Rodrigo de Alvarenga: Startups & Entrepreneurs

The Hidden Burn Rate: What It Really Costs Your Startup to Fly Without the Right Advisory Board

Rodrigo de Alvarenga — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 20:14:04 GMT

Outline

Opening Anecdote (anonymized) – The USD1MM saved.
Defining "Cost of Not" – 7 cost buckets: valuation leakage; wasted cycle time; avoidable dilution; credibility gap with investors; strategic blind spots; hiring & partnership delays; founder burnout/decision fatigue.
Evidence Snapshot – BDC & HubSpot findings; Boardstream case hints; Visible.vc comp…

How Early-Stage Founders Can Find & Engage the Right Advisors for Growth

Rodrigo de Alvarenga — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 15:01:47 GMT

Picture by Rodrigo de Alvarenga - generated through an AI tool

Startups thrive on smart decision-making, industry connections, and strategic execution. While many founders recognize the importance of an advisory board, few know how to find and approach the right advisors—especially when they are still relatively unknown in the startup world.

An effective …

The Hidden Power of Advisory Boards: Why Every Startup Needs One Before Series A

Rodrigo de Alvarenga — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 14:12:55 GMT

Startups often focus on securing funding, hiring talent, and building products. However, one critical but frequently overlooked factor in their long-term success is the presence of a well-structured advisory board. In a landscape where capital efficiency and rapid execution define market winners, having experienced advisors isn't just a luxury—it’s a ke…

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Unicorn Marketplace

Rodrigo de Alvarenga — Sun, 11 Sep 2022 20:31:27 GMT

The outbreak of COVID-19 has had a profound impact on businesses worldwide. In the tech industry, we see the effects in several ways. This blog post will examine how the pandemic has impacted unicorns — startups with $1 billion or more valuations.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Unicorns before COVID-19
Unicorns have been a hot topic in the business worl…

A community must build impact!

Rodrigo de Alvarenga — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 22:09:29 GMT

Community building is an impact-driven social endeavour to transform people’s lives. As such, it must be designed in a way that we can engage participants in fostering fellow members and their own lives into the next step. Thus, the community must build impact! Does that sound ok to you?

When discussing community building, it is tempting to fall for keep…

Impacting lives: a mentor experience in changing students’ lives in the MENA region

Rodrigo de Alvarenga — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 02:02:53 GMT

AIA — Arab Innovation Academy 2020 — Feb 2020 — Doha, Qatar

It is not every day that we have the opportunity to impact lives, much less in a place as far from Brazil as the Middle East (MENA region), more precisely, Doha — Qatar. It happened in January 2020 over 17 incredible days, full of intensity and hard-working! However, that was my 3rd edition (201…