Chalfen: Board meetings fail when treated as reporting forums
Mike Chalfen · Mike Chalfen: How to Build Anti-Fragile Venture Portfolios Today | 20VC #904 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jul 8, 2022 · at 1:03:17
Mike Chalfen, solo GP at Chalfen Ventures, shares insights on optimizing startup board meetings by separating factual status updates from strategic discussions.
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“You know, I think too many boards are talking shops, but even good boards I think are inefficient. So, you know, with the board, you want to clarify any factual questions up front. Then, you know, so information should come out early, factual questions clarified, and then sort of agenda reprioritize according to what feedback is on what the big issues appear to be. Then you want to focus the discussion on those issues. It shouldn't be a reporting sort of forum. So I think that's one of the reasons why boards aren't very helpful is that they're misconceived as reporting for us. And you should really split apart facts and reporting from the strategic issues arising. That's where you should focus your time.”
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