2. Choose Your Line | First Day as New GC
To continue the conversation from my last post, let's assume I am the first general counsel at a venture-backed company. I just left a law firm or a larger in-house practice. The world is coming at me at point blank range. The CEO and COO expect me to lower the temperature in the room and lower our burn.
The first instinct is to run faster. This is part of it—I want to collect a few quick wins. And if this is my only strategy I will not succeed. This is a marathon, so whatever process I build, it needs to be (i) sustainable, and (ii) human.
Rafting class 5 rapids with a friend in Patagonia, I learned the importance of reading the river and picking a line at the top of the rapids. You cannot out-muscle the river. You can choose a good line, be alert, and work with the river. If you choose a bad line, you will be overwhelmed by the river and spend all your energy fighting for your life.
As the first GC, choose your line.
1. Structure.
I organize internal files according to the diligence checklist provided at a venture round of funding. The list is largely standardized across the top law firms in the high growth space.
I like this for 3 reasons: (1) it aligns the legal structure with the way venture “thinks.” A sophisticated community of repeat players have market-tested and refined it to align to the ultimate outcome (exit or IPO). This also makes a bring-down easier at the next funding round. (2) Checklists surface questions I may not think to ask otherwise. (3) If I leave the company, the COO, outside counsel, new counsel can make sense of – and build on - the structure.
2. Surface information (blamelessly).
As I learn about people and context, my “legal brain” is issue spotting. Note I need to be shock-proof. All of this is normal. I take notes.
3. Capture.
I use the company software tools (Monday.com for example). I create a board (access-restricted) and drop everything here. I may discover the company’s sales contracts are moving slowly and sales thinks legal is the problem; the company intends to integrate AI in the next release; the company plans to expand operations to the EU.
4. Prioritize.
Time to take a breath. I cannot run at everything. At a law firm, I am continually on-call and I trust the client has considered the dollar cost of reaching out. As GC, I have finite capacity and finite dollars. I have moved from individual contributor to business leader. I need to prioritize and communicate.
5. Recommend and gain buy-in.
I share my thinking with the CEO / executive team. “From my conversations, I believe I should prioritize xyz over the next 90 days. This means abc will not be addressed until the following quarter. Does that sound right? What would you change?"