work with competitors?
- Many advisors advise several companies, so papers of this kind either allow it with disclosure or name specific companies that are off limits.
General answers about the document. Not advice about your situation. Not written about any one country.
Where it lives
A contract names the legal system it is governed by. That is a separate decision from which paper it is. You pick it at the door, from any of the 184 units in Governing law, including England and Wales, Delaware, California and New York.
Say what you agreed in one sentence. When what you describe is advisor agreement, the door offers this paper. One press takes it. One press refuses it.
Start it at the door →Related kinds