The thought of putting together a board package seems to instill a lot of apprehension in founders/management of startups. That’s a shame, because – if done right – the board package will create hardly any additional work and will be an incredibly useful tool not just for making the board effective but also for managing the company. Here are some suggestions that may help:
1. Choose a format and order and stick with it. Good to start with a “what’s working and what is not”, together with or followed by KPIs.
2. Pick no more than one big topic to go into detail on. This could be the biggest problem you face, the biggest opportunity, etc. Trying to cram too much into one package virtually guarantees it won’t get enough attention.
3. Have each of your key management team members contribute a section to the board package on their area. They too should pick a format and try to stick to it.
4. The KPIs and team member sections and possibly even the “what is working and what’s not” should be part of your day-to-day management process. The only extra time for board package should be putting these into a single file.
5. There are no points for production value. These should be working documents not Powerpoint Extravaganzas.
6. Send the package out about between 48 and 24 hours before the board meeting. Much earlier and folks will forget to read it (“I have plenty of time to get to this”). Last minute and folks won’t have time to read. In either case dangerous, because most directors will have an off-the-cuff reaction anyhow in the meeting (certainly no shortage of opinion among most VCs, myself included). But the off-the-cuff and the having-slept-on-it opinions may be quite different.
7. Avoid big (negative) surprises. If board members find out about things going poorly from the board package you are not communicating enough directly. See Tip #1 for this (sorry, no link - writing on my BB).
8. Provide spreadsheets in .xls format in addition to any summary that you may have included in the deck. Often I want to draw a chart for myself or calculate some ratios that you might not have. Don’t want to have to retype to do that.
9. Don’t make the deck a data dump. Attaching backup data is great (as per #8) but the board needs to know what you believe the data means or if you don’t know at least what the key question is that it raises.
10. Include one unexpected item somewhere in the deck. This could be a chart with a surprising metric or an odd quote from a customer or competitor. That may sound like unnecessary extra work, but I would be surprised if in the course of one month of running your startup you don’t come across at least one item that makes you laugh (or cry) or at least scratch your head. Share that with the board.
If despite doing all of the above you have a board member who regularly has not read the board package before the meeting, you will have to challenge him or her on it (obviously not in the board meeting). Much as you might want the responsibility for that to rest with someone else, it is not likely that another board member will take this on and you may discover something useful in the process.
