Startup Boards

Getting the Most Out of Your Board of Directors

De: Mahendra Ramsinghani, Brad Feld

Narrado por: Tavia Gilbert

An essential guide to understanding the dynamics of a startup's board of directors

Let's face it, as founders and entrepreneurs, you have a lot on your plate - getting to your minimum viable product, developing customer interaction, hiring team members, and managing the accounts/books. Sooner or later, you have a board of directors, three to five (or even seven) Type A personalities who seek your attention and at times will tell you what to do. While you might be hesitant to form a board, establishing an objective outside group is essential for startups, especially to keep you on track, call you out when you flail, and in some cases, save you from yourself.

In Startup Boards, Brad Feld - a Boulder, Colorado-based entrepreneur turned-venture capitalist - shares his experience in this area by talking about the importance of having the right board members on your team and how to manage them well. Along the way, he shares valuable insights on various aspects of the board, including how they can support you, help you understand your startup's milestones and get to them faster, and hold you accountable.

• Details the process of choosing board members, including interviewing many people, checking references, and remembering that there should be no fear in rejecting a wrong fit
• Explores the importance of running great meetings, mixing social time with business time, and much more
• Recommends being a board member yourself at some other organization so you see the other side of the equation

Engaging and informative, Startup Boards is a practical guide to one of the most important pieces of the startup puzzle.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2014 Brad Feld and Mahendra Ramsinghani (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Super Book

Excellent source for startups and investors on how to manage your board. You will be lucky if you read this before having a board!
Aladdin

A bit of a mish-mash of strategy and tactics

Wasn’t the right balance of deep insight connected to strategy and then tactics. Full of anecdotes trying to compensate for actual strategic insight.

Myopic view of Startup Boards

This book is written from the perspective of a VC run board. Most startups never reach that level so this book will not apply to most startups. That doesn't mean you can't glean some information but it is NOT for all startup founders like myself. It is also a HORRIBLE audio book. I got to around the fourth time it was reading out some really long url with dash this and dash this and dash this that I gave up. Not worth my time because as a startup founder, I wear many hats and my time is limited.