May 7, 2025 • 31 mins
In this episode of On Boards, hosts Joe Ayoub and Raza Shaikh welcome Raffaela
Rein, a seasoned entrepreneur and board member with expertise in frontier
technology and innovation-driven leadership. Raffaela began her career as an
analyst at BlackRock, and launched three companies for the world's largest
incubator, Rocket Internet, across China, Australia, and Taiwan before becoming
an entrepreneur.
She serves on multiple corporate and private equity-backed boards, including
Porsche, Mutares and International University IU. As the founder of
WildWildVentures and CareerFoundry, she has scaled startups to 120-plus
employees and advised many venture-backed businesses. Raffaela serves as a
board member for the German startup Verband, where she helps improve
legislation for startups.
Raffaela was named one of Forbes top women in tech, and she is among Europe's
most influential women in startups and venture capital. She has built a career at the
forefront of business reinvention.
Raffaela discusses her entrepreneurial journey as founder of BoardLens
a new AI tool she is developing and how it will transform the future of board
meetings and excellence in board members.
Key Takeaways
1. Board effectiveness
- Only 30% CEOs rate their boards as effective. With an expectation that
board members come to meetings well prepared, Rein recognizes that
board members are tasked with consuming hundreds, and often thousands, of pages of information in preparation for meetings. It is an almost impossible task to complete a thorough review especially if you are if you have a full time job. - In Germany, it’s common for board members to hire consultants or a ‘chief of staff’ that will help them with their board responsibilities. Raffaela is creating a tool that will serve a similar role for board members worldwide.
2. How BoardLens can transform board meetings
- Raffaela anticipates launching BoardLens in mid-2025. It is an AI driven
tool that is built to aid board members with meeting preparation,
research, executive summaries, questions and risk analysis. It is meant to
support board members while enabling members to fulfill their fiduciary
duties and make a meaningful contribution in board meetings. - Raffaela likens BoardLens to hiring a personal Goldman Sachs analyst. It
is trained with proprietary data and that will enable it to act, think and
analyze like a board director.
3. Human edge is still crucial
- While AI can process vast data and respond quickly, human directors can
provide intuition, pattern recognition, and emotional intelligence—skills
developed through lived experience that are essential in nuanced
decision-making. - As technology advances, AI is bound to replace some human roles but to
maintain the balance between AI and humans, Rein suggests thinking
about how people are able to provide a unique and individual perspective
to issues on a board’s agenda.
4. Privacy and confidentiality concerns
- Uploading board packets into non-enterprise AI tools can be a
confidentiality risk. BoardLens, however, will be trained to only read one
organization’s board materials and will not cross share data. Rein
explains that the company's IT department will be able to access the
software’s security suite.
Quotes
”Here in Germany we have this system that you can get a consultant or chief of staff who actually helps you, not just with your preparation, but also with thinking things through deeply, doing deep market research, basically
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, and welcome to On Boards, a deepdive at what drives business success.
I'm Joe Ayoub and I'm herewith my co-host, Raza Shaikh.
Twice a month, On Boards is the place tolearn about one of the most critically
important aspects of any company ororganization; its board of directors
or advisors, with a focus on theimportant issues that are facing boards,
(00:24):
company leadership, and stakeholders.
Joe and I speak with a wide range ofguests and talk about what makes a board
successful or unsuccessful, what it meansto be an effective board member, and
how to make your board one of the mostvaluable assets of your organization.
Before we introduce our guest today,we want to thank the law firm of Nutter
(00:47):
McClennen & Fish who are again sponsoringour On Boards Summit this year taking
place on October 20th in their terrificconference center in the Boston Seaport.
Nutter has been an incrediblepartner with us in every way.
We appreciate all they'vedone to support this podcast.
Our guest today is Raffaela Rein.
(01:10):
Raffaela is a seasoned entrepreneurand board member with expertise
in frontier technology andinnovation-driven leadership.
She began her career as an analystat BlackRock, and she launched
three companies for the world'slargest incubator, Rocket Internet,
across China, Australia, and Taiwanbefore becoming an entrepreneur.
