George Bradt: Onboarding do's and don'ts for Board Members

02/17/20 • 42 min

Would you like to know how to make sure your onboarding as a Board member is a success?

Well, our conversation with George Bradt details the do’s and don’ts of leaders onboarding, with a focus on Board members. Learn how to get a head start, how to manage the communication aspects of onboarding, and how to set direction.

So, are you ready for Boarding?

If you want more personalized advice on executive onboarding, check out what George is up to at www.primegenesis.com and on Twitter @georgebradt. For more podcasts on how to build better Boards, join us at www.boardsnetwork.com and follow us on twitter @boardsnetwork.

Would you like to know how to make sure your onboarding as a Board member is a success?

So, are you ready for Boarding?

Previous Episode

Benjamin Levin: Styles Make Fights, Styles Make Boards

Would you like to know how a non-traditional path in Private Equity can lead you to establish your own investment firm? Would you like to learn how Board formation should be approached for bootstrapped technology businesses? Would you like to know how information can best flow between management and its shareholders through the Board?

Ben Levin shares what he has learned about Boards and investing throughout his career. By listening to this episode, you will learn why getting more responsibilities early on in your career matters, how to become the translation engine between management and shareholders, and how to develop your own style as a Board member.

If you want to follow some of the best growth investors in technology, check out what Ben and his team are up to at www.levelequity.com. You can also follow Ben and Level Equity on twitter @bslevin5000 & @LevelEquity. For more podcasts on how to build better Boards, join us at www.boardsnetwork.com and follow us on twitter @boardsnetwork.

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undefined - Nikhil Basu Trivedi: Taking A Chance On Young Board Members, First Boards As A Venture Capitalist, And More Insights On The Role Of Observers

Nikhil Basu Trivedi: Taking A Chance On Young Board Members, First Boards As A Venture Capitalist, And More Insights On The Role Of Observers

What is it like to be on a Board with heavy hitters such as Mamoon Hamid (KPCB), Aileen Lee (Cowboy), and Angela Strange (Andreessen Horowitz)? Why are google docs not an entirely bad idea to share the Board deck with Board members? Why can Observers have a relationship advantage with founders compared to Board Directors?

Nikhil is a board member/observer at ClassDojo, Frame.io, Imperfect Produce, Plays.tv, Tally, The Farmer’s Dog. He has co-sponsored many of Shasta’s investments since joining the team in 2012. Nikhil was named in 2015 to Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 list for Venture Capital.

In this episode, we discuss how Observers can be in the ear of the entrepreneurs without the tension that exists between a Board Director and the CEO. We discuss why Observers can be strong allies for CEOs by being an informal point of contact for them to better understand the Board, and oftentimes they have more capacity to do work.

Nikhil also reflects on his first investment as lead and first Board seat as full Director at The Farmer’s Dog when he was still a Principal, why your first Board seat is as much the founder betting on you than the other way around, and more generally why that first Board seat is so special. Finally, we also debate why alignment is usually not an issue in early stage VC, and hence why the first role of a Board member in early stage startups is to provide services to the founders and make sure their Board duties don’t consume too much of their time and energy.
If like Nikhil, you are interested in consumer-oriented businesses and the transformation of healthcare, education, energy, and the life sciences by mobile and web technologies, you should absolutely follow him on Twitter @nbt. For more information on his firm, follow @shasta or visit their website www.shastaventures.com. For more podcasts on how to build better Boards, join us at www.boardsnetwork.com and follow us on Twitter @boardsnetwork.