How and why are VC boards different from other boards? What are some of the common problems faced by VC-backed company boards? Are there early warning signs of trouble in the board room? What are some of the signs of effective and ineffective venture boards and directors? VC-InsideOut tackles these and other important governance questions head-on in this series of interviews and editorial commentary on the state of VC boards. Each episode makes clear recommendations about best practices that can be useful to VCs and entrepreneurs in the field.
Levensohn Venture Partners proactively advocates best practices in governance and has published groundbreaking articles on the subject since 1999. Two well known collaborative white papers on VC governance topics—“After the Term Sheet: How Venture Boards Impact the Success or Failure of Technology Companies” and “Rites of Passage: Managing CEO Transition in Venture Backed Technology Companies” are freely available for download on the Levensohn Venture Partners website at www.levp.com/news.
EPISODE 7
Best Practices for The High-Performance Board
Building an effective Board is paramount to building a strong company. The panel discusses the best practices for building a high performance Board. The group explains why boards matter, the sources of conflict and tools for conflict resolution, the importance of CEO evaluation and other related topics. Recorded on October 30, 2008 and held at the Pillsbury Law firm in Palo Alto, CA, this podcast runs 92 minutes.
Chris Rust
Chris Rust is a General Partner at USVP. He focuses on seed and early stage investments in the IT sector. Chris is currently a Director of Akros Silicon, Dilithium Networks, Dune Networks, StrataLight, VeriWave, and Zannel. He also serves on the VC Advisory Board for the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), and is a member of the communications and networking societies of the IEEE.
Allison Leopold Tilley
Allison Leopold Tilley focuses on the representation of technology companies in securities and venture capital transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, private placements, public offerings, venture funds and joint ventures. She has significant experience representing acquirers and target companies. Allison is co-head of the firm's Corporate Securities & Technology practice, leader of the Silicon Valley Business and Technology Group and co-leader of the Southeast Asia team.
Danial Faizullabhoy
Danial Faizullabhoy is the President and CEO of BroadLogic. He brings breadth and depth of running an early stage semiconductor company through his experience as a Vice President General Manager at Adaptec and experience as a Venture Capitalist at Walden International.
Pascal Levensohn
Pascal Levensohn is the Founder and Managing Partner of Levensohn Venture Partners. He has written three major white papers on the subject of VC board governance best practices, which are freely available at www.levp.com/news. An avid blogger, Pascal posts about current events at www.pascalsview.com.
EPISODE 6
The Governance Gap - Why VC Companies Should Care
While younger private companies are not under the same
regulatory scrutiny as public companies, the state law
requirements apply, and many of the same elements of a
sound governance program also apply equally to these
companies. Kris Veaco explains the elements of a sound
governance program for VC-backed companies and why they
are important to have in place.
Kris Veaco
Kristina Veaco is a corporate securities lawyer
and has been advising public companies on
securities law compliance and corporate governance
for many years. Most recently she ran the
Corporate Secretary's Office at McKesson
Corporation. She formed Veaco Group in 2006
to provide practical corporate governance
services including the corporate secretary
function, from her unique in-house perspective,
to resource-constrained companies of all sizes
and stages of development.
www.veacogroup.com
Pascal Levensohn
Pascal Levensohn is the Founder and Managing
Partner of Levensohn Venture Partners. He has
written three major white papers on the subject
of VC board governance best practices, which
are freely available at
www.levp.com/news.
An avid blogger, Pascal posts about current events
at www.pascalsview.com.
EPISODE 5
Basic VC Company Director Responsibilities
Pascal Levensohn reviews some of the key findings in "A Simple Guide to
the Basic Responsibilities of VC-Backed Company Directors", the
collaborative VC board governance white paper which was released by the
Working Group on Director Accountability and Board Effectiveness in
January 2007. Pascal also previews some of the updates to the Guide
which will be released later this year in "A Simple Guide... v2.0".
