Hi everyone, welcome to the A6 and Z podcast. Today's episode continues our ever-ongoing board

management series and focuses on how to get the most out of your board, especially when it comes

to independence. Why do you need them? How do you bring them in? We share a lot of practical

advice for both CEOs and board members on how to decide on the position and functional fit,

how do you adjust, how do you onboard, and so on. The conversation took place earlier this year as part of our annual

directors college at Stanford University and is moderated by A6 and Z managing partner

Scott Cooper in conversation with general partner and success factors founder Lars Dahlgard

and executive coach and former investor Anne Mitchell. Both Lars and Ann served on company boards all the way from private company stage to IPO.

You know, there were two founders, CEO, and I was a third VC board seat.

So it went through being a private company board for seven years.

And then for three years, I served as an independent director and chair the nominating

corporate governance committee.

So over those 10 years, you think of it almost like an organization that had to mature and

develop, almost like it was a startup board, and that meant that we operated like a startup

board, the materials, the discussion, the dynamics in the meetings.

And then as the company matured,

we as a board had to also evolve and grow up and mature with our processes. And that involved

bringing in other independent directors, which we did as, you know, I'd say it was two years

before an IPO and then right before the IPO, maybe three months before an additional audit

share. And then after the IPO, we also months before an additional audit share.

And then after the IPO, we also substantively changed the board to, again, move VCs off the board as well.

You have to think of it as a life cycle, almost like you would accompany.

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