theCUBE + NYSE Wired: AI for CFOs & AI Leaders in Silicon Valley | Rita Scroggin, Firstboard.io

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Rita Scroggin

Founder

FirstBoard.io

play_circle_outline Empowering Women in Tech Leadership: FirstBoard.io's Mission for Diverse Corporate Boards

play_circle_outline Importance of expanding networks for women in board positions

play_circle_outline Overboarded public board members lack time and recent operational experience.

play_circle_outline Value of networking in board searches and connecting relevant individuals.

play_circle_outline Advice for CEOs to innovate board composition during disruptive times.

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Rita Scroggin, Firstboard.io

Rita Scroggin

Founder FirstBoard.io

FirstBoard.io, founded by Rita Scroggins in late 2019, aims to increase women's representation on corporate boards, specifically in technology. The organization's goal is to bring expertise to boards and create a network of decision-makers, investors, CEOs, and founders. FirstBoard hosts events like summits on AI and business reinvention to highlight thought leaders. With approximately 140 members, the focus is on driving change and not monetization. Members play an active role in organizing events, sharing knowledge, and connecting with each other. By curati... Read more

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What is the goal of the organization mentioned in the text? add

What is the reason why women are often not appointed to boards and what is the goal in expanding the network and changing the power structure? add

What are some considerations for evaluating the composition and effectiveness of a company's board of directors? add

What is the process for curating board searches and connecting CEOs or investors with potential candidates? add

What factors should be considered when looking at the composition of a board of directors in order to promote innovation and avoid stagnation? add

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>> Hello, welcome to theCUBE's special presentation here in our Palo Alto Studios. I'm John Furrier. Here for a special digital twin presentation with theCUBE plus the NYSE Wired community. We had a reception yesterday and we're kicking off the inaugural AI CFO Summit and the AI leaders in Silicon Valley, and we're going to have a great lineup. We've got wall-to-wall coverage, two days of filming and streaming. Rita Scroggins here, founder of FirstBoard.io. They create a community dedicated to increasing, representing people on boards, technology leaders on corporate boards, women in particular. Congratulations and great to have you. Almost your five-year anniversary, started in 2020. Really great to see you, CUBE alumni. Thanks for coming on.

Rita Scroggin

>> Thank you, John, for having me. I'm excited to be here.

>> So you guys got a great mission. So I have a lot of questions, but I want to just set the table. Tell us about the origination of FirstBoard, your mission, and some of the milestones and momentum that you have.

Rita Scroggin

>> Yes, John. So we started actually late in 2019. That was our very first meeting with just a group of women, and then we officially launched in 2020 right before the pandemic. And the idea was that we need to get more women technology leaders on company boards, private and public. And what we're trying to really drive is the idea is our members are technology leaders who have scaled big name companies. Zendesk, Juniper Networks. It's a long, long list. And these leaders really bring domain expertise to boards and that's what we want to highlight. Many of our members already are on company boards and some of our members have not been appointed and we need to change that. So we're building an ecosystem of decision makers, of our members, of VC investors, of CEOs, founders, to really create a network of people who want to drive change, how business is done.

>> Talk about the motivation. What was the... Besides the fact that the numbers are changed, we have 13 years of CUBE alumni. We've had great women leaders on theCUBE, and it's always like there's more to do. Was that the motivation? Was the people saying, "Hey, I need a place to network in."? Was it a personal thing from the members? Was it demand? Was it the mission? How did it all... What was the spark?

Rita Scroggin

>> It's a combination of a lot of things, but I think a lot is also that I think the biggest obstacle oftentimes is why women do not get appointed to a board is because they're not in the network and we want to expand the network. We want to crack the network and we want to change the power structure. And we have been doing a number of events along those lines where women are basically at the forefront about thought leadership. We talk about AI. Our last summit was about how... One time, it was about operational AI and now, it's about business reinvention. We talked about business reinvention. So we talk about what's really relevant for companies, what's relevant for boards, and bring our thought leaders really in the forefront. That's what we want to do and we're going to continue doing it because we really believe we need to get more of our amazing leaders on these spots.

