We have invested in many first time founding teams that have never participated in a board meeting before.
To make them useful it’s good to be prepared and engage your board.
Here is an outline I like to use. Of course there can be versions of this depending on the stage of the company.
But for early stage, I think the following works pretty well.
- Overview and metrics
- Product update and roadmap
- Staffing
- Objectives for the year and progress against those goals
- Challenges/problems/issues
- Financial update (income statement and balance sheet)
- Assignments and help. Give your board members assignments and hold them accountable
- Feedback and open issues.
For an early stage company I’ve seen CEOs drive this agenda in 90minutes and some take 3hours. I’m less hung up on time although sending out materials in advance and keeping the meeting focused are helpful in keeping things on the quicker side.
Hope this helps.