Insight 4 | Why Governance Matters for Your Startup

Abstract: Founders, investors, board members, employees and all participants in venture-backed companies should understand the basic principles of corporate governance. Different rules and practices will apply depending on the type of organization, ownership structure, stage of the company, investor base, size, geography or industry. In this article, we only focus on corporate governance for U.S. private venture-backed corporations. Specifically, we focus on the basic corporate governance framework for venture-backed companies, and we address at least three governance issues when dealing with these types of companies:

1. The late stage “unicorn” phenomenon and its governance consequences,

2. Conflicts of interests and “dual fiduciary conflicts”, and

3. Multi-class share structures.

You can can find full article at the following links: Medium or Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University Working Paper #232

Author: Evan M. Epstein
Founder & Managing Director
Pacifica Global Corporate Governance

Keywords: Corporate Governance, Venture Capital, Entrepreneurship, Growth, Startups, Corporations, Dual-Class, Corporate Control, Unicorns, Conflicts of Interests, Dual Fiduciary Conflicts

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Pacifica Global was founded in San Francisco to serve as a leading corporate governance advisory firm. The mission of Pacifica Global is to help public and private companies solve some of their most complex corporate governance conflicts and challenges.