This looks productive...
At First Round we have a great network of CEO’s in the portfolio and they are frequently engaged in conversation on our CEO mailing list. Recently, a meme on running great board meetings got started and a list of best practices emerged. After seeing the same question on Quora and discussing it with the CEO who started the conversation on our list, I decided to summarize it in these 10 points and post it as an answer within the Quora thread as well.
- Send out materials 3+ days in advance (making it fair to expect everyone to have reviewed them in preparation for the meeting) and expect everyone to review them prior to the meeting.
- No blackberries
- 2-3 hour meetings, preferably with dinner the night before or lunch before.(Social time makes the subsequent meeting time better and most investor’s heads will explode if they are away from their blackberry for more than 3 hours anyway)
- Simple 1 page dashboard to review the business numbers (Ideally these metrics are consistent over time and create a shared sense of past, present and future performance)
- Move the administrative stuff to before the meeting and get it done in 1-2 minutes. (If it can’t be covered in 1-2 minutes it probably isn’t administrative stuff)
- Move the financial discussion to the end of the meeting (this section always drives investors into the weeds and board meetings should be primarily about the forest view on the company)
- Many fewer slides. More discussion. (Because you sent the materials out 3+ days in advance, you want to leave time for your well prepared board to share their insight)
- Bring in the subject matter experts from your team.
- Deep dive on one topic per board meeting is far more productive than trying to go deep on everything. (It is critical to prioritize the topics and push for guidance on areas most critical to the success of the business)
- Your board members have to do work. Come with a list of specific “asks” to each meeting. (This could be another area where a 1 page dashboard could be helpful…nothing like a scoreboard to motivate people.)
I have seen each of these things done well across the boards I work on and while every CEO should bring their flavor to this list, as general guidance I hope it helps.
I look forward to learning about other things that you think we should add or specific objections in the comments.
#1 by Kent Goldman on July 2, 2010 - 1:07 am
#11. Provide your Board with access to your Google Analytics so that they can come to the meeting prepared to discuss the implications of your user data and how to improve it, rather than spending time walking them through it.
#2 by phineasb on July 2, 2010 - 1:16 am
This is a great one for board meetings and also for efficient engagement with board members between meetings.
Phineas Barnes
Principal, First Round Capital
http://www.frc.vc/phin
http://www.sneakerheadVC.com
http://www.twitter.com/phineasb
#3 by Jesse Middleton on July 20, 2010 - 8:54 pm
One thing I'd always like to hear are decent ambiguous questions instead of pointed questions. I hear many people asking, “How do I do X, Y and Z?” when they should be asking, “If you were in my shoes now, what would your next steps be and how would you go about accomplishing them?”
Not sure if other people prefer this method but I find it sparks the conversation and gets to talking more about possibilities than straight on problem solving.
#4 by startupcfo on July 21, 2010 - 4:41 pm
Great list. Board meetings tend to be painful for most entrepreneurs. There is so much potential in them given the experience of people who qualify to sit on boards. Often, that potential is lost.
Here are my own thoughts on the subject:
http://www.startupcfo.ca/?p=69
http://www.startupcfo.ca/?p=163
#5 by David Cohen on July 23, 2010 - 4:15 am
Glad I can bring the iPhone!
#6 by phineasb on July 23, 2010 - 4:33 am
Only if it is the iPhone4 and you hold it lefty…