How To Become A Co-Founder And Board Member: What It Is and Career Path

What is a co-founder and board member and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a co-founder and board member. For example, did you know that they make an average of $24.09 an hour? That's $50,117 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 20,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreCo-Founder And Board MemberUS Average

Salary

3.9

Avg. Salary $50,117

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.7

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.88%

Asian 5.13%

Black or African American 10.75%

Hispanic or Latino 14.25%

Unknown 5.37%

White 63.62%

Gender

female 36.17%

male 63.83%

Age - 45

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 45

Stress level

9.7

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.0

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a co-founder and board member

Explore co-founder and board member education requirements

Most common co-founder and board member degrees

Bachelor's

65.4 %

Master's

20.6 %

Doctorate

6.9 %

Start to develop specific co-founder and board member skills

Skills	Percentages
Financial Management	15.33%
Non-Profit Organization	15.27%
Business Plan	9.02%
Event Planning	6.99%
Strategic Plan	5.83%

Complete relevant co-founder and board member training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New co-founder and board members learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a co-founder and board member based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real co-founder and board member resumes.

Research co-founder and board member duties and responsibilities

Manage sale to venture-backed technology service provider base in NYC.
Design and implement a configuration system as well as an API to access configuration parameters across multiple processes.
Identify strategies and programs to improve information technology and credit card operations, ensuring efficiency and compliance with banking governance.
Frequent participator in online discussions and professional groups on LinkedIn.

Get co-founder and board member experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a co-founder and board member. The most common roles before becoming a co-founder and board member include internship, president team lead and board member.

Prepare your co-founder and board member resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your co-founder and board member resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a co-founder and board member resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable co-founder and board member resume templates

Build a professional co-founder and board member resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your co-founder and board member resume.

Apply for co-founder and board member jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a co-founder and board member job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do co-founder and board members rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Co-founder and board member reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Nov 2019

Pros

I enjoy being able to use my creative experience along with my social and cultural Anthropology background to help other businesses and start ups with their goals and objectives to create a successful company or product. I also like having the freedom to work for myself and have a better carrer direction and flexible scheduling.

Cons

It can be difficult to navigate through the ever changing market and competition as an independently owned business. I also have to spend a lot of time learning/teaching myself things that I need to know but could be spending my time on what i do best if I worked for another company such as web development and coding.