Kate Mitchell: Applying a Growth Mindset to Boards.

Start of Interview [1:22]Kate's path to the Venture Capital ("VC") industry [2:00]Kate's path to serving on boards [5:18]Distinctions between serving on private and public boards [8:43]The investor nominated director [9:10]The role of the independent director [12:47]Directors representing preferred stock, and longer term horizons  [13:51]In a startup board, "all constituents are around the table, or right outside the door coding" [15:10]Startups staying private for longer, and effects on liquidity (secondary markets)  [18:25]History of the JOBS Act: 5 capital formation bills to improve access to capital for startups [25:50]Kate's take on dual class shares [32:53]The Long Term Stock Exchange [38:26]The importance of IR and leadership. Example: Jeff Bezos' Amazon shareholder letters. [35.33]Sunset Provisions [37:12]The Governance of Unicorns [43:17]Diversity and inclusion initiatives. Examples: ILPA, NVCA, Him for Her, SWB, etc. [47:10]Her favorite book: "The Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens [53:36]Her take on "Composite Mentors" [55:36]Her favorite quote [59:01] “Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it” Sir Winston Churchill.The living person she most admires: the Notorious RBG [01:01:00]Kate Mitchell  is a co-founder of Scale, a Silicon Valley-based firm that invests in early-in-revenue technology companies that are looking to scale. She and the Scale team have backed successful, high growth companies including ExactTarget (Salesforce), RingCentral (NYSE:RNG), HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS), Box (NYSE: BOX), DocuSign, and Omniture (Adobe). Kate is past chairman and board member of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and is active in policy matters that impact entrepreneurship, start-ups, innovation and inclusion. She co-authored the IPO section of the 2012 JOBS Act and is currently working on additional legislation to help small company IPOs. In 2014, Kate co-founded the NVCA Inclusion & Diversity Task Force (now called VentureForward), which focuses on advancing opportunities for women and minorities across the venture ecosystem. Mitchell received the NVCA Outstanding Service Award in 2013 for her policy work on behalf of the venture industry. She currently serves on the boards of SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ:SIVB), Fortive Corporation (NYSE:FTV) and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and she is a charter member of Environmental Entrepreneurs (Silicon Valley). Kate is also a Kauffman Fellows mentor, a member of the NASDAQ Private Market Advisory Board, and a commentator on technology trends for CNBC Squawk Alley.___Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License   You can follow Evan on social media at:X: @evanepsteinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/__To support this podcast you can join as a subscriber of the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at https://evanepstein.substack.com/__Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License