|#98 MWAVC| - Omo, who's your board member?
I was involved in a conversation around how to find mentors with a couple of folks last night. The only thing I have to add to the conversation was, “You’ve got to give before you get.” And what exactly are you giving? Value. Remember that any individual who you want as a mentor must first of all, like you as a person and be willing to spend their time and energy helping you. And second, you have to bring something to the table. Bring some sort of value to them that makes their lives, businesses, circumstances easier, and then maybe they’d be inclined to help you after all. Don’t just expect someone to mentor you because you asked nicely. The world doesn’t work like that. I can’t find my notes on finding mentors today but will put them up in another post. Read Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi to learn more about networking your way to greatness.
Also, had another conversation with a client about finding board members for his companies and I was reminded of these notes I took from The Art of the Start. Basically, when you raise money from investors (or even if you don’t, but are a maturing company), you’d need “adult” supervision to help push the company’s agenda. And that’s where the board comes in. There are good and bad board members, like everything else, but here are what I found to be some key people needed on the board. Enjoy.
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With money comes responsibility. One of the blessings and burdens of taking outside investments is that you will have to create a board of directors. This mini-chapter explains the art of board management.
The first issue is the composition of the board. Your major investors will require a board seat, so some choices are already made for you. In total, you need people with two kinds of expertise: company- building and deep market knowledge. Here are the typical roles that need to be filled:
“THE CUSTOMER," This person understands the needs of your customers. He doesn't have to be a customer, but should be thoroughly versed in what your market wants to buy.
"THE TIGHT-ASS." This is the bad guy who tells you that you're full of sushi when you're lying. This person also pushes for totally legal and ethical practices.
"JERRY MAGUIRE." This is "Mr. Connections." His most important asset is his Rolodex of industry contacts and his willingness to let your organization use it. (Ahem, choose me 🙋🏾♂)
"THE GEEK." This person provides a reality check on your development efforts. For example, is your technology defying the laws of physics? Even if you don't have a tech company, the question remains the same: Is your task possible?
"DAD." Dad (or Mom) is the calming influence on the board. (S)He brings a wealth of experience and maturity to help mediate issues and reach closure on problems.
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BTW shoutout to everyone who’s sharing the articles because they’re getting some value from it. Appreciate the calls and texts and links to articles that I should include below. Appreciate you.
Article List— What I’m reading (10 articles a day x 7 days x 4 weeks x 12 months = 3360 articles a year).
Jason Blum, 'Big Short' Writer Tackling WeWork Drama: This will be the new Wolf of Wall Street type movie. Love to see it.
Credit startup Migo expands to Brazil on $20M raise and Africa growth: Shout out to the team! And the guys at Echo VC for taking that early bet on Emeka and co. at Mines.io. Super year for Echo VC.
Warren Buffett's rocky relationship with PE continues as he loses $6B deal: Private equity: 1 - Warren Buffet: 0. Warren basically thinks that PEs have way too much money and they can unfairly win deals by over leveraging. Shoutout to Henry Kravis. 😂
Elon Musk and the Dying Art of the Big Bet: Elon knows things the market doesn’t. Leave him alone and put your money with him. 🙄🙄
Constellation Jettisons Ballast Point, Once a $1 Billion Brewery: Hello? Bought for 1B 4 years ago and we’re down to 17m now? Whats going on here? Bad timing, that’s whats going on.
EAC Agrees to procure cotton products from region: Finally seeing some sensible intra-African trade. Love to see it.
Breaking Into Startup Investing: How to Launch a Venture Fund: Thinking of launching a fund? Here you go. But my advice: Read Angel by Jason Calacanis and start from there. Or else you’d be wasting everyone’s money…and yours.
Nigeria Turns To FinTechs To Boost Financial Inclusion: First question I have is “how is financial inclusion” defined here? For 60-80% of the population to have a momo or bank account? (i.e. vanity metric). Or x% of people actually using it on a daily basis to improve xx, xx and xx in their lives? (i.e. delivering value).
MTN Introduces Mobile Money Service for Diaspora: I know of at least 3 companies that will go out of business soon if they don’t pivot their businesses based on this new information. Welp.
NIGERIA: Telcos threaten to shut down USSD platform: Bad for business.
Podcast— What I’m listening to (1 podcast episode a day= 365 podcast episodes a year) — Broadening my experiences through others’ stories.
Pivot: Pivot is out TWO times a week now. Do yourself a favor and listen to Scott and Kara banter it out on all issues tech and politics.
Book— 1 Chapter a day x 7 days x 4 weeks x 12 months = 336 chapters. Most books have 10-12 chapters, so 1 year = 28 to 33 books. And my book list is nearing 1000 books. Send help 🌚
Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson. I’m actually learning so much from this book. Highly highly highly recommend to anyone looking to get into venture investing. Might take a while to grasp all the concepts. I’ll have to read it at least 3 times to fully get it.
Still on this, but now I want to read Oligarchy by Jeffery Winters. Only because Yasmin is reading it now. Sounds like fun (and a good template to learn from 🤗)
📱📱Quote of the day
“The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I’m not afraid to die on a treadmill. I will not be out-worked, period. You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all those things you got it on me in nine categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, there’s two things: You’re getting off first, or I’m going to die. It’s really that simple.” — Will Smith
Remember: “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”