The Rally Ventures team has deep expertise investing in and operating enterprise technology businesses, and we’re excited to share our insights, experiences and knowledge with you. Our network of experts covers a wide range of topics, including startup strategy, industry insights, technical guidance and much more.
It happens thousands of times every month in conference rooms around the world. The board of a company gets together to meet and one of the administrative topics to cover is approval of option grants for new employees as well as existing ones who are getting additional grants. It is usually a non-controversial process (although we’ve sat in on some interesting discussions over the years….).
I recently dug into the Backtrace story with Founders Abel Mathew and Samy Al Bahra. We covered everything from our first meeting in South Philly to Backtrace’s successful sale to Sauce Labs earlier this year. In part two of the Backtrace story, I’m taking a deep dive into four questions with Co-Founder and CEO Abel Mathew.
I first met the Backtrace co-founders at a sports bar in South Philly during the 2014 World Cup. Abel Mathew and Samy Al Bahra rented a car and drove down from New York City to meet me while I was in town for a family reunion. I doubt they had planned to pitch the company to my entire family over beers before watching the US narrowly lose to the Netherlands, but there we were.
The board of directors plays a critical role in the success of a venture-backed company. At the most basic level, particularly with an entrepreneurial board focused on rapid growth, the role of a board is to support and guide the company towards success. For our latest masterclass, we joined together with Blackbird Ventures and Cicada Innovations to talk about the best practices and principles for a startup board. We discussed what to expect from your board members, the progression of a board and much more.
A full year has passed since I graduated from Colby College and joined Rally Ventures. In that time, I’ve gone from college graduate to Rally Ventures intern to Rally Ventures associate. As I reflect on the past year and watch another graduation season wrap up, these are just a few of the lessons I’ve learned and the advice I would pass on to this year’s graduates as they make the jump into the “real world.”
Rally Tech Partner and Domo CFO Bruce Felt has more than 25 years of management and financial operations experience in companies ranging from early stage to IPO. At a recent Masterclass for Rally portfolio companies, Bruce talked through what it takes to build a world-class finance organization and how the role of a CFO evolves over time.
Rally Venture Partner Art Coviello has more than 30 years of strategic, operating and financial management experience in technology companies. He is also a professional public speaker with decades of experience presenting on a variety of topics in the public and private sector. At our latest Masterclass for Rally portfolio companies, Art outlined the six elements for creating and delivering an effective speech or presentation.