Basu Trivedi: Asking founders for a board agenda tests their self-awareness
Nikhil Basu Trivedi · Nikhil Basu Trivedi: Why 99% of AI Investments Will Go Bust | E1057 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Sep 6, 2023 · at 25:42
Footwork General Partner Nikhil Basu Trivedi details his interview tactic for evaluating founder substance during due diligence.
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“Oftentimes if I'm really digging in and really excited about something, I'll say something like, hey, let's just pretend that this is our first board meeting right now, that we just invested in the company. What's What's the main challenge topic or discussion topic that you want to have in our first board meeting right now? And the spirit of that question is just assessing, like, are they clear-eyed in their thinking right now about what's happening in the business? And can they articulate that? You know, usually you want what they say to be the most important thing that's also on your mind to prioritize and figure out in this phase, and you want some level of sort of just transparency and vulnerability around the answer. But I find that that question and the answer you get tells you tells you quite a bit.”
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