Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I am starting a new EV car company, and my particular approach has attracted quite a lot of attention from very skilled and very experienced experts who wish to contribute.  I am seeking advice on what I should offer them in the form of equity and/or other, for their input and in order to have their name listed amongst the advisors the company is benefiting from.  Also, does an agreement to exchange equity for input assume I can list them, or is there a specific process for that?  Overall, I would be exceedingly grateful for any advice on this subject.

Sincerely,

Isaac Barham

Founder, Barham Motors LLC

Isaac,

feeling inspired after the State of the Union and all those references to clean energy, energy efficiency, investing in the future of America??!?!!

Generally, i believe that equity is a great form of currency. others, whose opinion i respect, might advise otherwise. see this article: http://www.startupnation.com/series/148/9554/equity-sharing-5-reasons-not.htm

HOWEVER, should you conclude that providing equity to advisors is your path, make sure you:

a) tie it to performance;

b) have the equity vest over time or, if granted upfront, be able to be "clawed back" should they depart or not perform;

c) work as much as you can and as long as you can with the prospective advisor(s) to learn about working with them before committing equity;

d) make their role crystal clear in writing, including your expectations, and get their enthusiastic buy-in before committing.

Hope that helps. i applaud your initiative. it's an area of great fascination for me and great importance to the century ahead.

Rich

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Rich Sloan , Co-Founder, Chief Startupologist, StartupNation

Rich,

This is VERY helpful, thank you!

I did figure out how to post(obviously!), thank you for responding there as well.

I very much would love to discuss this more with you, I will send more shortly...

Thank you again Rich,

Sincerely,

Isaac