The silent startup killer

Most board members fall short.

It’s really hard to be a good board member. I’ve tried many times, and if you’re honest with yourself, the whole dynamic is incredibly difficult. Most people underestimate the challenges of being a functional board member and assume they’re the right person for the job. Spoiler alert: that’s often a misinterpretation of our own position, role, rights, and duties, as well as our strengths, weaknesses, fears, and superpowers when it comes to founders.

As for me, before we break it down, I’ll make a long story short: I’m great at striking the right chord in a short period of time, but I will never be a great board member.

Most investors believe their money, experience, and questions add value. Sometimes they do. But more often than not, they just get in the way. There’s a fundamental difference between being an investor and being part of governance, if you don’t get that right, the company will suffer.

Investors : Your Job Is Not to Manage, It’s to Support

As an investor, you back a startup because you believe in the founders. You believe they have what it takes to execute, to learn, to adjust. Your money is a bet on their ability to figure it out, not an excuse to micromanage them or address your fears.

Your role…

• Stay informed: Read the updates, ask the right questions, challenge when necessary, but from a place of constructive curiosity, not control or fear.

• Be available: When a founder calls, you pick up. You help when asked, not when your ego tells you to.

• Know your limits: You don’t run the company. You don’t make the decisions. The founder does.

The best investors understand this instinctively. The worst ones don’t. They confuse access with authority and think writing a check gives them a seat at the decision-making table. It doesn’t.

Here’s a classic mistake: An investor gets excited about their portfolio company’s hiring plan. They start pushing for a big-name CFO, maybe a senior VP from a FAANG company. On paper, great. In reality? A disaster. The startup isn’t ready for that profile, and worse, the founder wastes three months trying to make it work just to keep the investor happy. That’s what bad investment behavior looks like, well-intentioned but totally off-track.

Governance : The Invisible Hand That Can Make or Break a Startup

Now, governance is a different beast. If you’re on the board, your job is not to run the company, it’s to make sure it can be run well.

That means:

1. Setting up the right structure: Who’s on the board? How often do you meet? How do you resolve conflicts?

2. Creating an environment where hard conversations happen: No politics, no bullshit. Just real talk.

3. Holding people accountable: The founder executes, the board supports, but when things go off the rails, the board needs to step in fast and effectively.

The best governance setups are boring. They’re efficient, clear, and low-maintenance. The worst ones are absolute chaos. Few people poorly selected just because they wrote the largest check in the company. Or too many people, endless debates, decisions stuck in limbo because no one wants to take responsibility.

Take an example from a startup I worked with. The board was a mess, four investors, all with different agendas. One wanted aggressive growth, another was obsessed with profitability, the third just wanted to protect their equity, and the fourth barely understood the business. Every board meeting was a war zone. The founder spent more time managing investor politics than running the company.

Eventually, they cleaned it up, cut the board down to three key people, put in clear decision-making rules, and changed the format of meetings to focus on clarity and action, not debate and drama. Suddenly, things moved again.

Board Governance ? Forget It Until You’re Big Enough

One of the biggest mistakes early-stage founders make is setting up formal governance too early. Let’s be real ! before you reach a certain size, a formal board is useless. It’s too slow, too rigid, and too bureaucratic for the speed at which a startup needs to operate.

Those get together every few weeks in order to keep a certain rhythm, mostly useless too if it’s not the right people around the table, the experts that really make things move.

At the seed or Series A stage, what you need is fluidity, fast decision-making, and direct conversations. You don’t need a structured board with committees, votes, or overcomplicated reporting. You need the right people around the table, at the right moments, helping you make the right calls.

When does formal governance start making sense ?

• When you have real revenues, a proper executive team, and a business that isn’t just running on sheer founder hustle.

• When decisions start affecting hundreds of people, not just a small core team.

• When the complexity of the company demands structured accountability.

Before that ? Governance should be a conversation, not a process.

Most Investors Are Terrible Board Members,

Another harsh truth: Most investors are not fit to be board members. Just because someone writes a big check doesn’t mean they belong in the governance of your company.

Why? Because they can’t manage their own inner conflict between:

1. What’s best for the company

2. What’s best for their return

3. what’s best for their ego

And let’s be honest, when things get tough, most of them will prioritize their own interest and act out of fears. That’s not even evil; it’s just human nature. But as a founder, you can’t afford to let people with split loyalties be the ones influencing your most critical decisions.

I’ve seen it happen too many times:

• A board member pushing for an acquisition because it de-risks their investment, even though the company could build something bigger.

• An investor insisting on a new funding round at inflated terms, just to mark up their portfolio, even if it puts the company in a fragile position later.

• An investor pushing to hire a profile or structure the company differently because they don’t trust the founders.

And the worst part? Most founders let it happen because they think they don’t have a choice. The Founder Decides Who Sits at the Board, Not the Bigger Fish in the Pond !

Here’s what too many founders forget: It’s YOU who decides who sits on the board. Not the biggest investor. Not the loudest voice. Not the guy with the flashiest resume. You.

When you raise money, you’re not just choosing capital, you’re choosing who gets power in your company. And that’s not a decision you should take lightly.

The best founders know how to push back. They set clear expectations from day one:

• “Money doesn’t buy you a board seat, value does.”

• “I don’t need a board full of people who just want to protect their own stake.”

• “This is my company. I decide who helps me run it.”

VCs love to act like board seats are part of the price of admission. They’re not. The best founders negotiate hard to keep control.

Governance Can Propel You, or Sink You

Good governance is like good refereeing, you barely notice it when it’s done right, but when it’s done wrong, the whole game falls apart.

As a founder, don’t let your board become a liability. Set the rules before the game starts. Keep it lean, pick people who add real value, and don’t let investors who can’t manage their own conflicts dictate how you run your company.

Because at the end of the day, investors invest, and founders execute. that’s the natural order. When everyone stays in their lane, companies move fast and break through. But the moment investors start meddling in execution or founders get distracted by managing investors, momentum stalls.

Governance should be the bridge, not the bottleneck.

Suppress the noise.