Make Boards Work

Make Boards Work aspires to be the number one business podcast for all those who aim to take their board work to the next level. Your stories, your experience, your insights and your perspectives will have impact.

Make Boards Work is a business podcast hosted by Marc O. Stöckli, with 9 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Marc O. Stöckli hosts Make Boards Work, a business show with 9 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #8

  Make Boards Work - With Andrew Smith

  Aug 17, 202639 minS1

  Make Boards Work aspires to be the number one business podcast for all those who aim to take their board work to the next level. Says Andrew: " When Tiger Global invested in 2011, I was convinced someone would walk in and take control. They didn't. For years, our 'board meetings' were an email update and a reply that said 'looks good, keep going.' I thought that was wonderful. It wasn't. " We talked about all of this . The full arc. From having no real board, to the investor who changed everything by saying "if we're going to sell this company, it has to be bigger than Shane and Andrew." How that one sentence shifted how they operated. How Andrew kept slipping into "please mark my homework and give me an A" mode instead of using the board as a genuine resource. And how they eventually sold Yuppie Chef for a result none of them expected. If you're a founder figuring out what a board should actually be, or a board member wondering how to be genuinely useful, this one might resonate.

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  Episode #9

  Make Boards Work - With Gordon Rapkin

  Jul 27, 202641 minS1

  Make Boards Work aspires to be the number one business podcast for all those who aim to take their board work to the next level. Gordon's phone rang. It was the lead investor. First words: "Please don't quit." Gordon Rapkin sat down with Marc O.Stöckli on the Make Boards Work podcast and told that full story, including what happened next, which turned out to be the smartest thing anyone ever recommended to him. They separated the rearview mirror from the forward look . Changed who spoke when. Set ground rules that should have existed from day one.That company went on to sell for 2.5 to 3x the typical multiples in our space. We also talked about why Gordon believes every board needs an independent chair, why he treats the board as a competitive weapon and not a reporting obligation, and why the executive session , the part most CEOs resist, might be the most valuable fifteen minutes of the quarter.Worth a listen if you've ever walked out of a board meeting feeling worse than when you walked in.

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  Episode #8

  Make Boards Work - With Alejandra Martinez

  Jul 6, 202641 minS1

  Make Boards Work aspires to be the number one business podcast for all those who aim to take their board work to the next level. Alejandra has been an independent board director for almost two decades now. Across large banks, fintechs, family businesses in Mexico and Latin America. And if there's one thing she has learned, it's this: your conviction is your reputation. A chairman of a large family-owned company once invited her to lunch. He told her, "Whenever we need to build reserves, we'll do it. But not now." Alejandra told him her recommendation was to build reserves the way the authorities require. Otherwise she couldn't stay on the board. They built the reserves. Alejandra and I sat down on the MakeBoards podcast and we talked about moments like that. The courage it takes to speak up when you know it won't be popular. The times she has been invalidated, rejected, shut down in board meetings. And why she kept speaking up anyway. We also got into the difference between serving on large bank boards versus fintech boards. Why she finds fintechs more satisfying. How risk management isn't just a technical function but something that lives inside every board decision. And why a board that looks the same thinks the same, and a board that thinks the same misses everything. If you sit on boards, build companies, or work with independent directors, I think this one's worth your time.

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  Episode #7

  Make Boards Work - With Jan Dzulko

  Jun 22, 202644 minS1

  Make Boards Work aspires to be the number one business podcast for all those who aim to take their board work to the next level. When Jan started Everphone ten years ago, he didn't think he'd still be the CEO. But here he is. Eight funding rounds. North of 100 million in revenues. And a board that's changed so completely from year one to year ten that it barely resembles the same institution. We sat down and we talked about that full arc. There was a specific meeting where Jan finally said, can we take fifteen minutes and talk about why none of us are enjoying this board thing? That conversation changed everything. We also got into something Jan thinks about a lot: boards can be too toxic or too nice, and both are equally dangerous. The sweet spot, clear, kind, direct, is harder than most people think. Worth a listen if you're a founder figuring out your board, or a board member wondering why the CEO seems guarded.

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  Episode #6

  Make Boards Work - With Manuel Hinz

  Jun 9, 202650 minS1

  Make Boards Work aspires to be the number one business podcast for all those who aim to take their board work to the next level. Manuel has been running a PE-backed roll-up in education. Capital was the easy part. He scaled from around 50 people to nearly 250 in two years. The deals weren't the bottleneck. The money wasn't either. The people were.

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Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

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