>> I was talking about Julie Choi last night. She's the CMO of Cerebras. She's had a great stellar entrepreneurial career. Talked to Laura Perrone last night. She's also in, was at Mist, sold to Juniper. A lot of CFOs, which is great because it's the inaugural CFO event. And this network effect that's going on in this community right now is interesting. And you have built a great network. We are in an era, I think it's phase two of a modern social network where these ad hoc social groups are coming together and they're producing work. It's not just networking, "Hey, let's get a job and connect and find some people." There's actual reference checking, there's group content creation. I mean, these networks are production systems and you guys have stumbled upon this effect because you have the power people and .

Rita Scroggin

>> We're actively building it. But yes.

>> I mean, you have a powerful network and the NYSE Wired community is developing fast. We have theCUBE Network for over 15 years. And the social network idea was monetize the users. That's the Facebook thing. And you guys have done an amazing job of having great openness, but fostering collaboration. We're in an era where authenticity, original originality and integrity and trust.

Rita Scroggin

>> Well, the members are very much part of our story. I mean, our members, I call it the collective, and the members really are the ones who are driving it. We want to leverage our collective network because like you mentioned, Julie Choi, Karen Walker was also a member, and Laura Perrone, they all have amazing networks too. And if we combine the networks of all of our members, we have a tremendous reach and that's what we want to build upon, to really... Versus just trying get 5,000 members who don't know each other. So the key, I think, of these networks also is that people see each other multiple times. I think that is really, really key, and that they start to build trust. I think it's a lot about building trust. There's a digital world and that's good and we're all in it, but there's also this in-person network where it is critical that we know each other and that we have met this person multiple times.

>> You know what I love about your organization? One, the mission's phenomenal, but two, you guys also do a lot of things for members. But one thing that jumps out at me is you have a focus on events, the face-to-face, and you have the digital piece, and there's a work environment. Talk about that dynamic because I think this is, I think, going to be a big part of our next 10 years of as groups form, whether they're core groups with ephemeral connections, work's getting done, people are connecting, progress is being made. This idea of first-party relationship between a physical group with events where trust can be face-to-face and face-to-face is the best communication. And then now, digital's not just a throwaway bolt on, "Hey, this is some social media promotion." It's an active first-party citizen relationship of the group. Because you guys do a lot of events, you have a lot of other service, but the event piece, I think, is key to the network. Can you share-

Rita Scroggin

>> Yeah, we do these events with partners. So we always find a partner. Like for example, we have done an event with ServiceNow Ventures earlier in the year and we have partnership with other organizations. So we're really trying to, again, expand our network by bringing in key partners like theCUBE, like the New York Stock Exchange, like Nasdaq. I mean, and I'm mentioning Nasdaq right now, but it's about-

>> It's okay. I mean, it's another network out there.

Rita Scroggin

>> It's another network. So I kind of see it viable really. It's a viable network and we start with a few data points and then we expand and expand and we do it in person, and to your point, and we do a digital too. We talk about it. Our main channel is LinkedIn at this moment. Our website, we do a lot of content on our website, it's very dynamic, so people can see what we do in any given time.

>> with Elliot Donnelly. He was at the event last night. He's a real thought leader in impact investing. He's also a prolific investor. As well as one of his friends, John Mack who was running this humanity project, led us to humanity. And they have a unique view about humanity aspect to it. And you brought up something that's kind of key there is that, and we had these conversations with both of them, is that if you want to change behavior on companies, you can actually optimize for hitting the company up and hitting them and, "Hey, you guys should do this." Or whether that's social justice and/or just influence and throw money at it, have campaigns, and do all those things. Or you can focus on the consumer and change the customer of those companies, especially as technology influences going into politics. So when you get these networks, the information travels very fast, so things happen fast. So you could actually move the needle on if the group is syncing up with information. This is a very powerful new force in this collective intelligence. Use the word collective. I love that term. So you start to see now new ways to move the needle, whether it's mission-driven, an initiative, talk about this because as you've seen as these networks move online with the face-to-face.

