About this episode
Anu Hariharan is a partner at YC. Today’s episode is about her recent post, How To Manage a Board . You can find her on Twitter @anuhariharan . If you’re interested in doing Startup School this year, signups are open at StartupSchool.org . The course just started and the deadline to sign up is August 4th. Select companies who complete the course will also receive 15,000 dollars in equity-free funding. The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . Y Combinator invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups (recently 200), twice a year. Learn more about YC and apply for funding here: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/ *** Topics 00:00 - Intro 00:57 - Why Anu wrote How to Manage a Board 2:27 - Board composition 4:27 - Adding independent board members 6:27 - The responsibilities of a board member 9:12 - Productive board meetings 12:52 - Sharing materials before the meeting 13:42 - Bringing executives into the meeting 16:57 - Dealing with board conflict 18:22 - Following up after a board meeting 21:12 - Dealing with difficult board members 23:57 - Reality distortion 24:52 - Agustin Feuerhake asks - What does it take to be a great board member? 27:22 - Dave Bailey asks - To what extent should the board culture reflect the company culture? 29:42 - Connor Abene asks - How do you think about adding board members who haven't worked in your industry but you think are good? 33:22 - Rhina asks - Could you address managing a board during product market fit time/ pivot times?