163 - Who does a Founder need on their Board - Jordan Schlipf

163 - Who does a Founder need on their Board - Jordan Schlipf

From Founder's Voyage by Spencer Walker-Fooks, Nancy Nash

March 12, 2026 · 52 min · Season 7 · Episode 4

About this episode

Jordan Schlipf shares insights on building resilient businesses and the importance of effective incentives for founders.

Jordan is a seasoned entrepreneur, investor, and operator with an impressive track record in both founding and scaling technology businesses, as well as supporting over 1,600 early-stage investments through roles at Rainmaking and Startup Bootcamp. As the current CEO of Cowshed and a co-founder of Rainmaker, Jordan’s career spans founder exits, venture capital, and hands-on company turnarounds. His perspective is informed by both hard-earned lessons from startup failures and successful exits, as well as experience as a non-executive director and venture partner managing institutional capital. Jordan is widely recognized for his candor, strategic insight, and passion for building exceptional business “machines.” 💡 What You’ll Learn from Jordan's Journey: 🔸 Build the Business to Outlast Yourself: Your job as a founder is to develop a scalable, resilient organization (“the machine”) that continues to thrive without you, not to personally do all the work or remain the bottleneck. 🔸 Incentives Are Everything: Crafting effective incentives is crucial, top talent can underperform under weak incentive structures. Constantly revisit and tailor incentives to align with business…

People in this episode

Hosts: Spencer Walker-Fooks, Nancy Nash

Guest: Jordan Schlipf

Topics covered

  • founder board
  • entrepreneurship
  • venture capital
  • business strategy
  • incentives
  • startup failures

Keywords

  • founder
  • board
  • entrepreneur
  • venture capital
  • incentives
  • business strategy
  • startup

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cowshed, Rainmaking, Startup Bootcamp, Rainmaker

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