Rita Scroggin

>> Well, there's also the element of several of our members are also decision-makers. They have budgets. We have a number of CIOs in our network, CMOs. A lot of companies are trying to sell to exactly that audience. And so we want to move away from the conversation, "Hey, you need to add a woman because it's the right thing to do." And it creates, of course, value, but also, it's important to recognize that we have really individuals in our group who make decisions every day and they look at the company, look at the product, but they also look at the composition of the company. Is this company... Does it represent the general population or is it over-indexing just on one segment? So I think it's very, very important that companies recognize this is a business case. And it's something that every company should think about. Business as usual, I think, is not going to work in the future.

>> One of the reasons why we're doing this inaugural AI for CFO events is not to teach them how to debit, credit and all that financial stuff. It's really because of the business transformation going on and the AI leaders in Silicon Valley and New York we've been cataloging and discussing with openly and sharing that data. It all comes back to where we are now is, "Hey, remember, go back 15 years, the consumerization of IT." That was a conversation. You remember those, right?

Rita Scroggin

>> Yeah.

>> Whatever that was. iPhone. But now, and then you had digital transformation, which was basically IT and cloud, which impacted labor for developers and made a lot of change and made things move faster. Now, we're in an AI wave where the business transformation is truly a consumerization wave. And so what I like about the mission is that no matter what you say or look at the numbers, at the end of the day, the human population and software that's being consumed by everybody is not about a 73% male, 17% female. The biases are there. This is a real legitimate issue. And so having that focus on boards and then management is a super critical because at the end of the day, the consumers are leveraging the technology. AI will be there for us. Who's designing the software?

Rita Scroggin

>> Exactly. I mean, AI is going to change everybody's world and it's already is, right? And it's at a very rapid pace, and we know it's going to be even more significant in the years to come. So we need to make sure that women are at the table when these technologies are built and how companies operate. And there's sort of this idea of responsible AI, and all of that, I think, is really, really critical, probably more than ever. But we also have the experts. It's not just about that it's a good thing to do. We have the experts who at the forefront of these technologies, right? Yeah.

>> Experts. I love that word too. If you go back a few years, expert networks were hot. They were in a database somewhere. But one of the things about generative AI is it's generative, it's runtime. It's like it's generating a new thing. And so having those assets, people are assets, but they are, this data. You have the ability to kind of flash mob or generate experts on the fly. I mean, we're living in a world where you say, "Hey, Siri." or "Hey, prompt, find me some expertise." This kind of user experience is coming now. The agent technologies, we have some CFOs here from companies that are doing agents. You've got infrastructure providers like Cerebras, and you've got AWS and the superclouds are kind of building out the horsepower. It's coming where you need to have people in these networks and be ready. So I have to ask you, obviously, you probably believe that, but if you do, what are you guys doing on the member side to facilitate that? Talk about some of the things you're working on from a services standpoint and some momentum. How many people are in the network? What's it look like? Because you have a brain trust of talent, capabilities.

Rita Scroggin

>> Right now, we have about 140 members. So again, we're not a membership driven model. It's not about basically monetizing the member. It's about really driving change. And the members are actively involved. They are the ones who kind of help create these events, who are on stage, who are talking, who are connecting us with each other. That is really the model. And what we want to do next year is number one, we have a big celebration, our five-year anniversary, which is going to be amazing. But what we also want to do is more of this really changing how we talk about things. And we launched an AI council and a cybersecurity council this year. We are going to have more thought leadership coming from these councils, which are... I mean, these two topics are the most important things right now for many, many companies, whether it's a private company or a public company. There's a lot going on and we want to make sure we're on the forefront of the conversation and we're driving it. And when we do these events, it's always open to everyone, but we always overemphasize that there are more women than men, which changes the dynamic in a very interesting way. And it's a great dynamic. One time during our first Innovation Summit, we did a little, "Hey, what did you take away?" And then there was one guy, he's the CEO and founder, and he said he's been to many, many tech events, but he would prefer this one over all the other ones. So we're creating a very unique energy and a very unique sort of value proposition, I think, for the members, as well as for our larger network.

