Publication date:
June 30, 2025
Jack Altman Emphasizes Importance of Selecting the Right Board Members for Startups
Former Lattice CEO Jack Altman advises early-stage founders to carefully choose board members, highlighting their crucial role in high-stakes decision-making.
Governance
Jack Altman, founder-turned-venture capitalist, has shared a crucial lesson for early-stage startup founders: the importance of selecting the right board members. Speaking on the "Sourcery" podcast, Altman emphasized that board selection is a critical decision that has long-term implications for a company's trajectory.
"You're really picking somebody who's going to be with you as a throughline through the company," Altman stated. He noted that the significance of this choice might not be immediately apparent to founders caught up in the frenzy of fundraising rounds.
Altman, who founded and led the HR software startup Lattice for over eight years before stepping down as CEO in 2024, stressed that board members become integral to high-stakes decision-making processes. "It turns out that what you're picking is somebody who's going to be there with you longer than most of your employees," he explained. "You're going to talk to them about stuff that you're not going to talk to your employees about because you can't."
The venture capitalist, now leading Alt Capital with its $150 million fund for seed and Series A startups, added that while investor selection may not be as critical at the seed stage, it becomes increasingly important as companies establish formal boards of directors.
Altman's insights touch on a topic widely discussed in Silicon Valley - the composition and dynamics of startup boards. His perspective aligns with other tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, who has emphasized the importance of having technical expertise represented on boards.
The Altman brothers, including Jack's older sibling Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI), have firsthand experience with the complexities of founder-board relationships. Sam Altman's recent comments about challenges with OpenAI's board underscore the potential for disagreements and the impact they can have on a company's direction.
Jack Altman's advice serves as a reminder to founders that board selection is not just about securing funding or expertise, but about choosing long-term partners who will shape the company's future through critical decisions and challenging times.
"You're really picking somebody who's going to be with you as a throughline through the company," Altman stated. He noted that the significance of this choice might not be immediately apparent to founders caught up in the frenzy of fundraising rounds.
Altman, who founded and led the HR software startup Lattice for over eight years before stepping down as CEO in 2024, stressed that board members become integral to high-stakes decision-making processes. "It turns out that what you're picking is somebody who's going to be there with you longer than most of your employees," he explained. "You're going to talk to them about stuff that you're not going to talk to your employees about because you can't."
The venture capitalist, now leading Alt Capital with its $150 million fund for seed and Series A startups, added that while investor selection may not be as critical at the seed stage, it becomes increasingly important as companies establish formal boards of directors.
Altman's insights touch on a topic widely discussed in Silicon Valley - the composition and dynamics of startup boards. His perspective aligns with other tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, who has emphasized the importance of having technical expertise represented on boards.
The Altman brothers, including Jack's older sibling Sam Altman (CEO of OpenAI), have firsthand experience with the complexities of founder-board relationships. Sam Altman's recent comments about challenges with OpenAI's board underscore the potential for disagreements and the impact they can have on a company's direction.
Jack Altman's advice serves as a reminder to founders that board selection is not just about securing funding or expertise, but about choosing long-term partners who will shape the company's future through critical decisions and challenging times.
