A new parallel career path for Executives, Experts, and Entrepreneurs. Qualify and become an OPERATOR.
Join Boards
Take a Leading Role in Tomorrow’s Best Tech Startups
The Benefits
Why Join Boards?
Founders need experienced people who can guide decisions, open doors, and help them move faster with less risk. Joining a board lets you bring your expertise into companies where it genuinely changes outcomes.
Stay current by working with leading founders and frontier technology.
Give back and shape the future of your industry.
Earn financial upside from the value you help create.
Join Boards
Ways To Contribute
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Boards
Join as a formal Board Member - guide strategy, decision-making, and founders through key inflection points.
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OPERATOR Boards
Like an advisory board, but better. Structured goals, aligned incentives, and a professional process to deliver results.
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Qualify Now
See if your experience is a fit.
How It Works
How You Can Join boards
We’re building a Collective of people who combine expertise, execution, and shared values - individuals who want to shape startups from the inside, not just advise from the sidelines.
If you can commit time, apply proven knowledge, and share the risk/reward journey with founders, you belong here.
Note:
Joining the Collective is free.
Qualify
Share your background and motivation. If you meet our criteria and values, we’ll invite you into the Collective.
Match
We identify where your expertise can create most value - matching you with startups and boards that fit your profile.
Join
Step into a Board or OPERATOR Board role with clear goals, aligned incentives, and professional support throughout.
Contribute
Shape strategy, open doors, and help founders scale. Earn recognition and upside from the value you help create.
Common Questions
What Operators Ask Before Joining
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An Operator Board is a small, execution-focused group that helps a company hit specific goals. The seat is with the company you're matched to, not with OPERATORS. We scope the role to the company's actual needs and agree your contribution with the CEO before anything starts. A Board seat is different: it's a standard board role we offer when a company in our network needs one, whether a single member or a full board, and it sits closer to strategy and governance than to delivery. Both run through the same matching process. On your CV or LinkedIn, you list the company, for example "Advisory Board Member, [Company]," not OPERATORS.
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It depends on the role. Some are execution-heavy: our Commercial and GTM Operator roles run the GTM motion directly, structuring pilot offers, leading investor outreach, and building pipeline. Others are explicitly non-operational: our Strategic Operator role is a judgment-heavy sparring role on strategy and prioritization, not day-to-day delivery. We tell you which before you commit.
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You set it, from 5 to 20 hours a month. Current roles run at 8, 12, and 10 to 20 hours. An engagement averages around two years. The hour range is fixed upfront and locked in a signed Operator Agreement with the company, so a role can't quietly drift into full-time.
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It depends on the role. More strategic, long-term roles are usually compensated in warrants. Others take the form of revenue splits, bonuses, or other structures, aligned with the founders when the engagement is scoped. In every case the point is the same: you win when the company wins.
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Start with our qualification form, about four minutes. We take applications on a rolling basis, match your profile against the companies we work with, and reach out when a relevant opportunity comes up, with a timeline at that point.
More questions? Feel free to reach out to Gaia for answers.