>> Yeah, it's super exciting. Some of my best memories in theCUBE our 15 years was when Stanford started Women in Data Science. I remember Judy Logan, who was with her friends, they put that together, it was a small group. Now, it's a global organization of power, Women in Data Science, which is now machine learning. Those talks go back six years, was hardcore machine learning before it was fashionable and was still going on. You have these pockets of expertise and it's definitely bubbling up and I see great progress. The question I want to ask you, because it's more CFO event here is on the board makeups which is a big focus. And that's the number one focus is that that diversity of balance gives a perspective, helps the founders obviously seek and make good decisions, so the quality of the data and input is key. What are some of the things that you guys are seeing? Explain the mission around board makeup. Because companies, I've seen great founders kind of blow it with bad board management, one. Two, board dynamics around how things are forming state-of-the-art techniques. What are some of the things you're seeing? So talk about the importance of the board and what are some dynamics you've seen that are best practices and ones that don't do, stay away from?

Rita Scroggin

>> Well, I think the biggest issue is that I think the many companies, startups adding an independent board director too late. Oftentimes, they add an independent board director or multiple when they have to, right before an IPO. But I think they're leaving really an opportunity on the table because adding an independent board director who fills a certain gap earlier can help accelerate the journey. So I think in an earlier company, it's not so much about governance, it's more like bringing somebody on the board who understands how to scale, who understands if it's a CFO, who understands financial models, who can help them think through, does this really make sense what we're doing here? Or can help them bring in key executives and really vet them. So I think there's so many opportunities and open up doors. I think a lot of, particularly our members, are very well-connected and they're getting more connected every day. So I'll give you one example. So one of our members is a CIO of a public company and she is very well-connected. She goes to every CIO event base. I see that all the time on LinkedIn, her posts, and somebody like her, adding her to a board, she's a CIO who is so well-connected without tremendous value in open potential doors, four companies to an audience. Now, a CFO, same thing. It might be a company selling to a CFO so they don't have the voice of the customer or they're selling to a different audience, but they really don't understand finance. They don't have a full-time CFO right now because they're too early. So they kind of have a consulting company and whatever, but they really don't understand all the fundamentals. And now, we talked about it yesterday, CFOs, their role is becoming much, much bigger. They're more involved in decision-making processes in a way that's never seen before. And I think they are really bringing a very broad set of expertise to the table, which a lot of companies would benefit from at early stage and late stage.

>> I mean, there's a spectrum early stage, and honestly, late stage. Even public companies, we were talking about Intel's board last night. Won't go into details on that. .

Rita Scroggin

>> Yes, I was part of the conversation. So I mean, they could probably benefit from a total refresh of the board.

>> You're looking at that now probably. But this brings up the question of, so I'll go to the startup objection. I won't say objection, but sentiment, not well-founded, and then public. Startups is like, "Hey, I just want to take the hill. I'm on a mission. I need value subtract, I need value add. We're moving too fast." And then on the public side, it's more laziness. People mailing it in. Oh, yeah, see, I got the board. I go there, show up, do a presentation, and they rubber stamp whatever I say, I'm the CEO. So CEO's role is to manage the board for value add for the mission, startup. Don't run out of money and hit the milestones. Public company serve stakeholders. Share us your thoughts on why the CEO really has to pay attention to the value add component and how do they manage the board members to be value added?

Rita Scroggin

>> Yeah, I think a lot of members on public boards are overboarded right now. They're sitting on whatever, eight, nine boards, and really don't have much time to think about this particular company. That's issue number one. And a lot of them have really not been an operator for many, many years. So they don't... I mean, they're in board meetings with different companies, but they are not in the trenches of what's really going on at the forefront of innovation. So I think a lot of companies would benefit from really evaluating how the board looks like right now. Is it representing new perspectives? Is it representing expertise in certain areas, like for example, AI and cybersecurity, and is it also bringing new perspectives to the table, which I think that's really missing. And we all know about the example of Nokia, right? A company which was very, very successful, but it was a very homogeneous group working together and they did not see the threat coming of the iPhone. And I think when you have people who are working with each other for a long time, there's a tendency to applaud each other and not really see the dark, what might be coming and what could be disrupting them, right?

>> Nokia, Blackberry, Microsoft.

