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The Pre-Board Board: How to Create Accountability Before You Give Away a Board Seat

This is going to be BIG.

Typically, investors don’t take a board seat until you raise your first equity round—which means that it could be *years* before you have a real board meeting: A year of nights/weekends work researching, prototyping, and fundraising. I’ll make it simple. How many is too many, for example?

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Board Diversity

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

The board diversity problem is a symptom of a much broader problem around lack of diversity in founders that get funded and lack of diversity in VC firms. Most startup boards are made up of a few founders and a few VCs. No wonder you have no diversity on the board. Boards don’t need three or four VCs on them.

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The Bolster Board Diversity Survey

A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

Last June, I wrote about board diversity and suggested some things we are doing and that you can do to diversity your board. In the ten months that have passed since I wrote that I am pleased to say that we have seen a noticeable increase in board diversity in our portfolio. It is that important to me and USV. Just do it.

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The Lean Validation Board

Paul G. Silva

The great folks at Slidebean took the Lean Validation Board and gave it an update. Whereas the Business Model Canvas or the Lean Canvas map out your entire business model, this tool focuses only on the most critical things right now. It is a tool that helps you stay focused on the right priorities by putting them very clearly in your face.

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Seraf Toolbox: Exit Planning for CEOs and the Board of Directors

The Seraf Compass

As a director on an early stage company board, how do you deliver on your main responsibility as a board member - maximizing shareholder value? Those are very important questions that very few early stage company boards take the time and effort to ask early on when it is still possible to have the biggest impact.

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How to Be a Good Board Member

Both Sides of the Table

I have been writing a series on how startup boards get selected, who sits on them and what to avoid. I started this series in part to help entrepreneurs but also to help newer investors because I’ve know with so many new companies you have so many new board members and many people are trying to figure out there respective roles.

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How to run efficient and effective early-stage board meetings

TechCrunch

Of all the things an early-stage founder has to figure out, one of the most unexpected is how to get the most from your board. But effectively leveraging your board for guidance and support is essential. The slides you use can help you run efficient, effective board meetings that get the most out of the discussions they elicit.

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