Erm... Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't "advisory-only VC" an oxymoron? If you're not investing capital, you're not a Venture Capital firm.

Yeah, I should have been a bit clearer on what I mean: VCs typically offer a lot more than just money. Things like their networks, advice, and positions on company boards for example. There could be quite a bit of value to companies that simply fill those roles, as an organization, similar to what individuals to as advisors.

I think that in many cases that might look quite similar to existing accelerators, except that accelerators generally target very early stage companies.

Sam discusses drops in the idea at the bottom of his post:

  The best VCs are great, and they will probably continue to 
  do well.  In fact, they’re so good that they could probably 
  get away with only selling advice—they understand how to 
  build big companies in a way that few other people in the 
  world do.

I believe that would be a consultant

Presumably it would look a lot like an accelerator, inasmuch as most accelerators don't put in any significant amount of capital but do add a lot of experience around startup growth.

Perhaps like a current advisory board. You gather a group of advisers, and compensate them with some equity.

Sounds like a management or business consulting arrangement, except longer-term and compensated with equity.

Management consulting is a fairly large industry, but there's an open debate about how effective it is, particularly for startups.

It would look like McKinsey, except for startups.