Should Boards Exist At The Early Stage?

Roy Bahat of Bloomberg Beta has written a few posts recently suggesting that private company boards, especially at the early stages, are useless.

Boreds addresses his premise that “your startup should resist holding board meetings for as long as possible.”

Are nonprofit boards better than company ones? talks about why boards that do things are more useful than boards that talk about things.

I disagree with Roy’s assertion that your startup should resist holding board meetings for as long as possible. As I tried to read between the lines, I kept thinking “Roy is describing the value of continuous board engagement”, something I discuss in Startup Boards.

While there are many lousy boards, I’d assert that they exist at all stages of companies. And they suck. Yet great boards, even at the early stage, can be hugely helpful.