Hey, everybody. Welcome to our Startup Legal Basics series. Really simple. I can ask a ton

of legal questions. I'm not a lawyer. I have a cursory knowledge of the law. I'm faced

with making decisions every day about legal issues in startups. This is a very specific

area of law. And startup law, corporate law, there are really two or three different things

you have to keep in mind. There's like the letter of the law, there's a spirit of the

law, and then there's like, what happens practically in Silicon Valley and the traditions?

And what people's basic expectations are. And you need to know all of these things. You

need to know what's the law and understand why it exists. I find that's very helpful.

The intent of the law. And then what are the standards and the expectations in the community

about those laws? And then practically, how do you execute them? So I'm very lucky to

have Becky to grow with us again. Becky, how are you? Good. Good. Good to be back.

We've been doing this series together where we just talk about really basic stuff. We

assume the audience is aspirational starting a company. Maybe they've already started

working on their project. Maybe they've just incorporated, but they're basically, let's

call it a year zero or year one. And one of the topics is board meetings. Why do board

meetings exist in private companies? What is the background here? What is the purpose at

its core of a board meeting? I would say that the number one purpose is good,

corporate governance. At the end of the day, like the board is driving the direction of

the company, setting the strategic plan of the company, and is in charge of a lot of

responsibilities of guiding the company. So the board should meet on a regular basis

and discuss how the company is doing, particularly in early stage companies, right, as when you're

getting things off the ground. You may have a plan for sales and for marketing and for your

...