Your startup’s board is a strategic asset, only if you design it that way
October 2025
Alline Akintore
Over a decade ago as a startup operator, I didn’t fully appreciate our board. Board prep felt like overhead, meetings felt like checkpoints, and conversations were reactive. I often left feeling drained instead of sharpened and energized. We had a board, but we never built a great one or used it well.
Years later, my perspective has changed and I see the missed opportunity more clearly: having a board wasn’t the problem, it was how we designed and used it. Frankly, we under-invested in it. We saw the board as a reporting function and not one of the highest leverage assets in our company.
I see this today with some of the founders we meet: they underestimate the outsized impact of a high-functioning board. I recognize that the line is thin: because boards have very real legal and fiduciary responsibilities, they can be viewed defensively – as a group that CEOs answer to rather than one that they build. Because of that thin line, a board will default to oversight if, like we did, you fail to give it a more strategic role with the company. Boards are strategic only when the CEO intentionally designs them to be.
Designing your board
Be meticulous about board composition. One important mind shift as a CEO is to treat board construction as a key leadership decision and not a legal formality – even though it is an investor requirement.
At OVF, we encourage founders to put structure around board design early, ideally as soon as the company raises institutional capital. For us that means giving thought to the skill sets needed in the room; it means resisting the trap of surrounding yourself with agreeable voices; and lastly, adding at least one independent director early.
Independents, when well chosen, are the CEO's force multiplier. They bring operational judgment, stage-specific pattern recognition, and neutrality. They are not there to represent a cap table position but to help build a company. It is also one of the few levers of board composition in the CEO’s control. Use it. Independents allow you to reach for the moon: if there is a high-profile individual that could be a fit for you and your business, it’s usually easier to ask them to join your board than it is to recruit them as an executive on your team.
Shape your board culture
Even with the right people at the table, your board won’t default to the best version of itself unless you proactively work to shape the culture, the cadence, and the standards.
Make meetings strategic:
Preparation is what separates strategic board meetings from tactical ones. Send materials in advance and expect board members to ask questions beforehand and come prepared. Use meeting time to address three or four real questions facing the business and not to read out slides. One of the benefits of asking for questions ahead of time is that you can invite relevant team members to address them; this lets your board meet your team and even give you feedback on the team’s caliber.
Build relationships between meetings:
Great boards are earned between meetings. Schedule occasional 1:1s to deepen context and trust. Keep your board informed. Short email updates work well; share metrics, milestones, market shifts,and especially hard news – in real time. If you’re contemplating a major decision, get the board engaged early (don’t wait for the meeting) so they can partner in the process rather than react to it. And expect deliverables from your board members every quarter. A customer intro, a market insight, a candidate for hire, a hard question, something…
If you take anything away from this, it’s that if designed well, your board could be your unfair advantage. Not just a formality or a distraction but a catalyst.