(01:35):
She serves on multiple corporateand private equity-backed boards,
including Porsche, Mutares andInternational University IU.
As the founder of WildWildVenturesand CareerFoundry, she has scaled
startups to 120-plus employees andadvised many venture-backed businesses.
(01:56):
Raffaela serves as a board member forthe German startup Verband, where she
helps improve legislation for startups.
Raffaela
was named one of Forbes top women in tech,and she is among Europe's most influential
women in startups and venture capital.
She has built a career at theforefront of business reinvention.
(02:21):
Welcome, Raffaela.
It's great to have you asour guest today on On Boards.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to be here.
We're excited to have you, and let'sstart with your background and your
professional journey because it hasreally informed where you are currently,
which we'll get to in a few minutes.
(02:41):
So, start with even as far back asBlackRock a little bit, and then
talk about the work you did at RocketInternet, and then we'll go from there.
Yes.
So, I started out at BlackRock in Londonas an analyst in their multi-asset
solutions department, and that wasin 2009, so right after the financial
crisis, and you can imagine it wasn'tthe most exciting time to be in finance,
(03:05):
but it was actually very exciting atBlackRock because BlackRock used the
time to acquire iShares, for example,made a couple of very major moves that
turned BlackRock into what it is today.
So, it was an exciting time and it wasalso the time when Rocket Internet,
which is famous for taking successfultech companies and replicating those
(03:28):
ideas in other parts of the world, orinfamous, you can say even, and they
were specifically targeting people fromplaces like BlackRock, like Goldman, to
come work for them all around the world.
I was approached to move from Londonto Beijing to start a company for
them, and I was 24 at the time.
It sounded like such a challenge andsuch an exciting opportunity, and so
(03:51):
within a few weeks I packed my bag,moved to Beijing, and we launched
what was a copy of Groupon back then.
And
it wasn't a complete culture shock forme because you can imagine working for
BlackRock already in 2009 was a verywell managed, incredibly well managed
(04:12):
company, and then going to China in awork culture that I did not know and
into a tech company where we grew from 40people when I got there to 3,000 people
in just six months, we grew from one cityto 126 cities in China in six months.
So, there was so much chaos inthat crazy scaling phase, and you
(04:35):
actually had to be in the officebefore 8:00 AM to even get a seat.
They just couldn't buy enoughchairs for the amount of people that
joined every day.
But I also realized I love that.
I love that chaos that you have inbuilding something new where you do
not have established processes yet.
You don't know always what the best wayfrom A to B is, and basically I really got
(04:57):
a love for building and entrepreneurship.
So, at the end of that time,I didn't just do China.
I also built after that a company inAustralia for Rocket, and then they sent
me to Taiwan to do the same company again.
The companies in Australia and Taiwanwere both fashion marketplaces, a
little bit like Zappos, you can imagineit, and actually the one in Australia
is nowadays one of Australia's mostsuccessful tech companies, it's called
(05:21):
The Iconic because Australia is very intoonline fashion shopping as it turns out.
Good for them.
Yes,
that's a very big country,e-commerce really helps people
to get their shopping done.
And then I returned to Germany whereI'm from and was committed to start
to build my own company, and back thenit was really start of the big tech
(05:45):
boom, but hardly anyone had the skills.
There weren't enough developers ordesigners, and so I decided to build
an online education company thattrained people very fast in six to
10 months into these new skills thatyou needed in the digital economy.
We grew very fast.
We raised about $10 million, andit grew into what is today one
(06:07):
of the largest online schools,especially for UX and UI design.
We trained about 10,000 people atthis point, and the company is still
around, but I exited my share to aprivate equity in 2018, and that is
when Porsche came and approached me.
I just wanted to ask, so whatis the name of the company?
Oh, CareerFoundry.
I founded it in 2013, careerfoundry.com.
(06:27):
We're still in the business, we're stilltraining people, anybody who's looking
for a career change, although I doubtthere's anyone on this podcast who's
really looking for a career change.
