Brad Feld: Startup Boards and Lessons from Four Decades in VC

Oct 1, 2025

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(0:00) Intro

(1:36) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel

(2:23) Start of interview

(3:11) Brad's origin story

(4:54) Venture Capital Beginnings

(5:39) The Rise of the Internet

(8:10) His role in Softbank Technology Ventures and later Mobius Venture Capital. Reference to Heidi Roizen E6, E108 and E116

(12:26) Transition to Techstars and Foundry

(13:36) Origin and focus of his book Startup Boards. Reference to his blog post: Feld Thoughts. "Boards (and board members) for private companies operate on a bell curve" (some are excellent, some are horrific, and most are average).

(15:31) The Evolution of Founder-Friendly Terms

(30:06) Effective Board Composition

(35:00) Defining a Great Board: the Board as a Team. Reference to Matt Blumberg's Rule of 1s: see E52 (2022)

(38:05) "The goal of the board is to get different skill sets around the table" "I think a founder should fight against investors having additional observer seats."

(41:13) Why he considers it a red flag when a director claims they're acting out of "fiduciary duty." *Reference to the Startup Litigation Digest

(44:50) Governance concerns in the AI Boom

(47:37) Books that have greatly influenced his life:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (1974)
The entire pantheon of Neal Stephenson and William Gibson
Science fiction written by female writers (as a category)
Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons

(50:05) His mentors: Len Fassler and his uncle, Charlie Feld.

(51:55) Quotes that he thinks of often or lives his life by: from his Dad: "If you're not standing on the edge, you're taking up too much space.", from Len: "Brad, they can't kill you and they can't eat you. Suit up."

(53:00) An unusual habit or an absurd thing that he loves. "I love philanthropically funding bathrooms." Also, the Banana Lounge at MIT.

(55:38) The living person he most admires: his wife Amy Batchelor.

Brad Feld has been an early-stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. He co-founded two venture capital firms, Foundry Group and Mobius Venture Capital, and multiple companies, including Techstars.

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