How to Form an Effective Board, by NYU Tandon Future Labs x Morrison Foerster
This event is part of our series committed to empowering founders with the tools needed to build strong, scalable companies.
Event details: How to Form a Board
Breakfast
Fireside chat / small panel
Join us for a discussion with series B & C stage founders who've been through the experience of selecting, navigating the politics of, and deriving desired outcomes from their boards.
Startup boards are incredibly important. Effective board members help founders make better decisions by lending their experience, network, and industry insight. They help companies navigate growth, competition, hiring, and market shifts.
On the other hand, poorly chosen or mismanaged boards can weigh companies down, and force changes that are unaligned with founders.
At this free-to-attend breakfast event, you'll learn:
How and when to form a board, and how your board will evolve from the pre-seed to Series A and beyond.
How to choose the right mix of board members, from investors, independents, and others.
Board dynamics and decision-making—how to foster healthy, productive relationships.
Common pitfalls and how to avoid dysfunctional boards.
The legal and fiduciary responsibilities of board members.
Our experts will be sharing actionable advice on aligning board structure with company goals, handling disagreements, and using the board as a strategic asset—not just a requirement.
We'll close with a Q&A so that all attendees will have a chance to do a deeper dive on specific issues.
Speakers:
Ro Gupta: Ro Gupta is the founder of stealth company, JumpRope. He also currently serves as Entrepreneur in Residence at Woven by Toyota. Before Woven Planet, Ro co-founded and was CEO of CARMERA, a spatial AI company that uses vehicular data-sourcing and remote sensing to capture road- and lane-level change with high-definition accuracy. He joined Woven Planet as part of the acquisition of CARMERA in July of 2021. Ro raised over $26.5M over six rounds for CARMERA before their acquisition.
Neil Capel: Neil Capel is the founder and CEO of Solv, an AI-driven marketing startup helping ecommerce companies unify data for better insights, decisions, and growth. Solv partners with fast-growing companies like Crown Affair, DS & Durga, Cariuma, and Ramy Brook. He also serves as Venture Partner at Bowery Capital. Prior to Solv, Neil was the founder and CEO of Sailthru. Neil raised over $48M over four rounds for Sailthru, and built the company from $0 to $40M ARR, with his final year as CEO adding $14M ARR.
Pete Fusco: Peter Fusco is a partner at Morrison Foerster's New York office and is Co-chair of the firm’s Emerging Companies + Venture Capital Group. He represents venture funds and tech companies throughout their lifecycle, from pre-incorporation planning to angel, seed, and growth rounds to exit transactions.
Peter has been representing tech companies for more than two decades in the New York ecosystem and serves as outside general counsel to many startups, growth-stage companies, and venture funds. He also works closely with NYU/Tandon Future Lab’s incubator ecosystem and its related programs.