But please do check it outfor your kids and grandkids.
We're global, so we havecustomers all around the world.
After the exit, Porsche approached meand they were looking for advisory board
that was specifically helping them ontheir sustainability strategy, on their
(06:51):
future strategy, and again, it's hardto say no to when some company like
Porsche comes knocking at your door.
There were a lot of perks to this mandate,such as the Porsche driving experience.
I have driven almost every Porschethere is by this point, and my favorite
is the Taycan, the electric car.
There's a lot of debate.
So, if you meet a Porsche lover, everybodyhas their own favorite car, so never go
(07:15):
to a Porsche lover and start a debate.
It's a bit like religion.
Don't start.
Wow.
Yeah, so that was your firstforay into the board world.
Yes.
And as you became more familiar with theboard world, you became aware that there
were some issues with what was going onin the boardroom, and I just wanted to
(07:36):
cut to a couple of things that I've seenfrom a deck you sent me that 30% of CEOs
rate their own boards as ineffective.
How did you begin to understand thatthere was a real gap between what
was expected and what managementwas perceiving from their boards?
(08:01):
First of all, I want to say that I believeI'm actually in very good boards, so all
of my boards, everybody wants to makean impact, everybody does come prepared.
But even in the best boards, Iwould say, sometimes the materials
do not arrive quite on time.
You have sometimes very little time todigest an enormous amount of information
because the better you prepare, thebetter you can really help the management.
(08:24):
That's why I think strong boards inthe end mean strong companies, and
weak boards mean weak companies.
Here in Germany, we have a bit ofa different governance structure
than in the Anglo-Saxon world.
But what we also have is, here many ofthe big corporates in Germany, the CEOs
or the leadership team, they would alsoserve on other boards and they would
(08:45):
have an internal department inside thecompany where their CEO or an executive
to help them prepare for their externalboard mandates, I guess entire departments
in the top German companies for this,and then the people that work in these
departments eventually leave and becomeself-employed as consultants, and then
they help independent board memberssuch as me with their board work.
(09:08):
So, here, it's actually very normal ifyou go to any sort of member meeting
of board members, that people wouldhave a consultant like this or a chief
of staff, or however you call it,that helps them with their board work.
And I think I mentioned this inthe preparation for this podcast.
The other day, I met a board memberor like a private equity investor who
(09:30):
serves on 20 boards and he even employsthree full-time staff just to help
him prepare for all of his board work.
And this is in Germany.
this isn't Jeremy.
So, here it is very normal tobasically not be alone in this
incredible complexity that you arefaced with as a board director.
Raffaela, but talk about the rest ofthe world then, what is happening there?
(09:52):
What are we challengedwith as board members?
Are we getting too much materials?
So, all over the world, I thinkcomplexity has just increased
tremendously over the years.
So, that's partly regulatory.
There's just a lot more lawsbecause things have gone wrong.
There were a couple of bad thingsthat happened in the media, so
regulators made more regulations.
(10:13):
But at the same time, you also havejust a lot more items that need now
board oversight that didn't use to.
So, if we think about ESG, AI,cybersecurity, those used to
be part of the legal departmentor part of the IT department.
But now all of these items need boardoversight because they are critical
governance items for the business.
(10:35):
So, all of a sudden, board directorsdon't just have to be maybe an expert in
a certain area, they have to understandthe risk, like what AI governance means.
They have to understand multipleESG regulations and they have to
understand what cyber risks mean.
They have to understand if the companyis set up for all of these things.
(10:55):
Basically, just the breadth of expertiseand the breadth of knowhow you need to
have and need to gain very rapidly asa director these days has accelerated
and just alone in the last fiveyears since I've become a director.
Another third factor that adds a lotto the amount of materials that the
board gets is the management's thoughtthat, "Well, we provided the material."
(11:16):
They want disclosure, they want boardsto have that, even if it's a 600-page
document, so definitely there are reamsand reams of materials that we now get.
Also, like at this point, I've spoken towell over a hundred directors and it's
also from the company side of things,it's safer for them to give you more.
