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Why Startup Advisory Boards Need Nurses at the Table

Much of the conversation about nurses serving on boards often assumes traditional governance: hospital boards, nonprofit boards, or community boards. That framing overlooks where a growing share of consequential healthcare decisions are being made today—inside early-stage companies, long before products scale, capital is fully deployed, or care models are fixed. As a nurse executive and venture capital (VC) fund founder, my work sits squarely in that space.

My own path into board service reflects that evolution. I have served on hospital, nonprofit, VC portfolio company, and editorial boards over the course of my career. My startup advisory board work began more than a decade ago through Chicago’s health innovation ecosystem, including early involvement with companies emerging from MATTER—an environment where decisions are made earlier, faster, and often with fewer guardrails. These roles now play a central role in shaping healthcare innovation, even if they are not always recognized as such.

At Nurse Capital, we invest exclusively in healthcare start-up companies founded and led by registered nurses. These founders are building solutions rooted in lived clinical experience, often addressing problems embedded in nursing workflows or patient care delivery. In this environment, startup advisory boards are not symbolic. They are a practical form of governance that shapes product design, adoption, and risk at a point when those choices still matter.

Startup advisory boards differ from traditional governing boards, but the distinction is not always clean in venture-backed companies. Advisory boards are typically non-fiduciary and operate through influence rather than formal authority, while governing boards carry legal oversight and fiduciary responsibility. In practice, advisory boards often complement governing boards in early-stage companies, filling gaps in clinical, operational, or market expertise. Over time, advisory members may be invited onto the governing board as the company matures—or, in some cases, the same individuals may effectively function as both. Anyone asked to serve in an advisory role should be clear about how the company defines these structures, how decisions are made, and who else sits at the table.

For nurses, early advisory board involvement is especially important because it allows influence over product and service design, not just strategy. When nurses join advisory boards early in a company’s life, they can shape how care is conceptualized, how workflows are designed, and how assumptions about users and patients are tested. That influence becomes far more limited once products are built and markets pursued.

I have seen too many healthcare startups—particularly those focused on nursing practice or patient care—assemble advisory boards dominated by physicians while overlooking nurses. Physicians bring valuable expertise, but when the product is delivered primarily through nursing care or used by nurses, the absence of nursing input is quickly evident. Design choices miss the realities of care delivery. Workflows become burdensome. Adoption slows. Nurses help surface these issues early, when change is still feasible and far less costly.

Nurses bring a systems lens to advisory work. We are trained to assess risk, anticipate downstream consequences, and integrate clinical, operational, and human factors. In advisory settings, this translates into concrete contributions: refining workflow design, identifying adoption barriers, clarifying safety or regulatory considerations, and grounding product decisions in the realities of patient care. These contributions are not abstract; they directly affect whether innovations are usable, credible, and sustainable.

There are also practical considerations nurses should understand about advisory board service. These roles are often filled through professional networks rather than formal postings—through relationships with founders, investors, accelerators, or innovation programs. Nurses who are visible in innovation spaces, who write or speak about practice-based problems, or who are known for operational expertise are frequently invited into advisory roles because of what they know, not because of a governance résumé.

Compensation varies, but advisory board service should not be assumed to be unpaid. Early-stage companies often compensate advisors with equity, modest cash stipends, or a combination of both. Expectations should be explicit. Nurses should understand the scope of the role, time commitment, term length, compensation structure, and how the advisory board relates to the governing board. Knowing who else serves—and why—matters.

Advisory board service also requires a shift in mindset. Unlike clinical or executive roles, advisors do not own execution. The work is about judgment, timing, and influence—knowing when to push, when to caution, and when to step back. For nurses accustomed to direct accountability, this can feel unfamiliar. Yet it is precisely where nursing credibility and clarity are most powerful.

As healthcare innovation continues to move into entrepreneurial spaces, governance is evolving with it. Startup advisory boards are now part of the infrastructure shaping care delivery, technology, and patient experience. Nurses should view these roles not as informal or peripheral, but as legitimate platforms for impact—especially when engaged early.

The question is no longer whether nurses belong in these rooms. It is whether companies building healthcare solutions are wise enough to involve them before design decisions are set and assumptions harden. When nurses are present early, innovation looks different—and works better.

Beth A Brook, PhD, RN, FACHE
Co-Founder and General Partner
Nurse Capital