My First Board Meeting

In the world of Venture Capital, they say, you always remember your first deal. But I remember my first board meeting. It took place about ten years ago, and it wasn’t very good. Frankly, it was awkward.

Before we invested, I spent six months getting to know the team, the tech, and the market. Here we were at our first board meeting, and it felt like they were presenting me their progress, like it was their homework, and it wasn’t very good. They were behind where they said they would be, by a long shot.

I knew it was normal in startups. Many seem to lose momentum a bit whilst closing the round. But there was no energy in the room, no pre-deal chemistry, and no buzz at all. None of that.

I remember leaving the meeting thinking: “Well, this was strange, surely not all board meetings are like that?” It felt like I was finally invited to a party, that after months of deal origination, bringing my first investment in, I finally had a portfolio company, and I got to be a part of their growth. So, it felt like I was finally invited to the party, but I was put on a really boring table.

"My first board meeting: I was finally invited to the party But was put on a boring table"

So fast forward a couple of years, 300 board meetings, and 15 different startups. I found out that most boards were just like that – recapping the month’s activities, poring over management accounts, and rehashing the strategy. There were a few exceptions, the trouble was, at the time, I couldn’t quite figure out what exactly was going wrong and what was actually working.

At the outset, several startups had the same co-investors, so the same Investor Directors were around the board table. Most companies used some version of a template board pack provided by us, their investors. And their board meeting agendas were identical. Yet some boards propelled their startups to growth, and others frankly, killed them.

I got really curious about this paradox: why so many startup boards don’t work? What exactly works or does not, and why? How can I fix what’s not working? Why is it that every board’s advice starts with ‘put together a strong board’ but nobody defines what a ‘strong’ board means? Why is nobody talking about it?

Desperate for answers I decided there was only one thing to do – I did a doctorate on this very topic. This wasn’t just an academic study but a personal journey to deconstruct the intricate dynamics that make or break the startup board. And, as I found out in my journey, the answer is not simple.

I discovered that startup board dynamics are a complex interplay of mindsets, behaviours, knowledge, experiences, structures, interests, expectations, and conflicts. All happening against a backdrop of a rapidly growing company, always in a funding uncertainty.

Everything is connected, and yet, so tangled up, that it is hard to see from the outset how one factor affects the other, the causes, effects and consequences. For example, the quality of the board pack directly affects the quality of the board’s contribution during the meeting. If you only have people with a finance background around the boardroom table, you will always chase numbers, margins, and costs. If the board does not have a razor-sharp focus on growth and getting a higher valuation at the next round, it will be in governance and monitoring mode. If the founder does not have a specific ask from the board, relevant to the individuals’ strengths and networks, the board members will enjoy sharing their ideas and make introductions however useful they may be to the founder.

My first startup board meeting might have been an awkward experience, but it ignited a spark within me, and a curiosity to understand and improve a dimension of the startup ecosystem that people only talked about behind closed doors. Through this blog, I am sharing what I’ve learnt about deconstructing startup board (read about the Startup Governance Stack), what happens on boards at different stages (from Startup to Unicorn in 80 board meetings), and my own learning journey becoming a better board member. 💡🧗🤝