(11:37):
Say something happens, you don'tsay, "Oh, you didn't give us enough."
I'm going to say it'ssafer, but it's easier.
I mean, it takes more thought totake it from a thousand pages to 200
pages than to just say, "Here, wegave you everything. Don't complain."
It's not a great trend to have moredocuments going out to the board.
With everything that has happened inthe past and continues to happen now, no
(12:00):
management team wants to be in a positionwhere they didn't provide information
that might later turn out to be important.
I think that that's not a great trend.
Yeah.
And also, if you think about it, we usedto, for example, do the annual report,
and that would be a big part of the boardto make sure the report is correct, and
that alone will be a few hundred pages.
Now, you also have the non-financialreport that's a few hundred
(12:22):
pages more, and you have allkinds of other disclosures.
So alone, that has gone from a fewhundred pages to a few thousand
pages in the last few years.
So, with that challenge in mind, Raffaela,looks like you're working on a tool
that will help boards cope with this.
Talk about what you're building.
(12:44):
As I mentioned earlier, here in Germanywe have this system that you can get a
consultant or chief of staff who actuallyhelps you, not just with your preparation,
but also with thinking things throughdeeply, doing deep market research,
basically doing weeks and weeks of workto help you prepare for a board meeting.
I actually hired one of these consultantswhen I had one of my first mandates
(13:08):
and I felt fantastically prepared,like I was really, you can say, one of
the best prepared persons in the room.
I obviously then could havemore impact in the meeting.
I could help ask maybe more impactfulquestions, and it was fantastic, but it
was also very expensive because it wasan actual person who did weeks of work
(13:29):
for every board meeting I would join.
Did you feel like you were givingsomeone else some of the work you
should be doing as a board member?
Yes and no.
But I'm an entrepreneur, and inthat sense, I believe I'm better by
not doing everything alone becausethat's how companies are built.
(13:51):
If you only had one-person companies,nobody would've gone very far.
I do actually think there's people thatare better at many things than I am, and
I do generally like to rely on peoplethat are better or work with people that
are better than me in other aspects.
Makes a lot of sense.
Yeah, from that experience, I thought nowwith GenAI, especially with AI agents,
(14:11):
which is sort of the latest version andthe latest hype also in this AI cycle
that we're in, they can actually act likehuman analysts or even better, because
they can do weeks of research in an hour.
And the first time where it'sactually possible to do what
this human board analyst did as atechnology service, it just wouldn't
(14:34):
have been possible before GenAI.
That is what I'm currently building.
It's called BoardLens.
You can imagine it like if you hireda Goldman Sachs analyst who works
exclusively for you and this is aperson who's both trained in financial
analysis but also market analysis,due diligence, who maybe even has an
(14:54):
auditing background and basically reallysupports you in all endeavors of the
board, also regulatory side, and helpsyou both save time, but also make sure
you really fulfill your fiduciary duty.
You have a bigger impact in the boardmeeting, and in the end, also potentially
foresee vulnerabilities and risks faster,and that way you can help the management
(15:17):
steer the company in a better way.
So, what will be different in the productyou're developing, BoardLens, from
someone using their company's custom AICopilot or some other custom Copilot, how
will it differ what you're developing?
(15:39):
So, first of all, most boards do nothave access to any Copilot, even if
the company already uses somethinglike that, at least none of my
boards do I have access to this.
But we could get there, but I think wewill go two, three steps further than a
ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot will evergo, like we are building a whole dashboard
(16:00):
that doesn't just help you critically andthink through the board materials, also
do market research, regulatory research,and is really trained to think like an
analyst, not like a large language model.
So, maybe to explain this, a ChatGPTor a Copilot are so-called LLM (Large
(16:21):
Language Model), but they're still notthinking like a human, whereas AI agents,
they really think and act like humans, sothey can do a full on financial analysis
and actually pick out if they thinksomething might be an irregularity or
doesn't match up, but they can equally goout and find, for example, out of all of
the media coverage a company may have onthe internet, they can say, what of this
(16:45):
is relevant for you as a board member?
