Startup Boards

“Boards don’t have to be pretentious. They don’t have to be stuffy. They really are a part of the development and growth of your business. From this series, you’ll get a real sense of how to configure and create a board in a way that’s really additive to the culture of your business.” — Brad Feld

Brad Feld, entrepreneur and early-stage investor, provides valuable guidance on how to establish a board of directors who will be there to support you, direct you, and call you out when you fall short.

Transcript

I’m a partner at a venture capital firm in Boulder, Colorado called Foundry Group. I started my first company when I was 19. We sold that company in 1993 to a public company, and between 1994 and 1996 I made about 40 angel investments. And that’s when I really started to get to understand how boards worked.

I’m Brad Feld. I invest in software internet companies all around the US. I love helping companies in the very early stages at the point at which the entrepreneurs are still trying to figure out exactly what they’re doing, and how they’re going to do it. The innovation curve is very, very rapid, and always changing. I find those challenges to be continuously fascinating. This series on “Start a Board” is going to talk to you about why you would create a board, how you create a board, what a board does, how to deal with challenges and conflicts that come up in the context of the board, and overall, how to build and develop a powerful board that can help you and your company grow and thrive.