🌊 Board of Directors
👋 Hello! I’m Ivan. I write monthly about startups, venture capital, and go-to-market + a monthly Spanish dealflow brief. Join +8.5K startup riders:
Summary
🌊 Board of Directors: the 80/20 on running one effectively.
💡 Thinking: how to fail at fundraising.
💵 Iberian Deals: 14 startup deals (>€40M).
🍫 Meme of the month: the AI founder starter kit.
🌊 How to run a board at Seed
Boards are getting bigger.
But, a big board ≠ a good board.
When do you actually need a board?
At pre-seed: you don't need a board.
At seed: you may need a small board, with a clear purpose.
What is the purpose of a board?
To define strategy.
To set and monitor annual budgets.
To maintain executive management accountability.
What should the advisor's role be?
To act as a peer and copilot, not just a cheerleader or critic.
To ask good questions that help the founder gain perspective.
To provide stability and access.
When prompted, to offer and open up your network for recruitment, partnerships, and customer acquisition.
When prompted, to be readily available, providing support as needed, even outside of board meetings.
How should a good advisor behave?
Speak only when you have something substantial to contribute.
Guide through insightful questioning rather than directive instructions.
How should the board meeting be executed?
Think carefully about how to setup an effective board: a smaller board is preferable at early-stage, it keeps you nimble and effective. Normally, you'll have 1 or 2 founders representing "common stock" and 1 investor representing each type of preferred shares (at Seed, should be 2+1). Do not underestimate how quickly logistics and noise can negatively impact the efficacy of your board as you expand it.
Send an agenda prior to the board, and ask for specific feedback (I repeat, ask for specific feedback). Do not allow any board member to show up unprepared. This is a big no-no.
Prepare the presentation. This requires effort, but the exercise itself is almost as valuable as the meeting. It is a moment for founders to build out a mission control room that is as tight and clear as possible.
Prepare the room, execute, compile feedback.
What can you do after the meeting?
Share the presentation and discussion points with the team to foster transparency and a strategic understanding of the company’s direction.
Bibliography:
by .💡 How to fail at fundraising
Here's your step-by-step guide (but seriously, do the opposite):
Never ask yourself if your business needs venture capital Vs other options.
Never ask for a warm introduction through a mutual connection.
Never ask portfolio company founders from your target fund what it is like working with them.
Never personalise your deck.
Always ignore all b2b sales processes and tactics to ensure proper targeting, batching, and follow-up timing.
During the pitch, ensure you never provide the bottom line upfront.
Use complex language with lots of buzzwords.
Make sure to never summarise your problem and solution in clear terms.
Use as much text per slide as possible.
Use lots of confusing colours and shapes in every slide.
Give them the impression that you’ve spent more money and time on the deck’s design than thinking about what problem to solve.
Make the deck at least 30 slides, include a large appendix.
Never role play beforehand.
Don't spend any time preparing a good story explaining why you and your team are the right humans to solve the problem you are attacking.
Never prepare hard questions. Do not practice telling a story about the market, the twists and turns it has taken, and which obstacles you are likely to face.
Never talk about the hardships and issues the business may be experiencing, make sure you don't bring them up proactively.
Don't provide a clear and contrarian view of the world.
Always burn all bridges.
What am I missing? Let me know in the comments section.
💵 Iberian Deals
You love startups and want to enjoy a Spanish lifestyle? Come join the Spanish startup ecosystem. Here’s a list of recently funded startups:
Multiverse Computing (quantum computing) raised €25m.
Ability Pharmaceuticals (biopharma) raised €7m
LuxQuanta (quantum cryptography) raised €2.5m
BLAINE (ecommerce) raised €2.3m.
Braingaze (healthtech) raised €1.5m.
Filtroo (social networking) raised €1m.
MediterraneanAlgae (foodtech) raised over €1m.
Imageryst (geospatial) raised €700k.
Onconstellae (biotech) raised €500k+.
EZ Telecom (telco) raised €500k.
WEITEC (agritech) raised €365k.
INSPECTRAIL (infrastructure) raised €330k.
MITO Materials Invisible to Oxygen SL raised €180k.
🍫 Meme of the month
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P.s. I run a private tech sales community & sales education platform for spanish-speaking GTM teams called Revenue Squared. Apply here.
Este boletín es muy bueno, esta edición es imprescindible!!
As an advisor to early stage startups, be very thoughtful in your selection of advisors and board members. You’re not hiring friends. You need objective insights, more data led support than advice, active listeners, and “hold founders accountable” type leaders. Concise and constructive support. Note-Experience matters. And last, if advisors/board members don’t add value, don’t hesitate to replace them.