Topics discussed include the director's legal duty of oversight, signs
of effective and ineffective boards, CEO review, director self
assessment, and the delicate subject of board peer review.
Pascal Levensohn
Pascal Levensohn is the Founder and Managing Partner of Levensohn Venture Partners. He has written three major white papers on the subject of VC board governance best practices, which are freely available at www.levp.com/news. An avid blogger, Pascal posts about current events at www.pascalsview.com.
EPISODE 4
Benchmarking Internal Controls in Venture Companies
Pascal Levensohn interviews Leinani Nakamura and Kathy Hunter, who are
both professionals at the accounting firm of Mohler, Nixon & Williams.
They discuss the need for effective internal controls inside emerging
venture companies and why all VC company directors need to consider
having proper diagnostic processes in place. The podcast concludes with
comments on the PCAOB's forthcoming revisions to Sarbanes Oxley's
Section 404 reporting standards.
Leinani Nakamura
Leinani leads the internal controls services practice for Mohler, Nixon
and was previously an audit partner with KPMG LLP, with over 19 years of
experience working with venture companies.
Kathy Hunter
Kathy is Director of Business Development at Mohler, Nixon & Williams
and has eleven years of Big Four and regional accounting firm
experience.
Pascal Levensohn
Pascal Levensohn is the Founder and Managing Partner of Levensohn Venture Partners. He has written three major white papers on the subject of VC board governance best practices, which are freely available at www.levp.com/news. An avid blogger, Pascal posts about current events at www.pascalsview.com.
EPISODE 3
Public Company Lessons for VC Directors
Pascal Levensohn interviews Pastora San Juan Cafferty, professor emerita of the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. Focusing on the roles of compensation and audit committees, Pastora discusses changes in board leadership and composition post SarbOx, her thoughts on the stock options back-dating scandal, and the importance of CEO performance evaluations.
Pastora San Juan Cafferty
Pastora San Juan Cafferty is professor emerita of the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. She serves on the board of directors of the Kimberly Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB), Waste Management Inc. (NYSE:WMX), Peoples Energy (NYSE:PGL) and Harris Financial as well as on the board of Rush University Medical Center and The Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Pascal Levensohn
Pascal Levensohn is the Founder and Managing Partner of Levensohn Venture Partners. He has written three major white papers on the subject of VC board governance best practices, which are freely available at www.levp.com/news. An avid blogger, Pascal posts about current events at www.pascalsview.com.
EPISODE 2
Achieving Investor Alignment in the VC Boardroom
Kip Sheeline of LVP interviews Kevin Compton of KPCB on venture board alignment issues. Kevin thoughtfully and candidly discusses his decision making process when evaluating competing term sheets with different economic terms, how he values human capital compared to dollars in the boardroom, and how he addresses conflicts of interest posed by co-investors with differing risk profiles
Kevin Compton
Kevin joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1990 where his investments have focused on the enterprise software and telecommunications industries. Kevin's notable investments have included Citrix Systems, Cerent, Verisign, ONI Systems and Active Software among others. He is currently on the boards of XenSource, Kodiak Networks, KnowNow and Intersperse.
Kip Sheeline
Kip is a Managing Director at Levensohn Venture Partners where he focuses on the software and communications sectors. Kip's current board seats include Broadlogic, Caymas Systems, KnowNow and Rapt.
EPISODE 1
Six Early Warning Signs of Trouble in the VC Board Room
Pascal Levensohn comments about the recent Hewlett Packard boardroom scandal and relates the communication problems faced by mature company boards that cannot agree on maintaining confidentiality to the miscommunication that underlies many board problems in early stage venture-backed companies.
Pascal Levensohn
Pascal Levensohn is the Founder and Managing Partner of Levensohn Venture Partners. He has written three major white papers on the subject of VC board governance best practices, which are freely available at www.levp.com/news. An avid blogger, Pascal posts about current events at www.pascalsview.com.
