I have written quite a few posts on the topic of Boards of Directors.  Just put in “board of directors” into the search bar.  As a quick review, it is the Board of Directors or “Board” that literally by law makes all critical decisions for the company.  The Board has to vote on issuing stock, approving the annual budget, setting the company’s strategy, changing the company’s by-laws and certificate of incorporation, selling the company, merging with another company, hiring officers like the CEO, shutting the company down, etc.  The list goes on and on.  Good corporate governance is critical at startups and other companies alike!

The importance of the Board is why institutional investors (like VCs) often get a seat on the Board after an investment.  The Board discusses and agrees on strategy.  Discussion is critical.  But don’t be fooled, there is an element of control as investors want a say in critical decisions.  This is pretty natural if you think about.  VCs typically do not want to control the board vote, they just want a seat at the decision table.

When CVF invests we often take a board seat (probably 95% of the time) and when we don’t we take an observer seat (5% of the time).  If the board is already large and we are coming into the company later in its stage of growth, then an observer seat might be fine.

One situation is really scary though.  Sometimes at the seed stage, the company founder insists that he/she be the only board member and that once more financing is raised that the board composition will be normalized (code word for “adding more members”).  From my perspective, this is typically a sign of paranoia.  

I have now done 2 deals where there has been a lead investor (not CVF) who did not mind the “founder as sole board member” trap.  We followed in line with the lead investor and went along with the structure.  This was a HUGE mistake that I will never make again.  Both companies have since failed for different reasons:  one had no product market fit after 3 years of trying.  And one gave up prematurely.  Regardless, had there been an actual board of directors with 2 or 3 members I am pretty confident that the end result would have been better.

Never again.