The right fit at the right time

“I’ve been a founder and I am a founder and you’re sort of trying to make it up as you go. You don’t really know a lot of stuff and you need someone that you can trust to be a sounding board,” says Simon Malpas, chair of femtech startup Junofem and also founding CEO of medtech startup Kitea Health.

Malpas says it’s helpful for startups to have an independent chair from the outset, and particularly once a company has taken on external capital. 

“When that person is independent they are acting in the company’s interests and are really trying to help you as an individual do the right thing. I’m not saying an investor director won’t do that but they bring their own perspective, if you like. Having someone that’s truly independent offers a diversity of thought and that’s really what the board is about. You want to have diversity,” he says.

Junofem was started in 2020 by South African-born researcher and former midwife Dr Jenny Kruger along with David Budgett, now CTO, who has a PhD in biomedical engineering. They’re part of the Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) at the University of Auckland and are commercialising Femfit, a device that helps women suffering from urinary incontinence by ensuring they do pelvic floor exercises correctly.

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Junofem has regulatory approval to sell the device in New Zealand, Australia and the UK and is awaiting FDA approval for the US. It has raised $2.2 million to date and is currently seeking another $2 million to expand sales in the UK, where it has had a lot of interest from various health professionals.

Kruger took over as CEO after Sydney-based Jen Barnes stepped down during Covid when she couldn’t visit the team in person. The original chair, Wendy Kerr, was also replaced after a year by Malpas who had had more experience commercialising and getting the necessary regulatory approvals for a medical device, and had successfully chaired other medtech companies.

Malpas says he’s known the co-founders a long time through the ABI, where he is a professor, and had already helped them with some aspects of the core technology and supported the original capital raise. He says it “definitely helps” as chair to have a clear understanding of the startup’s technology and the development of health technology in general.

“You have to understand the journey they are on. I wouldn’t ever dream of being on the board of say a fintech company doing some sort of SaaS thing.”

The board offers value by focusing on what the startup needs and directors bring their own perspectives, networks and experience to that, he says.

“And you can’t have the whole board singing from the same song sheet. You’ve got to have different perspectives and that’s where the independence can help.”

Being on a startup board is different to that of a listed entity, he says.

“One of the things that we and Junofem do try and focus on is strategy – very much giving as much time as we can to the high-level stuff rather than boring nuts and bolts, the governance and compliance. You can do some quite good things if you focus and don’t lose sight of that opportunity.”

The human element

Malpas says one of his main roles is acting as a mentor for the CEO and founders to help them through tough times.

“There will be tough times; every company always has a tough time, it’s not all plain sailing. You don’t know what you don’t know and sometimes I think founders think they’re creating the first wheel, not realising that millions have done it before them.”

Kruger says the most vital part of the relationship between chair and CEO is clear communication.

“We’ve always had that with Simon – I have the capacity to pick up the phone and call him at any point and he is responsive, unless he’s cycling somewhere and I can’t get hold of him!”

“I always feel that Simon has our back and that’s important. Particularly in a startup you need somebody that has your back covered and will advocate for you.”

Having a personal rapport with the CEO or co-founders is also important, says Malpas.

“You should be able as a founder to speak confidentially to your chair and other board members. In order to do that, you have to be at least able to get on with them. The best board chairs or board people are those you’d be happy to meet and have a chat with and if you ran across them in the park you’d had a coffee or beer with them.”

Malpas says the most important aspect of his role is to be a sounding board that is independent from the daily operation of the business. 

“It’s perfectly natural that as a CEO or as a founder who’s working in the business, it’s your life and sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees. The board, especially at a startup level, needs to have that independent perspective.”

Kruger says as a startup, Junofem probably instituted its formal board sooner than others but having an independent chair and a separate independent adviser to the board has been helpful and almost critical when making hard decisions.

“As the CEO you’re in the weeds all the time and it’s difficult to see the big picture so having somebody independent – both the chair and advisor to the board – is really important to help with the direction of where your company is going.”

The refresh

Kruger asked Helen Robinson, experienced tech director and also co-founder of Oi, a company producing biodegradable menstrual products, as an advisor a year ago. She met her at an Icehouse Ventures retreat , got talking and took up Robinson’s offer of help. 

Robinson brings additional strengths in getting a product to market, Kruger says and may eventually join the formal board.

Dr Jackie Smalldridge, an obstetrician and gynaecologist with a special interest in urogynaecology, also chairs Junofem’s clinical advisory committee and helps with referrals and introductions to other specialists.

Malpas says it can add value from the start if founders have advisory groups that focus on particular aspects of importance to the business, in addition to the formal board, which has statutory governance obligations.

He says those advisors can change as the startup grows, and every chair also has their own use-by date, as boards should not be appointed forever.

“If I take my skillset – I understand technology, I understand medtech – but as the company grows, it will outgrow me. The best day is where they can come and say, effectively and nicely, ‘you’re no good for us anymore, it’s time to move on’.  You should have a review of whether you’ve added value.”

Kruger agrees, saying chairs and the board should evolve as the startup evolves.

“There are certain skillsets that people bring early on and then that will transition when the stage of the company changes. Our basic development of the product is almost done and I think what we need now is ‘how do we translate that, how do we get that out to market to scale to build the revenue that we need to grow the company?’”

She says the same goes for the startup’s CEO.

A startup board needs to refresh much quicker than a big company in some respects, says Kruger.

“It’s hard to transition from that space where you’re so intensely involved in the development, design, research, proof of concept and then moving to product and making your first sale and thinking ‘oh, we’re on our way’ and then the reality hits – that you need a hell of a lot more sales before you can even wash your face, never mind anything else.”

Kruger’s advice for founders looking for an appropriate independent chair or board members is to access all kinds of startup events – from retreats, to mix and mingles, to seminars.

“You’ve got to take opportunities and go for coffees and see what works and what doesn’t work. It’s exhausting and sometimes it doesn’t work but I have to keep reminding myself when I’m doing this stuff that there’s a bigger picture.”

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Sounding Boards is a monthly series exploring the relationship between board chair and startup founders.

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