Does your board add value?

by StartupCFO

We had a board of directors meeting yesterday. Done right, board meetings can add tremendous value to your startup. Done wrong, they can just be a waste of time.

I've written before about the ingredients for a good board meeting. While there are several elements, it's all about the people. The profile of the people that you need changes as your startup evolves. In the early stages you will want people with prior startup and specifically sales acceleration experience. Later on, you might want people with public market or legal expertise. At all stages, you want people who have been where you're going.

That is definitely the case with our board and its shown in every board meeting I've attended since joining Tungle. Our board is like a CEO's club. Every member is or has been a President or CEO. Great CEOs have an ability to cut through all the noise and focus on the few things that really matter. In our board meetings, we get the procedural stuff out of the way and quickly get in to the real business. I've only attended two boards since joining, but each time I've been impressed with the quality of the discussion and the suggestions and ideas that came out of it.

As entrepreneurs and managers we're immersed in the details. While we do come up for air and think strategically we're not as objective as a board member who shows up monthly. What you want from your board members is:

• Critical questioning around your assumptions
• Suggestions for new ways to approach your biggest challenges and opportunities
• Confirmation about the biggest priorities
• A push on management to see if we can go harder, faster and think bigger
• Access to people and organizations (their rolodex)

This kind of value add is not only for startups. The best boards, regardless of company size, do this. While Andy Grove was CEO of Intel for example, he took board value add very seriously. Each board meeting was two days in length. And each board member had deliverables and responsibilities. They were a big part of his strategic team.
To be clear, management is driving the bus and is ultimately accountable. Still, your board can and should help elevate the dialogue and clarify the thinking.

Does your board add this kind of value?