Flying back to San Francisco, spending some time in my Pocket since I rarely read anything when it’s actually published. Here are a bunch of posts that I enjoyed, most VC or startup related, so if you don’t care about that stuff, skip this.

The Angel’s in the Details – Andy Dunn, Walmart (Bonobos cofounder/CEO)

Andy is a ‘wears it on his sleeve’ type of guy and his writing is always passionate and personal. This post reminded me how much I hate when I hear a leader of any type say something like “well, you can’t expect me to know everything that’s going on” or “that happened below my paygrade” versus accepting responsibility.

Six Ways Great Companies Use Board Decks to Their Advantage – Union Square Ventures blog

Solid meat and potatoes post about good board decks. Board meetings can be some of the best discussions and informative sessions if founders and Directors focus on using them correctly. At early stage companies specifically they’re not about just managing your investors or putting on a show. And they’re not about making a CEO jump through hoops and burn a week of productivity prepping for a presentation. At Homebrew, we believe in great boards early.

Ruling Out Rather Than Ruling In – Jerry Neumann (angel investor)

Jerry is very thoughtful – and thought-provoking. He uses frameworks kinda like we do — not to prevent exceptions but to know when he’s making them. Here Jerry outlines how he evaluates an investment.

Part of a VCs Job is Making it on to The List – Christian Hernandez, White Star Capital

“The List” is different based on your stage and investment strategy but it holds true generally. In a competitive, power law industry, it’s not enough to have a checkbook, you need to be a preferred partner to some set of constituents. At our seed stage, much of the good dealflow is “dark” (ie not shopped broadly) so Homebrew needs to be on The List for a subset of founders and coinvestors who want to preference us.

What Founders Really Want From VCs – Fred Destin

When it comes down to it, there’s lots of “nice to haves” but in Fred’s opinion the MUST HAVES are actually pretty clear – do you have my back, are you insightful, can you help me recruit/close, and can you help me get funded.