@paul Travis brings up a very important concept.
Make the initial offer in a way you have a way to monitor the AB board members' contributions.
Ask them to propose what their commitment is worth and what they expect to be compensated for it.
Ensure that the proposal make sense to you. If I do X, the value of X must be X + <something> to the company.
Ensure that you have the right to discontinue if at any time they fall below that commitment or some sort of sliding scale.
Make sure you offer the AB member an incentive. If X works, and 10 times X equals ten times the cost, motivate them to do more X. The more they do X, the more it benefits the company. make sure it is bottom line.
- ensure that all AB members are properly chosen based on their likely ability to help you. If XML, get a Tim Bray, if XSLT, get a Ken Holman, if Neo4J, get Peter Neubauer.
And last but not least, buy beers for all of us nice successful founders on the list who have helped you ;-)
The Founder dating group may wish to provide some incentive suggestion scale in the event some of us old time founders actually help out the new companies seeking our advice. I have noticed some very notable names who are helping out here with great ideas based on the accumulation of their life experiences. There are not many other forums where new companies have access to such individuals.
Just a thought..... ;-)
DN