Thread by @adamhjk

Another management lesson here. We often talk about how VC Board Members behave badly. Sometimes board members do. But one reason you really want a board is for times like this.

https://twitter.com/joerut/status/1387528662044577792

Boards serve a number of purposes - management accountability and financial oversight are the big ones. A lot of early startups don’t have boards, and Basecamp probably doesn’t (it’s an LLC). It’s a mistake in both cases.

When you’re the CEO or co-founder, you’ve got a responsibility to the business, to your employees. If you’re doing it right, it’s frequently lonely and nerve wracking. You’re solving problems other people can’t or won’t most of the time. (Otherwise they wouldn’t be your problems)

A board gives you valuable things. One is a regular, scheduled cadence of accountability. What’s happened? Where are we going? What are our challenges? It forces you to look up from your work, take stock, and clarify your intent.

It gives you voices, frequently with more experience at a high level than the founders, who can give you valuable perspective on what you should consider doing. Even things you already know can be valuable, because they validate your approach.

In a crisis like this one, they also form a closed door cabinet. They can talk about the business, what’s happening, and what needs to happen, with far less passion than management. They’re frequently not in their feelings about it.

(We’re talking ideally here - I’ve experienced board members being deeply in their feelings on issues where they should’ve been more dispassionate)

The point is, they aren’t on fucking Twitter going off about anything. They aren’t expressing their opinions to employees. They’re telling you what they think you should do, and if you can’t fix things, they’re firing you.

I can’t stress enough how important it is that a person can be fired. It’s part of what helps make executive roles work, in my experience. It becomes *work* again, which is what it needs to be to stay sane.

If you’re the god-king of Company Town, with the power of a Roman emperor and nobody to even give you council - it isn’t hard to decide that this is your life. That’s a bad thing in a CEO - we need them making decisions about the company, not decisions about them!

Boards can help create the power dynamics that everyone needs to be great. They create the space for accountability for CEOs and executives. They give them permission to do a job, which is critical.

If DHH and Jason have a functioning board right now that can fire them, I would be stunned. I bet they barely have an advisory board!

And I bet they deeply could use the combination of dispassionate advice and accountability a board brings. Also, they would be being yelled at to shut up and get off Twitter, and hire some crisis comms firm stat!

So, friends: have a board. As soon as possible. Put people on it you want to see when you’re having your own version of this crisis. Make yourself fireable. Do the work. You’ll thank me eventually.