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. The board is where large equity investors get their representation.

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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. Some boards are highly functional, many are not.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 9, 2014

I have blogged about some of the downside consequences of the changes and the private information I have says the consequences are much worse than is reported in the press since few people publicly talk about. There’s another issue I can add to your list of things to be aware of – information rights. You betcha.

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TechCrunch

JULY 6, 2022

Just about every electronic contraption you care to think of contains at least one printed circuit board (PCB), which serves to house and connect the various components that allow the device to function as a whole. Thus, the global PCB market is big business, expected to grow from a $60 billion industry in 2020 to $75 billion by 2027.

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Angel Capital Association

JANUARY 3, 2024

Angels often make their first real impact post-investment by helping a portfolio company develop a “real” Board, by insisting on documented processes, key metrics and measures and a more rigorous approach to corporate oversight and accountability. In the latter case, returns improved by 20%. with an average of 5.7 Director seats.

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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.

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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. Are you giving people time to digest information? As we move into 2021 and Q1 meetings are being put onto calendars, take some time to modernize how you conduct your board meetings. Has the team changed?

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TechCrunch

MARCH 6, 2023

Serial entrepreneur and seasoned investor Vinod Khosla has some strong, contrarian advice for the venture capital industry: don’t sit on your founders’ boards. I’m not a big fan of governance; I think if you engage as a team member with a founder, you have much more influence than if you’re sitting on a board and voting,” he said.

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Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 20, 2010

Right now the most important role to hire in Twitter would be a seasoned marketing professional who could proactively change the conversation about Twitter and educate people about its significance as an information sharing tool. Twitter is information discovery. Consumption, consumption, consumption.

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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. Offering a sparring-partner function on strategic decisions.

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Angel Capital Association

DECEMBER 14, 2023

This is the time of year when we reach out to our angel community seeking nominations for both the Angel Capital Association’s FY 2025 Board of Directors and committee volunteers to help ACA continue to grow and support our work on angel investing. You can learn more about ACA's current Board, mission, vision and values here.

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American Entrepreneurship

JULY 19, 2024

More information on Venture Fund Investments, including program details, evaluation criteria, and applications, can be found here. Including other third-party investors, companies in the NJEDA venture fund portfolio have received $3 billion of funding. Active portfolio companies employed over 1,000 full time employees.

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TechCrunch

OCTOBER 10, 2021

For pharmaceutical companies, especially medical affairs, the important lesson from this sad and sordid affair is as simple as it is powerful: Your advisory board matters — a lot. Those five words characterize Theranos’ board. focused on cardiac transplants who switched to politics long before he joined Theranos’ board.

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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. Tip #3: Focus on key issues How do you know what a “key issue” is?

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TechCrunch

JUNE 23, 2021

For many companies in the United States, a board of directors is a fact of doing business. The board’s goal is to ensure the best is done for the company and its shareholders. While many entrepreneurs see board meetings as a chore, they can be a powerful tool if used well. Communicate often. Reach out when in need.

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American Entrepreneurship

DECEMBER 19, 2023

December 14, 2023) – The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) Board today approved the creation of the Atlantic City Revitalization Grant Program. Once approved for grant funding, projects will be presented to the NJEDA Board for final approval, and applicants must demonstrate they have secured the remaining portion of funding.

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American Entrepreneurship

MAY 17, 2024

May 8, 2024) – The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) Board today designated Netflix Inc. For more information on the NJEDA’s suite of production support, visit www.njeda.gov/film/. as a Studio Partner , allowing the media company to access expanded benefits under the state’s Film and Digital Media Tax Credit program.

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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.

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The Seraf Compass

APRIL 27, 2022

A good dashboard will pack a lot of business information into one condensed view. A good dashboard helps your management team and corporate board focus on the most important issues in operating the business. Dashboards are a great way to summarize, view and discuss the many risks that are part of running a business.

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StartupNation

SEPTEMBER 3, 2021

On today’s Business Beat, Jeff speaks with Marsha Dawood, chair of the Angel Capital Association Board of Directors, regarding the advantages of angel funding to finance and launch a business. The post WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Information Regarding Angel Investing (Episode 284) appeared first on StartupNation.

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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. But first, what’s the purpose of a board?

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This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 3, 2010

As I prep for my first Backupify board meeting, I asked more experienced pros for their take on setting the right tone and starting things off right for productive board participation. I was so excited about the company that I was overly-active in the board meeting, to say the least. I talked over the other board members.

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American Entrepreneurship

MARCH 7, 2024

March 5, 2024) – The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) held the first in-person meeting of the Diversity Finance Advisory Board (DFAB) last week, bringing together a diverse group of investors, entrepreneurs, and mentors for presentations and networking sessions.

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

AUGUST 28, 2023

Boards often discuss CEO performance without really knowing how things work inside the company. And CEOs often have very little visibility to how they are doing and what the board thinks about their performance. Without this information, it is hard to “level up.” I’ve written about this topic before.

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Gust

JULY 15, 2012

I recommend that every early-stage startup find three Advisory Board members. It’s reasonable to do your recruiting informally, but a professional touch is to put together a formal agreement to seal the deal. Besides laying out the benefits, your advisory board invitation letter also might include: Your business plan executive summary.

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Berkonomics

MARCH 17, 2018

I’ve been sued as a board member too many times over the past twenty-five years of board service. Entrepreneurs blaming their board for failures of a fragile, early stage company. As a result, I now insist upon D&O insurance for every board upon which I sit. Five times. Does that shock you? It does me.

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Berkonomics

APRIL 4, 2019

Every investor wants regular information from companies taking their money. On the other side, entrepreneurs and CEO’s usually have a natural fear of giving too much information to us investors after the initial investment is received. How much financial information must our companies give?

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A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC

APRIL 10, 2023

I have watched so many leaders over the years in my various roles as lead investor, board member, board chair, investor, and advisor. And one thing I have learned from this front-row seat is that leading from the heart is very powerful. We are taught to project strength in moments like this.

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This is going to be BIG.

MAY 2, 2023

The venture asset class seems to have already decided that AI is the next great investment opportunity, but I’m not so sure it’s going to disrupt business and create the across-the-board wealth that has been predicted. Google, on the other hand, was a digitally native business model, with no offline analog.

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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. If they’re so great, why are they not just Board Members?

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This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 29, 2024

I coached investors to promotions, first board seats, internal personnel decisions and even a long overdue resignation. I asked him what his tracking—the check up e-mails and coffees to get information from the company—had done for the company. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and.” “Oh, Is it any louder?”

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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. Even the best companies with the best outcomes, however, usually hit some difficult moments where a highly-functioning boards matter. This is part of a series on a Board of Directors at a Startup.

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Berkonomics

FEBRUARY 22, 2024

Most CEOs want to obtain information about their competitors in the most subtle and non-obvious ways. And of course, most are willing to trade information to get information. The source of this information was typically the purchasing decision-maker for a friendly customer or candidate customer. Are you profitable yet?

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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?

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Andreessen Horowitz

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

In this confidential deck, consider providing as much information as possible to accelerate the diligence process, including details about any underlying technical platform, your intended near-term pipeline targets and substantive program-specific data (e.g., Don’t overshare irrelevant corporate information. key in vivo data results).

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2019

Photo by ROBIN WORRALL on Unsplash Several members of your executive taken hours to prepare board materials so that you can inform your board of how things have gone since you last met 3 months ago and you have 3 hours together to make sure they have an accurate picture and to make sure you have their input into how to proceed in the months ahead.

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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. This is part of a broader series on Board Meetings. The board deck & financials arrive the night before the meeting.

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