About the Session
Aaron Tan, a teenage prodigy in Singapore, founded his first tech startup when he was 13. He then went on to set up and sell two more companies before turning 21, and stayed with Singtel Innov8, the venture capital arm of Singapore Telecommunications, for five years as one of the terms of his state-sponsored scholarship.
Today, Aaron is the CEO of Singapore-based Carro, an automotive marketplace and services portal that started from his love of trading cars, not driving them.
In his founder-turned-VC-turned-founder-again journey, he's amassed a treasure trove of wisdom around many things - including running great board meetings.
Session Summary
The best board meetings achieve two goals (1) Provide relevant information to board members (2) Help founders and core team makes decisions to drive company forward
What’s the ideal board size? For early stage companies, 3 is a good number to start with. For growth stage companies, 5 or 7 will do. Keep it tight to reduce noise. Typically, you want to have an odd number of board members for voting and decision making.
No one should be there for a free ride. People on your board should be there as they have relevant experience in areas where you need help - be it marketing, product, operations. Have a keen sense of their strengths and weaknesses, and leverage their skills and experience to help to think through problems. As the company grows with each round of funding, you may find yourself having to adjust and realign the make-up of the board.
Understand the differences between Independent, Observers and Board members.
Board influence doesn’t undermine a founder’s leadership and autonomy. Investors mostly mean well. While it pays to be careful and discerning, don’t overthink or get paranoid. Board members may invite junior team members to tag along or observe meetings. This is usually harmless as they are there to learn, take minutes and ensure that no important updates are missed out.
Rhythm and Style. Board meetings should be scheduled at least once every quarter. Don’t be afraid of stretching it out to make space for deep discussion. A full board meeting should go over 2 hours.
Be present as a founder. Preparing a board deck is an opportunity for the founder to take a step back from the day-to-day stuff and evaluate yourself. Involve the rest of the team to pull in metrics and charts, and delve into their areas of expertise. But as a founder, take charge of the process and at the board meeting itself.
Prepare in advance. General meeting hygiene applies. Make sure everyone is informed in advance. Encourage discussion and get to them.
The Grand Follow-Up. Board meetings are only useful if they move things forward. Take copious notes and have a clear, active plan after. Send out meeting minutes in the same week for everyone to review them while their memory is still fresh.
