Jack Altman says founding a company taught him a big lesson about picking the right board

RoxyBusiness2025-06-3051011
Jack Altman founded the early-stage VC firm Alt Capital in 2024.Marc Vasquez, Courtesy of Lattice
  • Jack Altman advised early-stage founders to choose board members they enjoy spending time with.

  • Altman said board members play a role in high-stakes decisions and long-term company impact.

  • The Altman brothers are familiar with what can happen when founders and board members disagree.

Jack Altman has a lesson for early-stage founders: Pick the right board.

On an episode of the "Sourcery" podcast published on Saturday, Altman, a founder-turned-venture capitalist, said that if he were to launch a startup again, he would focus on bringing on the right board members.

"You're really picking somebody who's going to be with you as a throughline through the company," he said. "It's hard to see it when it happens because you're just in a frenzied round."

Altman founded and led Lattice, a human-resources software startup last valued at $3 billion, for over eight years before stepping down as its CEO last year.

He has since launched Alt Capital, an early-stage venture firm that has invested in AI and nuclear energy companies. In February 2024, the firm raised a $150 million fund to invest in seed and Series A startups. Alt Capital did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

On the podcast, Altman said that picking good board members is crucial because founders end up making "high-stakes" decisions together.

"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 said. "You're going to talk to them about stuff that you're not going to talk to your employees about because you can't."

Altman added that picking investors you like doesn't matter as much in the seed stage, but it becomes important once companies create boards of directors. According to PitchBook, he is on the boards of two startups: WorkRamp and Verifiable.

Getting board composition right is a heavily discussed topic in Silicon Valley. Investors often find themselves being rated on "founder friendliness" — an approach that prioritizes the founder's vision and expertise.

Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has said a lack of technical chops in board leadership was one of the first things he noticed when he went to Silicon Valley, and it was among the things he wanted to do differently at Meta.

"The CEO wasn't technical, the board of directors had no one technical on it, they had like one dude on the management team who was the head of engineering who was technical," he said of his early observations, in an interview last year. "Alright, if that's your team, then you're not a technology company."

Story continues

He added that he was careful about having an engineering and management balance on the board because it affects company culture and how it weighs decisions.

The Altman brothers are intimately familiar with what can happen when founders and board members disagree.

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI and Jack Altman's older brother, has been vocal about problems he had with the ChatGPT maker's board.

Earlier this year, the OpenAI chief said that the company's board left him with a "complete mess on my hands" after he was reinstated as CEO after a brief ousting in 2023.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Post a message
Annika

Jack Altman's notion that founding a company imparted upon him an invaluable lesson on choosing the right board, underscores how pivotal team selection can be to success.

2025-07-07 11:52:24 reply
Matteo

An insightful lesson learned by Jack Altman, founder of a company: pick the right board for maximum impact and performance.

2025-07-07 11:52:39 reply
Lyla

Jack Altman's experience in founding a company underscores the critical lesson of choosing an aligned and effective board, pivotal to both business successes as well for lessons learned that cannot be overlooked.

2025-07-07 11:52:54 reply
Royce

In Jack Altman's words, constructing a company taught him an essential lesson in selecting the most adept and complementary board of directors.

2025-07-10 12:24:22 reply
Odessa

The founder's experience with Jack Altman highlights the crucial lesson of selecting a right board that can be instrumental in shaping and scaling up successful corporate ventures.

2025-07-10 12:24:37 reply
Hattie

Jack Altman's experience founding a company underscores the critical importance of selecting an optimal board that align with one’s vision and values, as it laid down firm foundations for success.

2025-07-10 12:24:52 reply
Cael

The insightful revelation from Jack Altman that founding a company provided an invaluable lesson of selection the right board is instrumental for any aspiring entrepreneur looking to navigate early-stage growth and direction.

2025-07-13 03:58:10 reply
Erick

In Jack Altman's experiential wisdom, forming a company serves as an enlightening lesson on the criticality of selecting the right board for each venture’sprosperous journey.

2025-07-18 09:34:52 reply
Hayden

Jack Altman's insight that building a company provided him with invaluable lessons on selecting the right board of directors underscores how crucial it is to assemble an advisory team aligned both strategically and culturally for sustainable success.

2025-07-18 09:35:09 reply
Paloma

A wise lesson from Jack Altman is that establishing a company unequivocally illustrated the importance of carefully selecting one's board for guidance and support, an invaluable lesson every entrepreneur must heed.

2025-07-20 13:29:22 reply
Luella

The insightful lesson, imparted by Jack Altman in his tale of founding a company's journey to the right board selection stands as an absorbing reminder for would-be entrepreneurs that choosing their team is paramount.

2025-07-20 13:29:36 reply

您暂未设置收款码

请在主题配置——文章设置里上传