Executive Summary

Startups, small boards and their investors routinely struggle to find experienced, trustworthy board members and then spend weeks or months managing meeting logistics, minutes, compliance and investor reporting manually — a missed governance burden for the roughly 600,000 target companies that can cost time, raise legal risk and slow fundraising. Founders and VCs both feel this pain: bad fits or weak board processes can materially damage growth and financing outcomes. You could build a B2B SaaS marketplace that vets and certifies fractional board members, uses AI (LLMs + vector search) to match advisors to company needs, and bundles governance automation (board packs, scheduling, minutes, signature workflows, investor dashboards) into a $5K ACV subscription with optional placement fees. The product would combine real-world verification (references, background checks, investor endorsements) with ongoing workflow tooling so a matched advisor is immediately usable and trackable. The market is attractive now: a $3.0B TAM (600,000 companies × $5K ACV), rising supply of senior fractional advisors, and investor pressure for stronger governance make demand more predictable — even a 1% penetration equals roughly $30M ARR. AI-enabled matching lowers discovery costs, and VCs pushing for governance increases willingness to pay, which supports the 88/100 market and revenue scores. You’d differentiate by tightly integrating rigorous vetting and investor-validated credibility with workflow stickiness so the marketplace isn’t just discovery but an operational platform that retains customers. The honest challenges are medium competition, the need to invest heavily in trust, compliance and liability coverage, and building the network effects to keep both top advisors and paying companies engaged.

Market Opportunity

Help startups find vetted board members and automate governance workflows targets a $3.0B = 600,000 companies (startups + SMBs in target markets) × $5K ACV total addressable market with medium saturation and a year-over-year growth rate of 12% YoY — estimated growth combining SaaS governance tools and professional advisory marketplaces (based on industry reports from Gartner and McKinsey on SaaS and professional services digitization).

Key trends driving demand: Remote advisory and fractional executive economy — more senior leaders are available for part-time advisory roles, increasing supply for a marketplace.; AI-enabled matching — LLMs and vector search improve semantic matching between company needs and advisor profiles, lowering discovery cost.; Investor focus on governance — VCs increasingly require stronger boards and reporting, driving demand for tools that validate board quality.; Workflow consolidation — companies prefer platforms that combine discovery with operational tooling (scheduling, docs, follow-ups) instead of standalone directories..

Key competitors include AdvisoryCloud, Boardable, Gust / AngelList advisory services.

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Help startups find vetted board members and automate governance workflows

Executive Summary

Market Validation

Market Opportunity

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