Take the free Board Readiness Profile, get a tiered score and a Certificate of Acknowledgement — then go deeper with seven foundational documents on SME advisory boards, governance, and advisor compensation.
From €19 per document · Bundle packs available · 5 formats (PDF · Word · EPUB · Markdown · HTML) · no subscription
The hidden advisory market · Global
Small and medium-sized enterprises are the engine of global employment — in Europe, in the Americas, in Asia, in Africa. Founders everywhere quietly need experienced advisors who can stress-test decisions, open doors and bring AI-fluent perspective into the boardroom — but they rarely know how to ask, and almost never post the role publicly.
On the other side, thousands of seasoned executives around the world want to step into advisory work and cannot find the door. Job boards don't list these seats. LinkedIn shows polished profiles but not what founders actually buy. Board Readiness Central is a global platform — open to advisors and companies in any country — with a deliberate focus on Europe and North America, where most of our source material is grounded.
SMEs lack the network, vocabulary and process to articulate what good board-level support looks like for their stage.
Over 80% of advisory seats are filled through warm introductions inside narrow ecosystems. Positioning beats credentials.
Seven foundational documents map the SME boardroom, the operator-to-advisor mindset shift, AI-augmented governance, and the legal and compensation scaffolding.
For advisors
Not sure where you stand?
The free Board Readiness Profile scores your readiness to serve on SME advisory boards and issues a Certificate of Acknowledgement.
Take the advisor diagnosticFor companies
Is your board pulling its weight?
A free 7-question diagnostic for founders and CEOs of SMEs and startups — on governance, cash, succession, advisory hiring and reporting.
Take the company diagnosticLong-form guides
Deeper reads that connect the library documents into an end-to-end roadmap. Free to read, no signup.
Advisor track
How to become an advisory board member →
A step-by-step operator roadmap: positioning, artefacts, first seat, pricing, and building a portfolio.
Both sides of the table
The advisory board agreement, clause by clause →
Scope, time, equity, IP, confidentiality, termination — plus a working template you can adapt.
Our approach
We respect your time. Every document in this library is deliberately synthesized — a clear, opinionated view of one topic, readable in a single sitting. And every document closes with a curated list of source hyperlinks so you can go as deep as you want, whenever you want. Think of each download as a doorway, not an encyclopedia.
Every framework in 7boards is informed by peer-reviewed entrepreneurship, corporate governance, and SME scaling research from leading institutions — including Stanford GSB, Harvard Business School, INSEAD, HEC Paris, and MIT Sloan — and professional bodies such as the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and the Advisory Board Centre.
We also integrate insights from Spencer Stuart's Directors & Boards Index, a global reference for board composition, director selection, and board effectiveness. This evidence base strengthens each document with empirical founder decision-making patterns, advisor-effectiveness benchmarks, board skills matrices, director evaluation practices, and governance standards validated across Europe, North America, and Australia.
Each document strips a board topic down to what actually changes how you act — distilled by practitioners, not padded by consultants.
Every download ends with a vetted bibliography of source links. Follow them when you need the receipts, the research, or the deeper case studies.
New documents are added regularly, guided by reader feedback. Tell us what's missing and we'll build it next.
The library
The Advisor Track prepares operators to land and serve SME board seats. The Company Playbook helps founders and CEOs decide, design, recruit and run an advisory board that actually works. Mix and match — pay once, download in five formats, no subscription.
Select any combination — pay once, download immediately.
Bridging Strategic Agility and Fiduciary Security
The foundational primer of the library. Establishes the market dynamics, legal boundaries, and empirical performance data that distinguish fiduciary boards from advisory boards in scaling SMEs.
Roles, Tasks, and Engagement Models
Deconstructs the modern advisor's portfolio: roles, time commitments, fractional models, and the cognitive shift from operator to strategic sounding board for founder-led SMEs.
Mapping Functional Gaps, Cognitive Diversity, and the Operator Mindset
An evidence-based framework for aligning advisor recruitment with strategic needs — mapping functional gaps, building cognitive diversity, and assembling a rigorous Board Skills Matrix.
Overcoming the Execution Habit and Cultivating Advisory Authority
A diagnostic and transitional guide to help senior operators shed the consultant's "doing" habit, audit personal readiness, and step into the boardroom with quiet, high-elevation authority.
Cracking the Hidden Board Market, Inbound Positioning, and Portfolio Ecosystem Placement
A tactical roadmap for board placement: navigating the hidden market, engineering inbound digital positioning, and sourcing seats through PE, VC, and fractional matchmaking ecosystems.
Algorithmic Governance for the Era of Cognitive Augmentation
The definitive blueprint on technology-augmented governance — eliminating information asymmetry, running virtual boardroom rehearsals, and navigating the EU AI Act compliance timeline.
Legal Scaffolding, Compensation Benchmarks, and Meeting Engineering
The operational manual for the engagement: FAST equity, retainer benchmarks, vesting safeguards, agenda engineering, NDAs, and the shadow-director boundaries that keep advisors protected.
New · The Company Playbook
A complementary track for the other side of the table. From the decision "do we even need an advisory board?" through design, sourcing, compensation, and the operating charter — synthesized for busy founders and built on the same source-linked methodology.
A Decision Framework for Founders and SME CEOs
A practical, opinionated decision framework for founders and CEOs deciding whether an advisory board is the right intervention right now. Includes a 10-question self-diagnostic, the four signals that mean it's time, the four signals that mean it isn't, and an honest comparison against paid advisors, fractional executives, peer groups, and independent directors.
Composition, Size, and Skill-Mix by Company Stage
How to design a working advisory board before recruiting anyone. Covers the five advisor archetypes, stage-by-stage composition templates (pre-seed through PE-backed mid-market), the four dimensions of cognitive diversity, when to appoint a chair, and a worked example of a full board design for a Series A scale-up.
A Practical Playbook for Founders and CEOs
The operational playbook for filling the seats — the seven sourcing channels ranked by quality, the first-contact message that gets a reply, the structured interview, conflict-of-interest screening, off-list reference checks, the ten red flags that predict a bad fit, and the 90-day on-boarding plan that determines the next 24 months.
Equity, Cash, and the FAST Agreement Decoded
The working reference on advisor compensation: equity benchmarks by company stage and engagement level, cash retainer ranges for mature SMEs, hybrid models for scale-ups, non-negotiable vesting structure, the Founder/Advisor Standard Template (FAST) decoded with its most common pitfalls, and what to write down in every advisor agreement.
Roles, Cadence, Decision Rights, and Boundaries
A drop-in template charter for your advisory board. Nine sections covering purpose and mandate, scope and decision rights, composition and term, meeting cadence, pre-read discipline, decision logging, confidentiality and conflicts, compensation reference, and the off-boarding language that turns difficult conversations into normal events.
Starter packs · Save vs. buying individually
Three essentials to get moving
A curated trio to start your advisor journey with a 20% saving.
Save €11.40
Every advisor document, 40% off
The complete advisor library at a 40% discount vs. buying individually.
Save €53.20
Three essentials for your board
Three foundational documents for companies designing an advisory board, 20% off.
Save €17.40
The complete company playbook, 40% off
Every company-track document bundled at 40% off.
Save €58.00
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