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Viswanathan: Delaying independent board members is a major startup mistake

Ravi Viswanathan · 20VC: Raising A $1.35Bn Fund I, The Emerging Secondary Opportunity For Early Stage Managers and Founders & What It Takes To Win The Best Growth Deals Today with Ravi Viswanathan, Founder & Managing Partner @ NewView Capital · Apr 6, 2020 · at 29:46

Ravi Viswanathan, founder and managing partner at NewView Capital, discusses common board governance blunders made as startups scale toward an IPO.

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“I think that a huge mistake is not bringing in operators and independents soon enough. What happens is you have the normal progression where there are more and more rounds getting raised, and yet another VC Nothing against us, but yet another VC joins the board, and then you want to go public, and you literally have a board of seven to 10 people, and two-thirds of them are VC. So not bringing in independence, not bringing in diversity early enough, I think is something that I've seen, and it's a mistake, and I think you should endeavor to not get to that point.”

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