By Terry Shaw
TL;DR: Before hiring a $400K+ US executive or relocating your VP from Europe, consider building an advisory board of 3-5 connected industry executives.
For less $ you benefit from greater and immediate distributed networks, immediate market credibility, compressed learning cycles, and a group of experts able to de-risk your eventual leadership hire. It’s the oft-overlooked first move that has the potential to change everything that follows.
What costs one-third of a senior hire but gives you five times the network reach?
When European tech startups plan their US expansion, the playbook seems obvious: either hire an American executive to lead the charge or send a trusted lieutenant from headquarters to plant the flag. Both approaches have merit, but there’s a third option that founders consistently overlook… One that might derisk your expansion while accelerating your path to revenue.
Enter the advisory board of connected industry executives.
The Traditional Approaches (and Their Hidden Costs)
Let’s be honest about what usually happens. You hire a senior American executive at $250K+ plus equity, give them six months to “figure things out,” and watch as they navigate your product, your culture, and your European decision-making cadence (all whilst simultaneously trying to crack a new market). Or you send your VP of Sales from London, who understands your product intimately but is now operating in a market where they don’t know the buyers, the competitive landscape, or which conferences matter.
Both approaches can work. Both are also expensive, slow, and carry significant execution risk.
Why Advisory Boards Work Differently
An advisory board of three to five well-connected US executives offers something fundamentally different: immediate credibility and distributed market knowledge without the overhead of full-time leadership.
Here’s what that looks like in practice…
…Access over headcount. Instead of one executive’s network, you get the combined relationships of multiple industry veterans. When you need an introduction to a potential customer, partner, or investor, you have several people who can make that call. The math is simple: five advisors with 200 relevant connections each creates more pathways than one employee with 500.
…Validation without the pitch. When a respected industry figure agrees to advise your company, it signals something to the American market. You’re not just another European startup trying to figure things out. You’ve been vetted by people who understand the local landscape.
…Market intelligence at speed. Your advisory board becomes your rapid-response research team. Wondering if your pricing model will fly in the US? Ask your advisors who’ve seen dozens of companies tackle this. Confused about whether to focus on enterprise or mid-market? They’ve lived through those decisions. With this approach you compress years of market learning into months of guided strategy.
The Financial Reality
Let’s talk numbers. A strong advisory board typically costs 0.25% to 0.5% equity per advisor, plus perhaps $2-5K per month in cash compensation. For five advisors, you’re looking at roughly 1.5-2% equity total and $180-$280K in retainers.
Compare this to a senior executive: 1-2% equity, $400-600K salary, plus the risk exposure of getting the hire wrong (which happens more often than anyone admits!)
Or compare it to relocating an employee: salary arbitrage in reverse, visa complexities, and the opportunity cost of pulling a key player from your core market.
The advisory board doesn’t replace full-time leadership forever, but it changes when and how you make that hire. Instead of hiring blindly into a market you don’t understand, you hire six to twelve months later with
infinitely better information
vetted candidates from your advisors’ networks
and proof points that give you negotiating leverage.
What Makes This Work?
Not all advisory boards are created equal. The ones that drive real value share certain characteristics:
Your advisors need to be actively engaged in the industry, not retired executives resting on decades-old relationships. They should bring complementary networks; don’t stack your board with five people who all run in the same circles! Geographic diversity matters too; the US market isn’t monolithic, and having advisors across different regions can be surprisingly valuable.
Most importantly, you need to proactively use them. Monthly calls, quarterly strategy sessions, and specific asks. “Can you introduce us to X?”; “What do you think of this partnership approach?”; “Who should we be talking to at this conference?”
Advisors who feel utilized stay engaged. Advisors who receive quarterly updates and nothing else drift away.
There’s also a risk of advisor fatigue if you go beyond five members. Too many advisors mean no one feels accountable, everyone assumes someone else is helping, and your asks get lost in a crowded field. The 3-5 range isn’t arbitrary… It’s the sweet spot where each advisor feels genuinely engaged and responsible for your success.
The Hybrid Approach
Here’s where it gets interesting: the advisory board isn’t necessarily an alternative to hiring. It’s often the optimal first step.
Start with advisors as you test the market, validate your assumptions, and build your first customer references. Use their guidance to refine your US strategy. Then, when you’re ready to hire your Head of US sales or GM of Americas, leverage your advisory board to source, vet, and close the candidate. On one occasion I helped a client with this approach and the eventual executive appointment was one of the initial advisors!
You’ve de-risked the hire immensely: your advisors know the market, can evaluate candidates’ claims, and can help sell your company to the right person.
Some companies keep the advisory board active even after hiring leadership. The executive gets an instant network and sounding board. The advisors provide oversight and guidance as the US operation scales. Everyone wins.
When This Doesn’t Work
To be clear, advisory boards aren’t a magic solution. If you need someone managing a sales team day-to-day, you need an employee. If you require an on-the-ground presence for enterprise deals that demand face time, you need bodies in the US. And if you’re in a highly regulated industry where compliance expertise is mandatory, part-time advisors won’t cut it.
The advisory board approach works best at the Series A to early Series C stage:
when you’re in the early stages of market exploration
when your product requires education of the market
when relationships and credibility matter more than raw execution capacity.
…Initially, at least!
By the time you’re scaling hard and need someone managing a 10-person sales team, the advisory board has already served its purpose in helping you avoid expensive mistakes and hire the right leader.
Making the Ask
European founders often hesitate to approach potential advisors, unsure what they’re offering in return. But experienced executives understand the value exchange. They get early exposure to promising technology, equity upside if you succeed, and the satisfaction of helping build something. Many actively seek advisory roles with European companies precisely because they see opportunities others miss.
The key is being specific about what you need. Here’s a simple framework:
Target. Identify executives who are actively engaged in your specific domain, not generalists. Look for people who’ve seen the movie before e.g. built partnerships in your space, sold to your ICP, or navigated the competitive dynamics you’ll face.
Test. Before formalizing anything, have a substantive conversation. Ask for their take on your market positioning or a specific strategic challenge. Do they give generic advice, or do they immediately start making connections and offering tactical insights? The best advisors reveal themselves in the first 30 minutes.
Terms. Don’t ask someone to “advise us on the US market.” Ask them to “help us navigate the partner ecosystem in the data infrastructure space” or “introduce us to heads of data at mid-market financial services companies.” Specificity makes it easy for them to evaluate if they can truly help, and it sets clear expectations for engagement.
In summary
Expanding to the US is inherently risky. You’re entering the world’s most competitive market with imperfect information and limited resources. The question isn’t whether to reduce that risk… Rather: “how?”
An advisory board of connected industry executives won’t eliminate the challenges of transatlantic expansion, but it might be the most capital-efficient way to dramatically improve your odds.
Before you hire that expensive executive or relocate your star employee, consider building the advisory board that helps you make those decisions better.
Sometimes the smartest move isn’t hiring someone to execute your US strategy: it’s hiring the people who help you figure out what that strategy should be in the first place.
At Calibre One, we’re increasingly being engaged by European tech companies on this type of project. And, for the betterment of the ecosystem, we’d love to see our executive search competitors join us in adopting this playbook, too. Reach out, whether you’re a founder weighing your Atlantic expansion options or a Search Partner who wants to chew the cud with me on the subject further. Terry.shaw@calibreone.com