Report
Turn your board from a pain to a gain
How fintechs can derive greater value and insights from their board members
At the right time, boards offer an opportunity to deliver great things for the fintech startups that adopt them – but in many companies this potential goes unfulfilled.
To better understand how the composition of fintech startup boards can affect a company, we once again partnered with Copenhagen FinTech to interview fintech founders and CEOs, board members and VCs. We also surveyed Copenhagen Fintech Lab’s startup residents.
If there’s a need for a board to deliver operationally then the management team doesn’t have the right composition of profiles.”
Key findings
70%
of fintech startups believe a board is a critical factor to success
55%
believe collaboration with their boards works well
47%
of fintechs believe their boards have delivered in line with expectation
42%
of fintechs believe their board has the right mix of competencies – such as sector and domain expertise
Overall recommendations
Making a board work in a fintech environment is complex but we’ve identified three perfectly achievable steps to deliver the right board at the right time:
- Fintechs should be able to answer three fundamental questions before establishing a board: they need to be clear on why they need a board, what they expect its members to contribute and which alternatives they should consider before establishing one
- If a fintech decides on a board, it should focus on how to identify and recruit the right members to meet the company’s needs, and have the courage to regularly refresh the board composition.
- Board members in a fintech startup should expect to be more flexible and to answer more basic practical questions than they might anticipate in a more traditional and established business.
It can be difficult to make changes in a board as you go.”
It’s been quite difficult for us to figure out how to make use of our board.”
