Two jobs that look alike and must stay apart
Advisors open doors. It is often the main reason a founder asks you to join: you know customers, investors and future hires, and you introduce them. That work belongs to the company you advise, and it is already compensated, usually with equity, sometimes with a modest retainer, occasionally with nothing but goodwill.
Random Income pays for something different. Here you introduce a business to a brand partner's offer, such as a data product, an AI visibility service or a product build, and you are paid commission when that business buys. Keep the two clearly separated. Never take Random Income commission for an introduction that is really part of your advisory role, and never let a founder confuse advice you give as their advisor with a product you are paid to recommend.
A simple test helps. If you would make the introduction because the company asked you to help it, that is advisory work. If you would make it because a business in your wider network has a problem a brand partner solves, that is a referral.
The founder-pressure problem
Advisory boards are informal, and that is exactly what makes them delicate. A founder who gave you equity, values your name on the website and hopes you will introduce investors is not in a position to say no to your recommendations. When an advisor suggests a vendor, many founders hear an instruction.
So for every company where you hold an advisory seat, the default is to keep paid referrals out. If something in our stack would genuinely help, recommend it and decline the commission. If you believe a paid referral is appropriate, get the founder's informed, written consent, and if the company has a governing board, expect it to want disclosure too. Read your advisor agreement before any of this: many include confidentiality terms, non-solicitation language, assignment of inventions and business opportunities, and sometimes a short non-compete.
- No paid referrals into companies you advise without written consent; declining commission is usually cleaner.
- Never use a company's confidential information, investor updates or board materials to find referrals.
- Avoid introducing competitors of companies you advise.
- Disclose in writing in every introduction that you are a Random Income Strategic Partner and may be paid.
- Keep a simple log of introductions, in case a founder or board ever asks.
Why serial advisors make strong referral partners
People who sit on several advisory boards see patterns that full-time executives miss. You watch a dozen founders hit the same wall: the prototype that will not scale, the go-to-market plan that assumes customers will find the product, the realization that buyers now ask AI assistants for recommendations and the company never comes up. You also meet many more founders than you take on, at pitch events, accelerators and investor dinners.
That breadth is the real asset. Every industry is a geek away from being uberized, and advisors who have watched several companies try to become that geek know which partners deliver and which only demo well. Random Income connects the dots between brand partners, the businesses with offers, and the people who already know their buyers. For companies outside your advisory seats, the strongest fits tend to be:
- Fast Start: takes an idea to a market-ready product at $32,500 a month, for funded founders without engineers.
- The Joint Venture tech stack build: at $18,200 a month, for companies that want a long-term technology partner.
- Predictive Data and vrtcls.marketing: who is in-market, and intent-based outbound that learns from every click.
- Quuik · Trusted GPT: being cited when buyers ask answer engines what to buy.
- Consulting with Jeff Cline: executive strategy on technology, predictive analytics and AI.
How this compares with advisory equity
Our page on industry advisor commission covers commission versus equity in general. For an advisory board member the practical difference is simple. Advisory equity concentrates your upside in a few companies and depends on outcomes years away. Referral commission is paid only when a business you introduce actually pays, it spreads across many companies you do not advise, and it asks nothing of your calendar beyond the introductions themselves.
The two can sit side by side, provided they never touch the same company. Fast Start and the Joint Venture build pay your percentage only of the monthly SaaS fee collected, with no equity and no success fee, so there is never any overlap with startup equity you hold.
A two-hour rhythm around advisory calls
Advisory work tends to cluster around quarterly calls, fundraising sprints and the occasional urgent message from a founder. About two focused hours a week is enough for referral work, and busy advisory weeks can be skipped.
After pitch events and calls outside your seats, note any founder or owner whose problem maps to the stack. Once a week, send one or two short, disclosed introductions. Your back office shows every click, form and quote request on your referrals, and your free contacts.plus upgrade keeps notes on who you met where, separate from any company's data.
Terms for advisory board members
Strategic Partners are 1099 independent contractors, never employees, and accounts are held by individuals. Stack products pay 20% of retail on redline when a client buys fully online untouched, or 12% when an in-house Random Income rep works the deal, adjusted pro-rata to redline if we negotiate. Recurring commissions last as long as the client keeps paying, and refunds and chargebacks are deducted. Investor-funded deals pay a one-time $5,000 referral fee; ask securities counsel before accepting anything tied to raising capital. Business offers pay 50% of what the business pays us.
Payouts run on the 21st of the month after we are paid, once your balance reaches $500, with smaller balances carrying forward to the next payout cycle. You upload an ID and a W-9, and we issue a 1099-NEC. This is general information, not legal advice. Take the free test and become a Strategic Partner.