Seed to Scale: Episode 17 with Jeff Richards, Managing Director of GGV

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 Ventures’ Founding General Partner Tim Young on all things managing a board, expectations when recruiting & building out your early team and how being a founder is a lot like his experience being a father.

As a two-time founder with more than 13 years of 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, 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.ai.

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 when it is time to start building out your team, 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 during 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.