Boards
Want a strategic board discussion? Don’t bring a 45-slide operations review. Your deck determines the meeting you’ll have, regardless of the stated agenda. Here’s how to design each segment and build slides that support the conversation you actually want.
Boards
I did this analysis last year and it became a popular post, so I figured I'd do the same retrospective today. Following are the ten most-read Kellblog posts in 2025, regardless of the year in which they were written -- and it includes some golden oldies. 1. What
Boards
The Hippocratic Oath is a well known oath of ethics taken by physicians. It requires them to swear, among other things, to do no harm in dealing with patients. While chatting with a VC the other day, it occurred to me that we should have a similar concept for startup
Boards
While I could write the equivalent of 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover when it comes to variations on how to get fired as CEO, the purpose of this post is simply to discuss three things CEOs can say to their boards that will perk their ears and get them
Boards
A critical part of the CEO's job is realizing when it's time to sell the company. I'm not talking about the easy cases, like when you're in year five of running a PE-backed company, and the numbers suggest an exit that
CEO
The cleverest answer I've heard to the question "When would you sell your startup?" is, "When somebody offers me more than I think it's worth." It's clever alright, but it's not that helpful. It's a meta-
CEO
It's fun when the person who ran marketing at one of your rivals asks you some 20 years later to speak at their annual conference. It's even more fun when it's a fellow CMO-turned-CEO and he's assembled quite an amazing
CEO
Long-time readers will know I like making reductionist mission statements for roles in the organization. For example: * Marketing exists is to make sales easier. The mantra that helped me rise from PMM to CMO. * HR exists to help managers manage. * Professional services exists to maximize ARR while not losing
Boards
I’ve been CEO of two startups and on the board of about ten. That means I’ve presented a lot of operating plans to boards. It also means I've had a lot of operating plans presented to me. Frankly, most of the time, I don’t love
CEO
Working in my capacity at as an EIR at Balderton Capital, I have recently written a new publication, The Balderton Founder's Guide to B2B Sales, with the able support of Balderton Principal Michael Lavner and the entire Balderton Capital team. This guide is effectively a new edition, and
Boards
[Restructured. See notes.] I think board meetings should have more discussions and fewer proposals. Why? * The hardest questions often don't lend themselves well to proposals. Think: global warming, cultural divisiveness. Or, in business: investor alignment, exit strategy, or a flawed corporate strategy. You're not going to
CEO
I talked to a founder a while back who felt like they'd lost a year or two thanks to some strategic distractions foisted upon them by a well-meaning board of directors. While most startup boards try to follow the Hippocratic Oath, some -- like well-meaning but overbearing