Hubris averted: 7 principles to follow when serving on your first board

Forget cocaine, heroin, ecstasy or any of the other mind-bending molecules out there. Nothing compares to the euphoria of attending your first private-company board meeting and explaining to the spellbound CEO, say, why her new corporate logo looks like crap.

How you handle the rush of confidence that comes with sitting on your first portfolio-company board will impact not just the success of your investment. It will also determine how swiftly you ascend the partnership ranks.

And so I, your self-appointed career guide, went out and talked to veteran board members John Kenney, founder and partner, JMK Consumer (backer of “cult consumer brands”) and David Acharya, partner, AGI Partners (whose portfolio company Impact XM “powers brand experiences”)  and boiled their advice down to seven principles:

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