I’m less than a month into VC and unraveling from more than a decade operating in startups and enterprise, my most recent years spent as a senior executive managing global CX teams, thousands of customers, M&A, and reporting within two PE firms. I’m currently stradding a strange limbo of what feels like an outsider to both VC and Ops. Do I still wear a modest, collared button-up and slacks? No. When do I speak up or shut up? Striking this balance will be my life’s work. Am I bringing enough value? I hear I won’t know the answer to this question for another 8–10 years. Great.

I’ve had a lot of philosophical conversations with myself lately about Andrew Grove’s ‘Only the Paranoid Survive’. But, this ain’t my first rodeo navigating change or cross-roads. In the past decade I went from being a single-mom living on welfare, in a one-bedroom apartment with my three girls sleeping on the floor next to my bed, to exiting my startup, receiving an issued patent, managing large-scale M&A, growing tens of millions of dollars, and leading global enterprise teams (I also bought a house!). I know how to do everything from making payroll to building and managing scale. I understand the founder/operator perspective and I understand the hard work and humility that any good thing in life takes. This is the perspective I want to bring to VC.

A few weeks back (before I started in VC and upon hearing that I was leaving my previous role) a friend and mentor, Dave Blake, Founder and CEO of ClientSuccess, asked me to speak on a VC panel at the CS100 Summit hosted at Sundance, Utah. This is the mecca event for Chief Customer Officers and was the perfect way to blend my colliding worlds of founder/operator and VC! Jay Nathan moderated our panel on ‘Driving Impact in the Boardroom’ with me, Eugene Lee of Omers Ventures, and Kory Knell of RainFocus.

*Editor’s note: all founders/CEOs should attend CS100 Summit, it’s a masterclass in building customer-centric organizations and it is invaluable to hear from folks like Sterling Snow, CRO of Divvy (also a Pelion portfolio company) who shared trade secrets that led to Divvy’s billion-dollar exit.

Whether you are a founder, exec or someone looking to grow in their career, knowing how to be an all-around badass in the boardroom is a good skill to sharpen. Here are my five takeaways from the event:

1. Be brief. Be brilliant. Be gone. If you are speaking in any capacity to a board don’t make the mistake of 100-page pitch decks or lengthy diatribes of your knowledge, expertise, and justifications. If you are explaining you are losing. You have two jobs: demonstrate competence and build trust. The board is there to verify their assumptions and learn from the experts. Follow their lead and bring every point back to the story (i.e. known value props and insights) you prepared beforehand. Also, be honest.
2. Establish yourself as the expert. Many people make the mistake of thinking the board is the expert or giving the board too much power over them. Whether you are a one-person startup or an executive of a 150 person team, the board is looking to you for domain knowledge, role expertise and influence. They need you. Don’t be afraid to push back, ask clarifying questions and speak confidently to the vision, insights and what you know to be true. If you don’t know the answer be prepared to say, “I’d hate to speculate, let me get back to you on this.”
3. Understand the process of diligence. Whether you are going through investment/acquisition OR want to understand the POV of any board you go in front of, everyone should go through the exercise of diligence. You will understand your business better than ever. Remember, your job is to be the expert! Do a simple Google search and you will find material for your education. This article from Forbes is a good 100,000 ft view on diligence, and this Smartsheet’s checklist is a decent start. Additionally, take time to understand who you are pitching. Look up authored LinkedIn articles, company blog posts and personal websites. These are all data points you can leverage to craft your message.
4. D̶a̶t̶a̶,̶ ̶d̶a̶t̶a̶,̶ ̶d̶a̶t̶a̶!̶ Insights, insights, insights! Bring insights, don’t regurgitate data. Should you be able to regurgitate all the important business metrics and be able to show your work if asked? Absolutely. But, for in-person presentations your job is to synthesize data points to tell compelling stories. Bringing together the story of let’s say a global pandemic, increase in NRR, decrease in logo count and a product development pivot makes for a compelling story that helps the board understand holistic impact and then make educated and informed decisions. Always know your story.
5. Remember your personal brand, because the world is a small place. One of my biggest pet-peeves is when people put themselves down in front of others: “I’m so stupid, I can’t believe I missed that” or “I’m so sorry to have missed this.” Don’t apologize for existing. Be polished, be professional, be authentic! My mom once gave me the advice to ‘leave flowers wherever I go.’ Leaving flowers instead of bombs doesn’t mean you’re not assertive or bold, but it does mean that you haven’t burned a bridge. If there’s anything I’ve learned in life, it’s that you will need as many people in your corner as possible. People change, people grow up, people learn. Have integrity to yourself and your community when interacting with others, because the world is a small place and people talk.

CS100 Summit VC Panel with Eugene Lee, Kory Knell, Kristy Muir, and Jay Nathan

See full article at https://medium.com/@kristymuir/from-operator-to-vc-5-tips-on-how-to-pitch-or-present-like-a-badass-in-the-boardroom-8ecd08aac6bb#4449-37d3457976dc