Board Prep
Prepare for board, investor, or fundraising reviews with numbers cold, anticipated hard questions, and a candid narrative via `/em:board-prep`.
Overview
Board Prep is an agent skill for the Validate phase that prepares adversarial-ready board and investor meetings with cold numbers, hard questions, and an honest narrative.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills --skill board-prepWhat is this skill?
- Phase 1 Numbers Cold: metrics must live in your head, not only on slides
- Adversarial prep framework—not the friendly board scenario
- Narrative that acknowledges weakness without losing the room
- Hard-question anticipation for experienced board members
- Command entry: `/em:board-prep <agenda>`
- Preparation framework Phase 1: Numbers Cold before the meeting
Adoption & trust: 1.4k installs on skills.sh; 17.5k GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You have a board or investor meeting soon but your metrics live on slides you cannot defend when directors push on weaknesses and runway.
Who is it for?
Founder-CEOs of early-stage SaaS preparing fundraising updates or quarterly board sessions under skeptical directors.
Skip if: Low-stakes team standups, pure product spec work, or meetings where no financial or strategic scrutiny is expected.
When should I use this skill?
Preparing for a board meeting, investor update, fundraising presentation, or high-stakes adversarial review where every number must live in your head.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You enter the room with numbers internalized, rehearsed hard Q&A, and a narrative that shows clear-eyed reality and a credible plan.
- Rehearsed hard-question list with answers
- Numbers-cold checklist tied to deck metrics
- Board narrative framing weakness and execution plan
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
High-stakes investor and board conversations gate capital and strategic alignment before or during scale—core validate/fundraising pressure. Pricing, runway, and unit economics scrutiny maps to pricing and fundraising readiness, not shipping code.
How it compares
Structured CEO prep ritual for adversarial review, not generic presentation design or marketing copy skills.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is board-prep for?
Solo founders and execs preparing board meetings, investor updates, or fundraising presentations where numbers and honesty are tested.
When should I use board-prep?
Use before a board meeting, investor update, or fundraising presentation whenever you need every critical number cold and hard questions rehearsed.
Is board-prep safe to install?
The skill guides preparation workflows only; review the Security Audits panel on this page and never paste confidential cap table or investor data into untrusted sessions.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Board Prep
# /em:board-prep — Board Meeting Preparation **Command:** `/em:board-prep <agenda>` Prepare for the adversarial version of your board, not the friendly one. Every hard question they'll ask. Every number you need cold. The narrative that acknowledges weakness without losing the room. --- ## The Reality of Board Meetings Your board members have seen 50+ companies. They've watched founders flinch at their own numbers, spin bad news as "learning opportunities," and present sanitized decks that hide what's actually happening. They know when you're not being straight with them. The question isn't whether they'll ask the hard questions — it's whether you're ready for them. The best board meetings aren't the ones where everything looks good. They're the ones where the CEO demonstrates they see reality clearly, have a plan, and can execute under pressure. --- ## The Preparation Framework ### Phase 1: Numbers Cold Before the meeting, every number in your deck should live in your head, not just the slide. **The numbers you must know without looking:** - Current MRR / ARR and month-over-month growth rate - Burn rate (monthly) and runway (months at current burn) - Headcount by department - CAC and LTV by channel / segment - Net Revenue Retention - Pipeline: value, conversion rate, average sales cycle - Churn: rate, top reasons, top churned accounts - Gross margin (product), net margin (company) - Key hiring positions open and time-to-fill **Stress test yourself:** Can you answer "what's your burn?" without hesitation? "What's your churn rate by segment?" If you pause, you don't know it. ### Phase 2: Anticipate the Hard Questions For every item on the agenda, generate the adversarial version of the question. **Standard adversarial questions by topic:** *Revenue performance:* - "You missed revenue by 20% this quarter. What specifically failed?" - "Is this a pipeline problem, a conversion problem, or a capacity problem?" - "If you missed because of one big deal, how dependent is your model on individual deals?" - "When do you project recovery and what are the leading indicators you're right?" *Runway / burn:* - "At current burn you have N months. What's your plan if the next round takes 9 months?" - "What would you cut first if you had to extend runway by 6 months today?" - "Is there a scenario where you don't raise another round?" *Product / roadmap:* - "You shipped X. What did customers actually do with it?" - "What did you kill this quarter and why?" - "Where are you behind on roadmap? What's slipping?" *Team:* - "Who's at risk of leaving? How would that affect execution?" - "You've had 3 VP-level hires not work out. What pattern do you see?" - "Is the team the right team for this stage?" *Competition:* - "Competitor Y just raised $50M. How does that change your position?" - "If they copy your best feature in 90 days, what's your moat?" ### Phase 3: Build the Narrative The board meeting isn't a status update. It's a leadership demonstration. **The structure that works:** 1. **Where we are (honest)** — Current state of business, the real number, not the smoothed one 2. **What we learned** — What the data is telling us that we didn't know 90 days ago 3. **What we got wrong** — Name it directly. Don't make them ask. 4. **What we're doing about it** — Specific, dated, owned actions 5. **What we need from this room** — Concrete ask. Not "support" — specific introductions, decisions, resources. **The rule on bad news:** Never let the board be surprised. If a quarter went badly, they should kn