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Brad Feld: Startup Boards and Lessons from Four Decades in VC
Description
(0:00) Intro
(1:36) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel
(2:23) Start of interview
(3:11) Brad's origin story
(4:54) Venture Capital Beginnings
(5:39) The Rise of the Internet
(8:10) His role in Softbank Technology Ventures and later Mobius Venture Capital. Reference to Heidi Roizen E6, E108 and E116
(12:26) Transition to Techstars and Foundry
(13:36) Origin and focus of his book Startup Boards. Reference to his blog post: Feld Thoughts. "Boards (and board members) for private companies operate on a bell curve" (some are excellent, some are horrific, and most are average).
(15:31) The Evolution of Founder-Friendly Terms
(30:06) Effective Board Composition
(35:00) Defining a Great Board: the Board as a Team. Reference to Matt Blumberg's Rule of 1s: see E52 (2022)
(38:05) "The goal of the board is to get different skill sets around the table" "I think a founder should fight against investors having additional observer seats."
(41:13) Why he considers it a red flag when a director claims they're acting out of "fiduciary duty." *Reference to the Startup Litigation Digest
(44:50) Governance concerns in the AI Boom
(47:37) Books that have greatly influenced his life:
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (1974)
- The entire pantheon of Neal Stephenson and William Gibson
- Science fiction written by female writers (as a category)
- Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons
(50:05) His mentors: Len Fassler and his uncle, Charlie Feld.
(51:55) Quotes that he thinks of often or lives his life by: from his Dad: "If you're not standing on the edge, you're taking up too much space.", from Len: "Brad, they can't kill you and they can't eat you. Suit up."
(53:00) An unusual habit or an absurd thing that he loves. "I love philanthropically funding bathrooms." Also, the Banana Lounge at MIT.
(55:38) The living person he most admires: his wife Amy Batchelor.
Brad Feld has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. He co-founded two venture capital firms, Foundry Group and Mobius Venture Capital, and multiple companies, including Techstars.
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