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Building Professional Networks, The Cost of Board Meetings, and Running a Successful Design Partner Program

Building Professional Networks, The Cost of Board Meetings, and Running a Successful Design Partner Program

Social Leverage Letter | Issue #100

Ethan Berk
July 30, 2023

Get smarter faster with our curated list of thought-provoking content for founders and investors:

3 articles, 2 podcasts, and 1 video.

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READING

III. Arsham Ghahramani - Imperial College London Alum

Arsham Ghahramani co-founded Ribbon (Fund IV), a startup issuing verifiable awards; Ribbon aims to build a professional network resistant to AI-generated content. Ghahramani is proud to be part of Imperial's problem-solving alumni community and feels it connects students internationally. Have a read:

Arsham Ghahramani

Imperial alumnus Arsham Ghahramani (MEng Bioengineering 2014) is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Ribbon, a social platform centred around verification

II. The cost of board meeting crunch

Board meeting preparation is stressful, time-consuming, and inefficient - teams spend weeks compiling data into slides and reports just to cover status updates. Instead, boards and executives should collaboratively focus meetings on strategic discussions, make decisions, and solve problems to maximize their limited face-to-face time. Tools like Surfboard (Fund IV) can enable asynchronous communication and task delegation so boards can provide ongoing expertise, eliminating the need for inefficient once-quarterly crunch time.

The cost of board meeting crunch

Board meeting crunch is notoriously stressful. Every quarter, work piles up, stress spikes, and teams burn countless hours scrambling to prep for board meetings.

I. Running a Successful Design Partner Program

In this article Garuda Ventures (SLAF I) offers guidance for early-stage startups on establishing a design partner program, where prospective customers test an MVP product and provide feedback in exchange for discounts or free trials. It outlines best practices for structuring the program, choosing partners, engaging with them, measuring progress, and ultimately transitioning them to paying customers. The goal is to iterate to product-market fit before broader market launch.

Running a Successful Design Partner Program

Tips, tricks, and best practices as you navigate early product development

LISTENING

II. Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338]

Chris Paik - Venture Investing Frameworks - [Invest Like the Best, EP.338]

My guest today is Chris Paik, who is a General Partner at early-stage venture firm, Pace Capital. Before Pace, Chris spent eight years building and investing alongside last week’s guest, Josh Kushner, at his firm Thrive Capital…