Insight
Warmenhoven: Early-stage boards should prioritize operating generalists over domain experts
“I wouldn't focus early on, on domain expertise or whatever. I'd focus on trying to find somebody who's been an experienced operating guy, or person, woman and who really can add to the evolution, if you will, of your business model. Not so much domain expertis…”
Insight
Warmenhoven: Co-founders and direct reports must be excluded from board executive sessions
“Since all those issues are performance related, it's really awkward to have one of the CEOs direct reports in the room. And you find a lot of board structures that start off with a CEO and a technical founder or whatever, a co-founder. Get them off. Get them o…”
Insight
Warmenhoven: Boards exist for company success, not CEO personal development
“The board is not there to help you be successful. The board is there to help the company be successful. You are expendable. Just keep that in mind. The amount of time you should spend on your personal development in a board meeting is zero.”
Opinion
Warmenhoven: Adding more than one outside director before Series B is excessive
“Any more than one outsider until you get to Series B is maybe too many mouths to feed.”
Insight
Warmenhoven: Former operators on boards effectively mediate between competing VCs
“Having somebody who's actually been an operating guy, et cetera, I think has got a lot of value, and they also can be a mediary between the various venture capitalists and ways that a CEO can't, right?”
Insight
Warmenhoven: Best board meetings minimize routine updates to discuss strategic issues
“I find the best meetings are those which are very succinct around mundane, And leave lots of time for the meaty subjects.”
Insight
Warmenhoven: The ideal public company board size is exactly eight directors
“Once you're public, I would guess it's probably about eight, the CEO plus seven others. I mean, you gotta have financial experts and comp committees and all the rest of that stuff, but any more than eight is just, I mean, it's just too many.”
Insight
Warmenhoven: Start board meetings with an unscripted, closed-door CEO report
“I encourage every CEO of every board I'm on to start the meeting that way. It's a private meeting. It's a closed-door session. It's a CEO report. What it's labeled as is no materials in advance. It's all verbal.”