So, they can do what wouldtake you weeks in research and
present it to you in a few hours.
One more thing, we'll also train it,for example, on cases where things
have gone wrong, that it can detectrisks early, flag risks early.
We will train it with proprietary data, sowe will have partnerships with proprietary
(17:06):
data providers, so that say you servein a private company, we will be able
to tell you what are typical benchmarksfor liquidity or leverage positions in
your industry, your market, your size.
We will hopefully train it with bestpractices for boards through partnering
with, again, potential educationproviders for board materials.
(17:26):
So, we'll basically
act and think like a board director.
Again, if you were a bank, you wouldn'tdo your main value creation activities on
ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, because thisis really where you create your value,
so as a board member, why would you goto a generic tool as a board member if
you could have the best in class tool?
Raffaela, that sounds amazing.
(17:47):
I couldn't read 700 pages, butnow I can at least deal with them.
How are you thinking about themodality, meaning, is it that I
first share or upload the materialswith my BoardLens Copilot, and
then do I ask questions off it?
(18:08):
Or is it doing a standard set ofthings and answering some questions
already saying, "Here are the importantthings that you should look at.
Here are a few deviations fromyour industry that I see in
your board materials and so on.
How is the interaction with BoardLens?
Yeah, it will give you immediately afull analysis, so it will not just give
(18:31):
you an executive summary, but it willimmediately analyze it for you, so it
will immediately ask questions around it.
But then there is a chat functionalitywhere you can go deeper, so you can
ask, "Hey, tell me on which pageshould it say that or give me more
context around that," or whatever youmay want to ask so you can go deeper.
That's also why I don't like the wordCopilot because it feels so passive,
(18:54):
whereas I like the word analyst becauseif you think of a Goldman analyst,
they would do their best to reallymake you shine and to make you prepare,
and I think you should think of itlike an analyst that fights for you.
We're kind of hoping that Goldmanwill come on as a sponsor of this
podcast, so it's so great thatyou put in a good word for them.
(19:15):
Raffaela, my sense is this is just arandom number, but let's say 70% of
current board members do not actually comeprepared and have read all the materials.
They may have glanced through itand so on, but not really actually
read, and they're in the meetingand that's when they're doing it.
Now, with BoardLens being availableto them, does it already actually just
(19:39):
give them another excuse saying, "Well,I actually now do not need to read. My
analyst has given me a good key highlightsand things that I should be looking at,
and that's good enough. I do not nowneed to read all of these materials."
As a board director, you always havea fiduciary duty and you have, most of
(20:01):
the time, also a liability yourself.
So, I would not advise not reading ityourself, but BoardLens will inform,
when you read the full document,what you should pay attention to.
It will have given you somecritical things to think about.
It will have prepared you in a moreactionable way and more tangible way.
But I would not recommend not reading thematerials, whether it's before AI or now,
(20:23):
but unfortunately there are these people.
But to be honest, my sense also withwhom I'm speaking now is that those
people, BoardLens will be more used bypeople who actually want to do a good
job, who want to do impact, and thosethat don't prepare today, I don't think
they would actually buy a tool like this.
Okay, and then the next part isjust doing a thought experiment.
(20:46):
BoardLens is working very, very welland in the not too distant future,
are we seeing a world where boardswill have a non-human AI as one of the
directors at the board itself, becausethat will be the smartest board member
that you can imagine, not only theanalyst, but even one level above that.
(21:10):
Or several.
Let's say, I want one Goldman, Iwant one from some other sector.
I want someone who's a human capitalAI and now I create a diverse board
composition by different AI board members.
Why wouldn't that be somethingthat we'd see five years from
(21:31):
now or 10 years from now?
I can totally see that, andI think it would be fun.
Imagine that with an AI version of WarrenBuffet on a board, it would be, let's
say, at least very quote worthy, I hope.
At the very least, yeah.
Isn't that the temptation, you think?
Okay, you said Warren Buffet.
I can create a Warren Buffet-like AI.
