Why Rippling’s board doesn’t watch decks — they debate strategy
The crawl‑walk‑run guide Rippling’s former CFO used to turn a 20-slide deck into the KPI backbone of a $16B company.
Perfecting your board‑meeting approach early matters more than most founders realize. By putting in a few extra hours of prep, your board meeting can become a valuable source of strategic inspiration, rather than a tedious presentation.
Today, we are sharing the real pre-read board materials our former CFO used to turn our board meeting into a strategic planning session, rather than a performative presentation.
The principle ⚛️
Turn your next board meeting into a < 90-minute strategy sprint
Before Rippling investors enter a board meeting, they already know exactly what our ARR is, our monthly cash burn and NDR rate.
That’s because our finance team preps a 20-slide deck with all these concrete stats, along with a simple narrative of our growth to root everything in context. By the time the live session kicks off, our founder, Parker Conrad, can jump straight into trade‑offs, hiring bets, and challenges in the product roadmap.
“We knew showing up and going slide-by-slide wasn’t a good use of time,” says Adil Syed, Rippling’s current GM of Startups and former CFO. “The result is a much richer discussion in the boardroom.”
In this exclusive interview, Syed walks through a real pre-read materials deck we shared with investors, and breaks down how founders at any stage can think more strategically through a crawl, walk, run framework. Whether you are meeting to discuss your Q3 plans or have a casual working session on the calendar, there’s bound to be insights to glean from our deck that we hope makes your next session that much more productive.
🐛 Crawl — Nail the KPI backbone early
Stage: Post-seed to Series A Team size: 1-10 ARR: <$5M Board Size: 2-4 people
When you are only a three-person seed team, over-engineering metrics in your first board meeting can waste time and distract you from the real point: an exercise in telling the story of your startup’s early growth. At this stage, you’ll lock in the metrics that will define your company’s strategic lens for the next 3-5 years. “That first deck wasn’t just a status update,” Syed says. “It became the foundation for how Rippling thinks about its business.”
Here are some suggested slides: KPI Snapshot — Logo growth, ARR growth, churn, NDR
Net New ARR by Component — New logo, expansion, cross-sell, churn
Product Mix (Pie Chart) — ARR by product line
Cash Hourglass — Current runway across burn scenarios
Hiring Guardrails — Payback model for new headcount PQ: “If your first board deck just impresses investors, you missed the point. Your goal is to build the system you’ll still be using 5 years from now.”
🛠 Ship‑It Tips
Define KPIs early — and always change them in a more conservative direction.
Add a comment to each slide: “Board to weigh in on X.”
Don’t present live. Send as pre-read, then only flip to slides for deep dives.
🚶Walk — Connect metrics to strategy
Stage: Series A–B Team: 30–100 ARR: $5M–$20M Complexity: Growing — multiple SKUs, functions, and customer segments
This is the moment where most founders fall into the alignment trap: “The KPIs you track day-to-day aren’t the ones that matter to your board,” Syed says.
For example, your support team might optimize for time to first response. That doesn’t sound strategic — until you trace the full causal chain:
That’s what makes a board deck strategic: not the metrics themselves, but how clearly they connect to business outcomes.
“The magic happens when you connect operational metrics to strategic outcomes. We did the work to make those jumps legible — from TTFR to cross-sell and retention,” he says.
🛠 Ship‑It Tips
Build a ladder for each team’s KPIs → board metrics.
Review quarterly: what still maps cleanly? What doesn’t?
If you can’t trace the connection, drop it from the board deck.
🏃🏼Run — Use board meetings to drive strategy, not recaps
Stage: Series B–D Team: 100–500+ ARR: $20M+ Deck: 50–70 slides (all pre-read)
Rippling’s board meetings now last <90 minutes — not because they cover less, but because directors arrive fully prepped.
“We stopped presenting. Investors came in having already read the deck — and we dove straight into strategic debate,” Syed says.
Instead, here are three conversations to prioritize:
“The board conversation isn’t about slides — it’s about trade-offs. Where to place talent. Where to slow down. Where to double down,” Syed says.
🛠 Ship‑It Checklist
☐ Send annotated pre-read 48 hrs early
☐ CEO opens with 5-min POV: where we're stuck, where we’re winning
☐ No live narration — slides only open to answer questions
☐ Assign clear owners + deadlines on every action
We’re open-sourcing the original 2019 Rippling board deck, one that still anchors our metrics today.
We’re limiting access to First Principles subscribers only. Why? Because it’s one of our most strategic assets, and we’d rather share it with people who actually care about building great companies.
Access the deck here.
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