Board meeting etiquette is undervalued
Everyone takes board meetings seriously, but I noticed companies that go the extra mile leave a lasting impression on stakeholders, and as a result, are more likely to receive proactive support and/or follow-on funding. In tight capital markets like today’s, every little boost helps. I lay out a few examples of what I mean by the ‘extra mile’ below.
Note: this presumes prior knowledge of how to structure a board deck/agenda. If you don’t have sufficient context, check out Crossbeam’s board meeting template here.
Devising a proper engagement strategy for board members
When it comes to board meetings, the best management teams do the basics right i.e. they schedule and add calendar invites for every board meeting at the beginning of the year, and send board meeting materials ahead of time (we advise 48-72 hours ahead of the meeting). This allows for the meeting itself to be used for discussions and not updates or other reporting activities.
We also recommend doing 1:1 calls with your board members beforehand to preview challenges/discussion points ahead of time to get the juices flowing, instead of shocking them at a meeting. This time should be used to discuss what 2-3 bullet points would define a 10/10 meeting i.e. what key decisions need to be made on this meeting.
Lastly, as Zoom meetings become more commonplace, it may be worthwhile to request everyone to have their video on. It may displease some people, but board meetings are serious business and members have a duty to oblige. Whenever possible, try to host meetings in person – we’ve found that it builds better empathy and rapport. The commitment to travel, even if short, acts as a nudging mechanism for everyone to make the most out of the allotted time together.
Leaning into the negative to build trust
As a founder/management group, it is important for your board to focus on all the things that went right as opposed to the things that went poorly. For seasoned board members, these events are actually an opportunity to demonstrate proper risk management. Whether it’s an internal crisis/error or a structural challenge, being candid and tackling the issue head-on has been a stand-out characteristic. We advise our companies to have a ‘learnings’ or ‘market intelligence’ section in meetings, with specific case study slides that dive deep.
Relatedly, these challenges should not come as a surprise – which is why the 1:1 calls are key. The common example of a ‘surprise’ we see is around cash balances. At pre-seed / seed stages, that is your literal lifeline and it’s important to be as transparent as possible about current balances and events that could cause drags in cash. As the markets continue to be tough with stakeholders cutting spend across the board, it will be more common to miss sales targets. We recommend over vs. under communicating the reasons behind why, so people have time to digest before coming to a board meeting - the goal is for people to come in with a mindset to present solutions versus dwelling on the problem itself.
Come time to raise a bridge round for example, board members will have already digested the problem, come up with a solution, and go out to market as a unified front. The bias from being an ‘insider’ is stronger than you think. As the bar for investments gets higher and higher, we are seeing more and more investors ask to do reference calls with current investors to understand management operating competence and reporting cadence; every little bit helps.
Turning board ideas into motion
In my opinion, there is a secret to doing follow-up enforcement well – the junior board observer. My hunch is that founders do not utilize junior board observers enough when most are hungry to add value and make a positive impression.
For your next board meeting, see if you can assign this person (if you don’t have one, consider inviting your board observer VC to staff an additional junior member) to track and send around follow-ups discussed at the meeting. The goal is to listen for slight suggestions and points made between the lines e.g. did someone bring up an alternative way to show a chart, or that the font was too small to read? Record it. Did you notice on LinkedIn, that the decision-maker at customer X and your board member Y were in the same year in college? Record it. Once you have all these records, you can move quickly to follow up on them. This will free up management to focus on the board meeting discussion versus constantly context-switching to note-taking duty.
We recommend sharing your customer/partner pipeline for introductions as follow-ups*, discussing challenges openly and early in the meeting (can not stress the importance of 1:1s enough), and asking board members to share your content in certain channels, etc. As with many other things, you may be surprised with what you can get when you ask - even if it’s not exactly what you envisioned, the next best thing they offer might be even better!
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In general, board meetings are a reflection of how well you are running the company. Being thoughtful about the small details can not only make the difference in your next funding round but can also take away a lot of the stress that comes from putting materials together and managing the dynamics of a board. The extra effort may pay off materially.
*Note: some founders tell me that this is tough because they fear information leakage. In these cases, we suggest you share partially redacted or abridged versions, but more importantly, fix trust issues!
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