Rita Scroggin

>> Long list, yeah.

>> The list is long, but that is a great example. You want to have that signaling, that's the value add. And as you guys look at your network, this is where I think, I won't say matchmaking because that sounds like it's more trivial, but you want to put the contextually relevant person with the right team to fit. That's a super valuable, important. And then the network effect allows you to do that.

Rita Scroggin

>> Well, I mean, I come from search, and we really curate these board searches. We're not saying, "Hey, look at our members and pick one." It's really about basically working with the CEO or the investor, understanding what is the profile, what is it they're looking for, what kind of expertise, what kind of scale, what kind of domain expertise, and then really connecting them with three, four, or five of our members or our larger network. So it may be a woman who's starting our network, but who I know who have met maybe at one of yours event or something like it. And really making sure that we're bringing the right people in the forefront.

>> Well, Rita, I really appreciate you coming on. Unfortunately, bringing theCUBE Alumni Network to your network, we'll merge them together.

Rita Scroggin

>> Absolutely. Well, let's do it.

>> open CUBE network. Final point, if you can share for the folks watching, CEOs or folks that are really trying to have a solid board to be, that solid foundation, that North Star to help the company have value add, what advice would you give CEOs and/or the person in charge of that board function? What's the best practices, what's state-of-the-art, and what's some advice?

Rita Scroggin

>> Well, there's a lot of things you just asked in one question.

>> 30 seconds. Go.

Rita Scroggin

>> 30 seconds. Okay.

>> I'm only kidding. Take your time.

Rita Scroggin

>> I think first of all, to really take a close look, do we really have a board with different perspectives and different expertise, or are we just kind of recycling the same people just because we know them, right? And they've been great before to really say, "We need to innovate the companies. We need to create new companies." There are new companies being created right now, AI native, a lot of the companies there, and have a new way of looking at how the board is built and moving away from the typical model. Okay, we need a CEO who's already been scaling a company from A to Z, and that person is probably already on five or six or seven other boards, to say, "We need to disrupt everything because it's going to be a very disruptive time we're going to enter and everything needs to be kind of reevaluated."

>> Just a follow-up question, because I know we're going over because it's important, but I want to ask it. I've heard people say, "Yeah, I want to be on a board." "Oh, you're not ready." How do you get ready if no one gives you a shot? So the question comes up, it's the classic, "You're not ready to be the CEO." Well, I need to get a CEO job.

Rita Scroggin

>> Right. Nobody's been born A CEO. Nobody's been born to be a board member. At some point, there's an opportunity and a person becomes a CEO or a board member. And I think the issue is right now that the idea is, hey, you need to be ready. And there are many, many classes and certifications being offered. And that might be good, but I think the key is more that somebody has owned the function. That's how I look at it. Has somebody really had ownership of a function, whether it's finance or technology? Have they been part of board meetings in their current operating role? And do they have something where they're really driving innovation forward? And I think that is much more important. And I would argue that a lot of men who today sit on boards probably never, ever have taken a readiness class or something like it, but they had an opportunity. Somebody knew them, said, "I think you would add value."

>> So it's knowing the capabilities, functional, operational or whatever. And then understand, don't throw them into the fire too quickly. He or she will get spooked. You want to give them a nice little entry level, or do people get thrown into the mix right away? Are there heavy boards? There's a lot of action going on.

Rita Scroggin

>> I think people can rise to the occasion. If they've owned a function and they were responsible for some... Oftentimes, maybe billion dollars of budget, why would they not be able to do this? I mean, it's not like...

>> There's obvious things you can look for, right?

Rita Scroggin

>> There are obvious things. And if there's really a gap missing, you can get expertise from somewhere else. I think it's more about really being there, having time and bandwidth, really contribute to the company and think about what is going to move them, and how can my network, if I'm on the board, how can my network help this company? Because I have a vested interest, right, because I'm now part of the company.

>> Rita, great for coming on.

Rita Scroggin

>> Thank you, John.

>> Thank you very much. FirstBoard.io. Check it out. It is a community that's growing superfast. It's network, it's a lot of production, a lot of references, a lot of action. Check it out. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE. Thanks for watching.