126. Fred Destin: How start-up boards create & destroy value (and whether we should be thinking about value at all)

Enter the Boardroom with Nurole

Enter the Boardroom with Nurole
126. Fred Destin: How start-up boards create & destroy value (and whether we should be thinking about value at all)
Jun 11, 2025 Season 1 Episode 126
Nurole

Fred Destin is founder of Stride VC and was lead investor at Cazoo, Deliveroo, Integral Ad Science and Zoopla. Tune in to hear his thoughts on: Where have you seen start-up board members add most value to their organisations? (1:39) How did the Zoopla board get comfortable with giving away 30% equity in one go? (6:16) How did you manage having customers on your board? (7:26) What KPIs should board members be looking at? (8:27) Have you spotted patterns across particularly valuable board members? (10:34) Why is it wrong to frame board-level discussions around value add? (19:10) You’ve said most boards destroy value - why is that? (34:47) Should board members be more like scientists and less like prosecutors and preachers? (39:48) ⚡The Lightning Round ⚡(44:20) 

Host: Oliver Cummings

Producer: Will Felton

Editor: Alex Fish

Music: Kate Mac

Audio: Nick Kolt

Email: podcast@nurole.com

Web: https://www.nurole.com/nurole-podcast-enter-the-boardroom

Episode Artwork 126. Fred Destin: How start-up boards create & destroy value (and whether we should be thinking about value at all) 50:16 Episode Artwork 125. Elena Lytkina Botelho: The CEO Next Door: Why Boards Get CEO Succession Wrong—and how to get it right 47:23 Episode Artwork 124. Malcolm John: How to get board roles and what boards get wrong about racial diversity 45:59 Episode Artwork 123. Christian Unger: Why experts beat generalists on investor-backed boards 47:02 Episode Artwork 122. Dorothy Burwell: Communications in the boardroom - exerting non-exec influence and building trust with management teams 45:42 Episode Artwork 121. Lisa Gordon: UK capital markets reforms - how should boards respond? 44:05 Episode Artwork 120. Tim Jackson: Coaching CEOs: how Chairs, NEDs and Investor Directors add most value to their most senior executive 45:21 Episode Artwork 119. Jurga Zilinskiene MBE: Building scale-up boards 43:54 Episode Artwork 118. Gerry Murphy, Tesco & Burberry Chair - How boards add strategic value 42:31 Episode Artwork 117. Cindy Rampersaud: How to excel as a trustee and transition to paid board roles 45:11 Episode Artwork 116.  Kate Swann: How board members and chairs add most value to CEOs 43:39 Episode Artwork 115. Annemarie Durbin: Chairing building societies & why coaching makes you a better chair 45:48 Episode Artwork 114. Richard Meddings CBE: Chairing NHS England 49:51 Episode Artwork 113.  Dr. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic: Why do incompetent men become leaders? 48:18 Episode Artwork 112. Rain Newton-Smith, CBI CEO - How CEOs get most value from their boards 42:16 Episode Artwork 111. John Allan CBE: Chairing listed boards: crises and turnarounds 47:08 Episode Artwork 110. Pamela Dow - D&I in the boardroom 42:30 Episode Artwork 109. Professor Stanislav Shekshnia - How to be a good board Chair 43:00 Episode Artwork 108. Angela Seymour-Jackson - horizontal board careers, AI and CEO succession 47:42 Episode Artwork 107. Nadhim Zahawi, former Chancellor of the Exchequer - How government and business should leverage non-exec expertise 46:41 Episode Artwork 106. Tamara Box - Advisory & professional services boards 50:16 Episode Artwork 105. Eamon Devlin - Board meetings as half-time team talks: boardroom lessons from elite sport 41:20 Episode Artwork 104. Nuala Walsh - Key biases board members need to know to increase influence and reduce decision risk 46:39 Episode Artwork 103. Gerry Brown - Disaster in the boardroom: 6 board dysfunctions you need on your risk register 47:12 Episode Artwork 102. Dr. Douglas Gurr, ex Amazon China President - How boards add most value to CEOs: forecasting, challenge, ways of working, the environment and AI 45:28