A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JUNE 25, 2020

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. 1/ When a startup board is created, there should be two independent seats on it. 2/ VCs should accept observer seats instead of board seats when they invest in companies. But boards are important.

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INBIA

OCTOBER 10, 2020

The post InBIA Board of Directors Welcomes New Directors appeared first on InBIA. Blog Featured InBIA News InBIA News Member News Board of Directors entrepreneurs Executive Committee InBIA innovation

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

APRIL 22, 2021

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.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 23, 2019

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. msuster Many investors don't know how to be good Board members. As a board member it is your job to know this.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 24, 2019

When you set up a board it is often initially a combination of the founders and the early investors. This post sets out how I believe founders (and investors) should think about independent board members having worked with many of them for the past 20 years. Founders on the other hand recognize that over time they are likely not to have complete control of the board of directors of the company they founded. The board is where large equity investors get their representation.

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GAN

JANUARY 14, 2020

For most companies, that means having a board of directors. A board can be great in the right circumstances, but a board can also wield a ton of power over a CEO because they’re often investors who have capital in your company, which usually conveys them some tangible rights to it (like the ability to fire the CEO, to impact budgets, to change the overall direction of the company, etc.). This is where I believe an advisory board is critical for every startup.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 20, 2019

One of the things that founders have the most angst about is whom they should have on their board and at what stage of the business. This is smart because amazing board members can be transformative with important advice and access and can also help attract other great board members (and team members). Bad board members can make business very unpleasant. Do you need a board when you first start you company? If you get a smart person on the board?—?just

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

JULY 16, 2020

I’ve been asked this question a bunch in the last few weeks in response to my post about more diversity on Boards. A Company should have a Board the day it is formed. The Board should contain one Founder (or possibly two) and at least two independent Directors. I know that many founders want to control their Boards for as long as possible. My answer to this question is simple.

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The Seraf Compass

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

As a director on an early stage company board, how do you deliver on your main responsibility as a board member - maximizing shareholder value? And, what do you do to make sure the CEO is doing her job in increasing the value of your investment in the company?

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Dream It

MAY 4, 2021

Board meetings can be very powerful events where founders get valuable feedback, ideas, and strategic direction. Oftentimes, founders dread board meetings and look at them as low ROI events. Their primary role is to confirm the board meeting agenda.

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Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative

MARCH 22, 2021

The YLAI Alumni Advisory Board is excited to invite you to an upcoming virtual event entitled “ Challenging Gender Bias in Entrepreneurship “, presented in honor of YLAI4All and International Women’s Day.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 19, 2019

Startups that are backed by professional financial investors almost always have a Board of Directors that consists of some set of founders, investors and sometimes independent directors. While the management of a startup company deals with the day-to-day decision-making within the company (strategy, budgets, goals, tasks, compensation) ultimately the Board of Directors has the legal governing responsibilities for these things. Who Should be on Your Board?

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TechCrunch

JANUARY 22, 2021

Christine Tao and Lori Mazan , the brains behind Sounding Board , want to train any leader within an organization to be a better leader. But in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Sounding Board has seen demand for its platform grow even more.

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Y Combinator

JULY 15, 2019

One of the most common questions we hear from founders is “How do I manage my board?” It’s something that provokes anxiety, because this is the first time the founder/CEO is subject to external supervision, and the board has powers that include the firing of the CEO and the senior management. Where possible, I’ve included specific examples – drawn from YC companies and partners – of how companies have handled board issues. But first, what’s the purpose of a board?

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 12, 2010

I recently wrote an article on how to respond to board members between meetings. It seems to me this is the main problem with boards. So when I read my post it sounded to me more like a new philosophy for “The Agile Board,&# so I put that as my subtitle. This post is really about getting information to the board faster. What’s missing is changing the board-level plan based on the new info that board members are getting more quickly.

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

I’ve written a few posts about boards recently as part of a series on the subject. I admit that I haven’t yet read it but I’ve had numerous discussions with Brad over the years about board structure & conduct and consider him a mentor on the topic. When you first start your company and raise initial venture capital your board probably consists of 1-3 founders and 1-2 VCs. So our board meetings consisted of discussion about.

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Entrepreneurs' Organization

MAY 28, 2020

The post 3 Tips for Getting Investors on Board With Your CSR Mission appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. Contributed by Kevin Xu , CEO of MEBO International and co-founder of the Human Heritage Project.

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 9, 2015

Forming a board. Board members can provide useful feedback, help to focus the founding team, and provide a network of contacts. . That''s how board participation can help an advisor scale. So why wait until you have a company to setup a board? Setting up a simple board before you''ve even got a company can help you get into the practice of collecting feedback and getting nudged back into focus.

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TechCrunch

DECEMBER 22, 2020

Indianapolis-based Boardable , a provider of board management software tools for nonprofits, has raised $8 million in a new round of financing, the company said. Most nonprofits manage their board members with ‘digital duct tape’—endless email threads and file sharing services.

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INBIA

OCTOBER 10, 2020

Blog Ecosystem News Featured InBIA News Featured Member News InBIA News Member News Board of Directors entrepreneurs InBIA innovationThe post InBIA Welcomes New Directors appeared first on InBIA.

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

Board meetings are quickly increasing in their significance to foster consistent and vital interactions as an organization. As we move into 2021 and Q1 meetings are being put onto calendars, take some time to modernize how you conduct your board meetings. Isaac Roth. Contributor.

