This page is for the venture relationship partner who manages a fund's advisor and operator network, and for the advisors themselves. It covers advisory boards; a director on the statutory board has a different position, set out below.
An advisory seat carries trust, not authority
An advisory seat gives you access and trust. It does not give you a decision. NACD's director essentials describe advisory boards as bodies that "do not have legal decision-making authority, so their recommendations are not binding", serving as a resource for the organization, unlike fiduciary boards with duties of loyalty and care to shareholders. Under the referral program, the company's CEO is the person who authorizes a licensing discussion and signs for the company. An advisor can suggest that the CEO look at the program; that is the whole of the advisor's authority here.
Confidentiality comes first. Treat whatever reached you through the seat, board packs, plans, customer names, systems, figures, as the company's, and keep it inside. If you sit on the statutory board instead, for example as a fund's designee, the guide to a sponsor-appointed director's duties says board information belongs to the company and that a personal benefit such as a referral reward needs written disclosure, recusal where counsel advises it and compliance sign-off. This page gives no legal advice; your own advisor agreement and, where needed, your own counsel settle what your role allows.
Three doors an advisory seat seems to open
The seat makes several companies feel reachable. Only some of them are reachable by you.
| Door | Whose CEO decides | What you may draw on | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The company you advise | Its CEO, the person you already advise | Your own relationship, public facts and what the CEO tells you directly | Open, if every checklist item passes |
| 2. Companies you know only through the role: its customers, suppliers, acquisition targets, rivals discussed in meetings | Each of those companies' CEOs | Nothing; your knowledge of them arrived through the seat | Closed |
| 3. Companies in your own network: a former employer, another advisory seat, a peer | Each company's own CEO | Your own relationship with that CEO, and only facts you hold outside any seat | Open, company by company, with each seat's confidentiality respected |
Door 2 is where advisors get into trouble, because the knowledge feels like their own. A relationship with a door-2 company that existed before the seat belongs under door 3, and the test is whether you could explain how you know the CEO without mentioning the company you advise. Board observers face a similar split between the seat company and the companies that pass through its board pack; the observer signal worksheet covers that seat.
The advisor authority and consent checklist
Eight questions, in order. A stop at any line ends the ask for now.
| # | Question | Pass looks like | Stop looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Is your seat advisory, with no vote? | An advisory board or informal advisor role | A statutory board seat, which takes the director route and the company's conflict policy |
| 2 | Have you read your advisor agreement's confidentiality and outside-activity terms? | Read, and nothing in it bars mentioning an outside program | It restricts outside compensation or introductions, or you cannot tell; ask before going further |
| 3 | Can you say why the company might fit without passing on anything from the role? | Public facts, what the CEO told you one to one, or, for the company you advise, something from the seat that prompts a question you put only to its own CEO | Anything from a board pack, a meeting or a data room would leave the company: in a message, an introduction note or a reason given to SourceX |
| 4 | Which legal entity holds the records, and who is its CEO today? | Named entity, named CEO, date checked | A pending sale nobody has announced, or an acquisition that changed who decides |
| 5 | Can you list every interest you hold? | Equity or options, fees and the possible reward, all named in the first message | Any interest you would rather not mention |
| 6 | Has the company already been in touch with SourceX? | The CEO says no | Any earlier application, relationship or correspondence; SourceX decides duplicates |
| 7 | Does the CEO's written yes cover this introduction? | A dated message agreeing to this introduction | A nod in a meeting, or a yes from someone other than the CEO |
| 8 | Have you registered and signed? | Partner account approved and Channel Partner Agreement signed before you submit | Planning to sign after the introduction |
On line 5, one fact helps the conversation: the company is paid the same with or without a partner, because "The referral reward is paid separately by SourceX and is never deducted from the supplier's agreed compensation" (terms, section 4). Disclosure still matters, since the advisor gains only if the CEO says yes.
Method note. The checklist applies the program terms (version 2026-10-22.2, since replaced by version 2026-11-04), SourceX's screening page and NACD's description of advisory boards, all checked on 2026-10-27. It does not measure how often advisors' introductions lead anywhere; no such figures are published.
Who can reach the CEO when your contact is someone else
Advisors often work most closely with an executive other than the CEO: the COO who runs the advisory meetings, a founder who now chairs, a head of sales. That person can be a sponsor inside the company. They cannot be the yes. Ask them whether the CEO would want to hear about the program, let them carry the question, and wait for the CEO's own answer. Never go around the CEO, and never treat a sponsor's enthusiasm as agreement; the contact-level permission guide shows how to keep those roles apart in your records.
One door each: three advisors at work (Illustrative)
Illustrative. Generic companies and advisors; invented facts, no outcomes implied.
A. Door 1, every line passes. An advisor to a 260-person field-services company has known its CEO for a decade. Over coffee, the CEO mentions that the company has kept its job records since 2009. The advisor writes the next day, discloses her small option grant and the possible reward, and asks whether the CEO wants an introduction. The CEO replies yes in writing. She registers, signs and submits. Nothing from the quarterly advisory deck goes anywhere.
B. Door 2, closed. In an advisory meeting, the company discusses buying a 150-person regional competitor. The advisor knows that competitor's CEO only through the discussion. He does nothing. If the purchase closes, the acquirer's CEO decides for the combined business, and any route he has runs through door 1.
C. Door 3, one company at a time. An operator advises two companies in different sectors. The CEO of one asks her about data licensing after reading about it. She answers for that company only, and never tells either CEO what the other company is doing.
Advice, referral and investment are three conversations
- The advice relationship stays as it was: the company engaged you for advice, and an introduction must never look like a condition of that advice or a way to earn more from the seat.
- The referral is disclosed, single and optional. The CEO can apply directly without you, and a no changes nothing about your role.
- Investment is out of scope. Make no investment ask of the company, its board or its investors, and keep any question about investing in SourceX in a separate conversation.
- No endorsement is implied. Your mention does not mean the company qualifies, that SourceX endorses you or the company, or that anyone gets preferential access to the company's data.
- Nobody collects company data for SourceX. You pass the company's name and the CEO's agreement, and nothing else.
For habits between meetings, the advisory board member guide is a companion read, and directors considering a reward should start with whether a board member can earn a referral reward.
Where the checklist runs out
- Agreements differ. Advisor agreements are written company by company, and line 2 cannot tell you what yours says; only reading it can.
- The line between doors can blur. Long relationships mix what you knew before the seat with what you learned in it. When you cannot separate them, treat the company as door 2.
- Fit and demand are decided later. Whether a company's records match a current program, and whether they are the company's own rather than its clients', is settled in SourceX's review.
- Trust costs more than it earns. An advisor who asks at the wrong moment can lose the seat's value to the company. No data on how CEOs react to advisor introductions has been published; record each reaction.
- Our thesis is untested. We expect door 1 and door 3 introductions from advisors with long CEO relationships to fit more often than cold ones. To test it, count over two quarters the companies considered, the stops at each checklist line and the CEOs who asked to be introduced.
The guides library collects the other relationship playbooks.
Next step
Refer a company. No cap on rewards. Default reward on a company's first qualifying transaction: the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap; further qualifying transactions first agreed within 12 months of the first Closing pay 15%. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, including the USD 100,000 Minimum Transaction, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.
When all eight lines pass for one company, register as a partner and sign before you submit, check the company once more against who qualifies and keep the program terms beside your disclosure message.
Opening an advised company's door is referral work; anyone weighing SourceX as a possible investment can ask for materials on the SourceX investor page, as an entirely separate step.
This article is for information only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. Any offering by SourceX is made only to verified accredited investors through its offering documents.