In this interview with Jeremy Glaser, who is a partner at the law firm Mintz Levin and also serves as Co-Chair of the firm’s Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Practice, we discuss the importance of treating board seats as valuable assets. Find board members that to fill important gaps that exist on you team.
Jeremy: What I’ll usually do when an entrepreneur comes in and we’re talking about their board, Often, they will come to me and ask, “I need to add board members. Do you have any recommendations of people that you think would be good additions?” I always take a step back and say, “A board seat is a very valuable asset for your business. You should view it that way. You don’t want to waste that board seat on people you can get access to already.” For example, I see people who have their CFO on their board of directors. I see people who have their outside lawyer on their board of directors. I see them with their VP of sales on the board of directors.
To me, that makes no sense. You can get access to your lawyer anytime you want. You can pick up the phone and talk to your lawyer. You can certainly get access to your CFO and VP of sales. What does having them on the board do? You’ve taken a valuable piece of real estate that can be used to give you access to information, experience and insights that you don’t have within your existing team.
I tell every CEO to take a step back. Assess yourself. Assess your management team. Find out where the gaps are. When you see gaps that you need to fill to drive the business, then find board members that fill those gaps.
This is Patrick Henry, CEO of QuestFusion, with The Real Deal…What Matters.