(21:52):
I can feed it the information that I thinkthat level would have, and now, instead of
going out and recruiting board members, Ican create on a computer or have someone
create on a computer the profile that Iwant and feed it the information I want so
that it will know what I need it to know.
(22:13):
It will have the data I thinkthat is important for it
and it won't interrupt me.
It won't be rude to other board members.
It won't try to takeover the conversation.
It won't do all of the things that chairsstruggle with in virtually every board.
(22:35):
Why wouldn't that be a really temptingway to build a board and maybe have a
couple of humans just for old times sake.
Well, I think it's more thanfor old times sake, I think,
especially in public boards.
I don't see regulators, and at leastnot in five years going down the path.
Maybe if the AI was actually built bythe regulator, maybe they would allow
it, but otherwise, I don't think theywould allow you to put an AI that
(22:57):
just agrees with everything you sayon your board as a public company.
Yeah, I can totally see a mix.
Personally, I use AI a lot forbrainstorming and thinking things through,
and I feel it helps me ginormously andoften in a better way than maybe a human.
because sometimes a human for reallycomplex questions, they wouldn't
have the time or the context.
(23:18):
So, I can totally see that an AIboard member or a set of board
experts that's AI based would help.
But on the other hand, I think also someof the human advice or judgment that
that board directors bring, I don't seethat actually being able to replace that
so quickly because say often I speakwith young founders and I would pick
(23:40):
something up just from one or two wordsthey say or gestures they make because
I have been there, and I just havethis radar that turns on because I've
been there and I see the struggle andI see they just say one or two words,
but I know exactly what they're goingthrough and I can immediately navigate
that and address certain topics thatan AI would just not get from one or
two words, or they wouldn't see thebody language in the same way I do.
(24:03):
Maybe not today, but in five years, AImay be able to do much of what you said,
and I want to push back on something else.
You said a bunch of AI justdoing what they're told and
just agreeing with management.
That's a problem on boards today, humanboard members often will not push back.
(24:23):
They don't want to be theonly one voicing opposition.
The CEO or the board chair maywant to take their seat away.
With AI, that fear would not be there.
They could be trained to say what theyreally think rather than just agreeing so
I could make the argument that in X years,five to seven years, you could train the
(24:46):
right AI to be a better board member, saywhat you need to say, take the positions,
answer the question honestly, not becauseyou're looking around the room and you
don't want to stand out and the personthat brought you on the board is sitting
next to you, not because the CEO is really
Charismatic.
(25:07):
What did you say?
Charismatic.
I said overbearing.
Either way, and it's reallyjust trying to get to a result
that she or he wants to get to.
AI may not care about that, so Icould make the case that AI actually
solves some of those problemsbetter than almost any human.
I could definitely see a world wherea regulator says one of the regulatory
(25:29):
board members has to be on your board.
But I think also that brings up aphilosophical question, because that
could then mean will all politiciansbe AI at some point because there's
a lot of things that are flawedand potentially an AI would be less
susceptible to a certain, yeah, part.
Yeah, I think this may go in phases andthe first phase is the analyst, and then
(25:49):
the next phase is that it is a non-votingboard member with expertise skills.
They're saying everything but they don'thave the human vote or the fiduciary
vote for it, and I think phase threemight be the vote as well that comes.
I think for that, society andregulation has to be ready to accept
(26:10):
that the vote will also come from AI.
Yeah, I think the regulation issueis going to be front and center.
What is it that is going to be required?
Do you require a certainpercentage of humans on a board?
Do you require that the votesare taken in a different way?
(26:31):
It's like what we had with the womenquota, you'll have a human quota.
Yeah, I would say this is alittle different than that though.
All right, but it is, likethe tables are turning.
That's how AI will take over and ruleus, either you order the machine what to
do, or the machine orders you what to do.
But this is incredibly fascinating in thefuture to kind of look forward to that
(26:52):
makes us all more efficient, effective,and be able to manage risk better.
I would say also it's something that weneed to give deep thought to, and I'm
curious just to kind of close out howshould we be thinking about the future?
