Building a Board

Take a look at “Don’t give away your board seat,” for a great briefing on board of directors versus advisors, and how to leverage both effectively.

For more details around how to build an effective board, check out the Primer for Building an Effective Board by the Kauffman Foundation.

Building the founding team is critical, as your business will need different skill sets for success. The following post discusses the key to building great founding teams. At the early stage of your business, it is also important to realize you will need team members that are beyond the traditional job title. This article on hiring discusses some of the most salient points in why recruiting and managing teams can be one of the biggest challenges at the early stages of a startup - specifically when you are still validating business models and pivoting products.

Cap Table

One of the most critical cap table issue to keep in mind as a female founder is the Gap Table. The Gap Table refers to the fact that women are significantly underrepresented in equity ownership. The following article #TheGapTable gives you an overview by #Angels (a group of ex-Twitter women executives, who banded together to encourage greater diversity with their investments).

As suggested by #Angels, “You control your cap table, who gets shares, and how many. The people you bring in early on, both investors and team members, will be among the largest shareholders in the company. Prioritize diversity from day one. Ask your investors for introductions to women and underrepresented minority co-investors and early hires.”

Vision

A Vision Statement is the north star of an organization. It defines why your organization exists and its purpose. It explains the state of the world or community as a result of your company achieving its mission. A great framework for thinking about the “why” is the Golden Circle by Simon Sineck. If you are unfamiliar with the framework, the following five-minute video gives you an overview by Simon: The Golden Circle.

Resources

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