Seed to Scale: Episode 17 with Jeff Richards, Managing Director of GGV Capital
On board members: What to look for, how to optimize, expectations at each funding round and managing bad behavior
Jeff Richards, Managing Director of GGV, speaks with Eniac Partner Tim Young with sound advise to early-stage founders, including managing board members, expectations when recruiting & building out your early team and entrepreneur resilience.
As a two-time founder with more than 13 years building and operating his companies across the U.S. and Asia, Jeff joined the world of venture capital with a wealth of first-hand experience. Today, at GGV, Jeff focuses on enterprise, cloud, and consumer/internet-based brands. His investments include HotelTonight (just acquired by Airbnb), Flipboard, Voicera and has been involved in Opendoor, Domo, Square, and Wish. He currently sits on several boards, including Boxed, Brightwheel, Namely, Tile, to name a few, and most recently joined Electric.
Having sat on more than a dozen boards, Jeff digs into all things board members — what to look for, how to optimize, expectations and how to handle bad behavior. He also gives his advice on the biggest differences between your board and team between Seed to A. Jeff discusses why it is important to have an org chart, expectations when recruiting top talent and how founders should be building teams outside tier one markets.
Jeff also shares some personal anecdotes from his life, like how being a founder prepared him for fatherhood and how he maintained his resilience when his company crashed right before his wedding.
He also speaks to his biggest misses as an investor and the worst advice he’s received lately.
Send comments or suggestions to seedtoscale@eniac.vc.
