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VC board members must keep their nose in and fingers out

Kent Godfrey · 20 VC 005: Be The Best CEO with Kent Godfrey · Jan 19, 2015 · at 9:34

Kent Godfrey, partner at Pond Ventures and former CEO, discusses the boundary VCs must maintain between oversight and operational interference.

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“When you flip the table and you become the VC and a board member and a representative of the money you've invested, your fingers really need to stay out. Your nose is in, and you're constantly smelling for things that don't smell right, and you're letting the CEO know that your sense is that this or that is not You know, really going in the right direction, but you really need to stop at that point, and you can't really, you know, stick your fingers in there”

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