Board Meetings 101
News, insights and updates from the team at Bloom Equity Partners
Happy Friday Founders and Friends,
We often share a lot of insights from a SaaS investors perspective but in this week’s newsletter we wanted to share some thoughts on operations; specifically board meetings.
A board meeting should serve as the backbone of operations. For any company, a board of directors can provide needed professional guidance, vision, strategic advice and so on. But effective board meetings require thorough preparation and follow-through. We recently came across an article by David Sacks that outlines the most efficient agenda.
Below is a structured outline of an efficient 1-hour board meeting;
Agenda
CEO Update
As the board of directors is not as immersed in the business as the CEO, it’s important to start with a high-level overview of the business function and then dive more into detail after the board is brought up to speed.
Action items;
What’s going well & what’s not going well
Strategic Learnings
Company Priorities
KPIs; Runway, Revenue growth, Net revenue breakdown, Cohorted retention, Engagement, Capital efficiency
Sales Update
Since most KPIs are interconnected with sales metrics, the director or head of sales should present at every board meeting to review the following action items;
Previous quarters results
Upcoming quarter’s pipeline and forecasted targets
Team performance
Other department updates
It’s important to shed some light on other departments’ efforts and allow for board members to get to know other key executives better. A product update is usually most relevant as it’s likely tied to the sales conversation.
Financials
This is where the leadership team can highlight any pressing topics related to financials (new financing rounds, burn rate, etc.). For larger teams, more planning will be required as there are more operating expenses and bottlenecks.
Team
It’s important to focus on short-term and critical hiring needs as opposed to desired hires. Highlight where the “fires” are and focus on filling those gaps.
Team and hiring needs are areas where board members can provide exceptional strategic insight and support.
If you enjoyed learning about board structure and governance make sure to check out the following below 👇
📚 High-performing boards: What’s on their agenda?
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End Note 🔚
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