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TechCrunch

APRIL 3, 2021

At the end of 2020, I argued that edtech needs to think bigger in order to stay relevant after the pandemic. I urged founders to think less about how to bundle and unbundle lecture experience, and more about how to replace outdated systems and methods with new, tech-powered solutions.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 15, 2017

Many board meetings are bored meetings. This is a shame since the value that the right board could add is immense if you select the right board members and manage them effectively. Yesterday I wrote a blog post about what the role of a board actually is. In short the board is there to represent the interest of all shareholders (big & small) of the company and all other stakeholders (debt, creditors, employees, etc.). Never be surprised at a board meeting.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 21, 2019

Should All of Your Management Team Attend Board Meetings? The age old question for every startup is whom to involve in the board meeting. The reality is that there are some board meetings in which having a broad set of management present is a great idea and there are some meetings where in can be a hindrance. If you’ve taken the time to assemble important people on to your board then you ought to use the scare time you have together to pick their brains.

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The Seraf Compass

AUGUST 28, 2019

Over the past few years, there has been much talk about the importance of investing both financial and human capital into the rapidly expanding entrepreneurial ecosystem. From our perspective, human capital is as important as financial capital in driving the long term success of startup companies. So how do we go about the job of applying human capital to foster this success

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TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 15, 2021

Earlier this year, 15 top U.S. universities joined forces to launch a one-stop shop where corporations and startups can discover and license patents.

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TechStars

AUGUST 27, 2019

Copeland brings breadth of corporate, government, higher education and startup leadership experience to growing board. August 27, 2019 – Techstars , the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed, today announced the appointment of Stephanie Copeland to the Techstars Board of Directors. I’m excited to join Techstars’ Board of Directors to help Techstars prepare for its next stage of growth, while enabling and growing new entrepreneurial ecosystems globally.”.

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 16, 2012

It has always surprised me that founders were so quick to fight over how many board members there were and so quick to agree to have as many board observers as people wanted. I have always been vehemently against board observers and wrote some of the reasons in this previous post. But over the past couple of years I’ve slightly modified my views, which I’d like to explain: The Case Against Board Observers.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 21, 2019

Managing Your Startup Board?—?A My talk was about “ managing your startup board ” and the full deck is on that SlideShare link and embedded below. I also wrote an entire series on the topic of Startup Boards if you want to do any more reading that link has several articles you can dig into. How Do Boards Get Out of Sync? I think this analogy can hold for boards. Why Does My Board Get So Unfocused at Board Meetings?

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

I’ve sat on many boards over the past 2 decades and seen my share of high-functioning boards and low-functioning boards. Here are some observations I have from this exposure: If a company moves from strength-to-strength with predictable outcomes, easy financings, low staff turn-over, limited competitive threats then the composition of the board probably doesn’t matter as much. In the best cases boards come together to help the company get through its trough?—?in

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

He wrote a post this long weekend on how he manages the board of DataSift. In his post he asserts, “You get the VCs you deserve” and the corollary “You get the performance out of your board that you deserve.” By spending more time educating your board on your business you get more valuable advice from them. In addition to helping manage the board Chris also helps represent the interests of the angel investors / common stock holders.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2019

Should You Allow Board Observers on Your Startup Board? Photo by Antenna on Unsplash A board observer is somebody who attends your board meeting but doesn’t have a voting right. There are also certain points in a board meeting where you can ask the board observers to step out of the room unless they’ve negotiated specific rights that preclude this. Why do board observers exist? Note: This is part of a series on Startup Boards.

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Most board meetings are administrative updates that accomplish very little other than inform board members about the performance of the company since the last board meeting. If they only ever received updates then don’t expect them to be bought into tough decisions when you inevitably have the board meeting where the news isn’t positive. This is part of a broader series on Board Meetings. The board deck & financials arrive the night before the meeting.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2009

Many startup companies hire advisory boards. So do advisory boards really add value? In my experience most advisory boards under deliver relative to expectations. Advisory Board Problems : There are several problems that I have encountered myself and in my many discussions with CEO’s who have set up advisory boards. Ok, next advisory board meeting in 60-90 days. This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 14, 2009

I wrote recently about the role of Advisory Boards in startups , which I expected to be a bit controversial. It’s just that many companies waste equity on advisory boards, pick the wrong advisers or set up advisory boards with the wrong expectations. Since I already attacked one sacred cow, let me come right back with my second: Board Observers. If they’re so great, why are they not just Board Members? What exactly is a board observer?

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Gust

DECEMBER 3, 2011

And I don’t mean because they lend a credible name to an investor pitch: way too many entrepreneurs look at names on Advisory Board as just a way to expedite a raise. If that’s all you really expect of the Board, you’re cheating yourself as well as the investors before whom you dangled the names. Proper use of Advisory Boards begins with proper construction. But the real key to good results is that you have to keep the Board members engaged and educated.

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Berkonomics

MARCH 8, 2018

Give one percent equity to each outside board member vesting over four years of service. Many early stage CEOs and board members have asked for some guidance regarding pay and time commitments for board members. Here is my best advice, based upon many boards and many years. Pay early stage board members of companies that are not lifestyle businesses one percent of the fully diluted equity in the form of an option that vests over four years of service.

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