First Advisory Role

As reported earlier today by TechCrunch, I took an advisory role with local start-up AudioMicro. For me, it’s my first advisory role with a start-up, and probably something I should have started doing a while ago. I’ve had a few opportunities to advise other companies in the past, but I always turned them down. In some cases it wasn’t a match, but mostly I didn’t want to impact the day job (or my own little side projects).Today, however, times are different and I’m looking to help a few start-ups in this type of role. It turns out that most need traffic, or a ”rainmaker”, and for just a few hours a month I can help make an impact there; more specifically, in the areas of Online Marketing, SEO, SEM, CRM and a few more acronyms.I teamed up with AudioMicro for a few reasons. To begin with, they have a great founder in the form of Ryan Born – a smart hustler who speaks his mind. He has managed to set up a simple funding arrangement without too many parties involved. Also, they have products that are easy to market and virtual in nature. Having built and sold several e-commerce businesses, I can affirm that there’s something very beautiful about high margins and no physical inventory.The AudioMicro network is expanding beyond audio samples with new offerings in celebrity photos, tattoo designs, and cartoons.The sites operate much like other stock photography websites: contributors from around the world add files (artwork and photos) that they wish to resell. The assets are sold at a fair price and typically under a royalty-free license: a win–win for both the producers and the customers. So, to wrap things up, I’ll be helping to grow these new sites and bring in qualified traffic. Making it rain, as it were.Have a start-up I should be advising for? Contact me and let me know about it.You should already have the following before dropping me a line:1) A product, built and live, that I can use today.2) Some type of funding, but not too many investors.3) A sense of humor (I like to make bad jokes).