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The a16z Show

a16z Podcast: How To Get The Most From Your Board

The a16z Show

a16z

Culture, Business, Science, Disruption, Technology, Software Eating The World, Entrepreneurship, Innovation

4.21.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2019

⏱️ 21 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this final of a 3-part series (which originally aired as YouTube videos) on working with venture investors, a16z Managing Partner Scott Kupor shares best practices for working with your board as it grows from just you, your co-founders and first i...

Transcript

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0:00.0

The content here is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal business,

0:05.2

tax, or investment advice, or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed

0:10.4

at any investors or potential investors in any A16Z fund. For more details, please a16.com

0:16.8

slash disclosures.

0:17.8

I'm Frank Chen. Today I'm here with Scott Cooper and we are now in part three of three of our

0:25.2

demystifying Silicon Valley. This part is all about living with your investor. As Scott will point out,

0:32.3

the average length of time that you will work with a venture investor, eight, 10, 12 years is longer than the

0:39.6

average marriage, terrifying statistic. And so you want to make sure that you understand how to work

0:45.2

and pick with an investor that you can live with over a long period of time. And so we're going to

0:50.0

talk about ways that you can think about getting the most out of your venture investor and board

0:55.2

member and how to handle situations from the bad situations where you have to wind down the company

1:01.7

to the awesome situations where we hope you find yourself, which is you're doing an IPO for your

1:07.0

company. So let's dig right into it. Let's talk a little bit about fundamentally what do I want from my investor and usually they'll

1:14.5

live basically as my board member.

1:16.0

Yeah, right?

1:17.0

Like what are the big things I'm looking for?

1:18.0

Yeah, so look, I think, you know, certainly you want a board member and all the things

1:20.7

that a board member entails, which is hopefully they are a good coach, a good mentor, a

1:24.5

good sounding board for you. Hopefully they're good stewards of corporate

1:27.9

governance and help you kind of think through important strategic decisions for the company.

1:31.4

But then I think more importantly, you know, and this extends beyond often just a general

1:35.1

partner who's sitting on your board, you want some, you know, you want some value from them

...

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