Tejada: Serving as an independent board member makes executives better CEOs
Jennifer Tejada · a16z Podcast | Boards, from Both Sides of the Table · Jan 2, 2019 · at 11:35
Jennifer Tejada, CEO of PagerDuty, discusses how sitting on external corporate boards improves an executive's leadership and empathy when managing their own company and board.
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“Being a board member makes me a better CEO.”
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Tejada: All PagerDuty board members except the CEO were conflicted during fundraising
“Today, my board
Looks like a lot of venture backboards.
We have two founders and two investors and me.
It has to change because just think of the conflict, right?
I just raised around.
Everybody on the board was conflicted except me.”
Tejada: Former operators understand board trade-offs better than pure investors
“When you're having conversations around executive comp or employee stock plans or et cetera, it's really great to have somebody in the room that has been through that process and really understands the trade-offs in the way an investor just may not be able to …”
Tejada: Board governance requires a different mindset than direct operational leadership
“Probably my great learning there was that you gain a lot of insight by not being in the middle of everything, and so being sort of on the fray of how something operates and supporting the operating team is, is, exercise is a very different muscle than being in…”
Tejada: Australia's business market lags 10 to 15 years behind the US
“Everything's in like a 10, 15 year time warp from the U.S.”
Tejada: Diligence requires valuing a business independently rather than trusting others
“My learning model is to diligence something almost from the ground up and figure out How I would value that business as opposed to taking somebody else's word for it.”
Tejada: Board candidates should perform mutual due diligence on prospective boards
“And you also, if you can find a way to get to know those people in the process before you're in a room with those people, that is super helpful because there should be diligence on both sides of that equation, not just on their side or on your side.”