Board Meeting Frequency

Brad Feld has a blog post up on how often venture backed companies should have board meetings.

It’s one of his classic "how to" posts that make Brad’s blog a must read.

Here’s the summary paragraph in case you don’t feel compelled to click thru (you should):

Our experience suggests a private, venture-backed company should have
between 8 and 12 meetings a year, with at least half of them face to
face. As a company grows and matures, the number of in person meetings
will logically decrease, but should never fall below one each quarter,
preferably in the first month of the quarter so the performance of the
previous quarter can be reviewed while it is still fresh and current.

I think that’s solid advice. But I like monthly meetings myself and I hate doing board meetings via phone. The only thing you can do well over the phone is update people. Forget about having a meaningful discussion ovder the phone unless the call is very short and you have a very specific item to discuss.

#VC & Technology