AI is here, and it's just goingto get more and more advanced
and more sophisticated, and havemore and more human-like skills.
(27:16):
What do we need to be thinking about tomake sure that the future, at least in
the boardroom, is balanced so that there'sa mix of AI and humans in the boardroom,
how do we think about that and what kindof regulations might we want to consider?
That is a very good question, and in theend, no one knows where the future goes.
(27:37):
What I do think, and I'm generallya believer, to go away from the
pure box ticking and really thinkingwhat can I bring into the boardroom?
What are my unique skills as a boarddirector, and how can I support
management, help on the governance?
In different companies also more supportis wanted or in some also less, so it
also depends on the circumstances, butin the end, yeah, I believe it's asking
(28:00):
what is my unique source and how canI bring that in more, because I think
sometimes on boards there's a verystrict agenda, and it can be easy to
not bring in your own lens on topics,or, for example, suggest to speak about
certain things that are happening.
At at least, we should all haveconversations about AI and how the company
(28:21):
is not just tackling the risks, but alsothe opportunities of AI in the company.
I think it's things like that, and if thecompany's perfectly covered, all fine.
But I think especially when it comesto AI, probably everybody can do more.
Also, when it comes to the team, how dowe get the team to wanting to explore
AI and use it in the best possible wayand make the company more effective?
(28:43):
Yeah, Raffaela, speaking of using AI,one of the obvious thing that will
come up and must have come up is theconfidentiality, security, and privacy
of the information, that very importantand sometimes sensitive, strategic
information that is being now sharedwith BoardLens or AI in general,
(29:08):
how do we alleviate those concerns?
These concerns are absolutely valid, andthat's why directors should not upload
anything into ChatGPT or Copilot atleast not if there's not an enterprise
version that the company has bought.
But at least in all of the boards whereI serve, we, for example, have enterprise
versions for most of these tools, andnormally that means the data that is
(29:32):
uploaded is not used for training.
It is SOC 2 compliant.
It basically stays within theenvironment and it doesn't leave.
It doesn't get blasted outinto the internet for everybody
to see, quite frankly.
And this is what we will do at BoardLensas well, so there will be a dashboard
that a IT department or head of IT canaccess where they can look at all of
(29:54):
the standard security protocols that youwould have as an enterprise software and
can basically just look at it as theywould look at any vendor and we will have
the full security suite that you wouldneed to deal with sensitive information.
And you're not commingling the data, yourAI is getting trained on only your board
materials, and it's not cross-sharedacross organizations other than general
(30:18):
industry data and all of those thingsthat that are publicly available.
Exactly.
That's obviously very importantbecause as board directors, we have
a fiduciary duty not to disclose anynon-public information and I certainly
wouldn't want to violate that.
I think you get a high fine if youdo so we make sure that won't happen.
Well, Raza and I will really watch veryclosely on the development of BoardLens.
(30:42):
It will be really interesting to see,once it's on the market, how it's
working and to really be a part ofseeing what the future may look like.
And you are recruiting beta testers?
Yes.
So, we are looking for early users.
We're launching in June, so ifanybody's interested in using
it, yeah, we're excited to haveyou in to bring this to market.
(31:04):
Absolutely.
Fantastic.
Raffaela, it has been terrificspeaking with you today.
Thanks so much for a great conversation,and thank you all for listening to On
Boards with our guest, Raffaela Rein.
Thank you for having me.
It was a fun conversation.
We loved it.
Please visit our websiteat OnBoardsPodcast.com.
(31:24):
That's OnBoardsPodcast.com.
We would love to hear yourcomments, suggestions, and feedback.
If you're already not a subscriber, pleasebe sure to subscribe at Apple Podcast,
Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast.
And remember to leaveus a five-star review.
And please tune in for thenext episode of On Boards.
(31:45):
Thanks.
Hello, and welcome to On Boards, a deepdive at what drives business success.
I'm Joe Ayoub and I'm herewith my co-host, Raza Shaikh.
Twice a month, On Boards is the place tolearn about one of the most critically
important aspects of any company ororganization; its board of directors
or advisors, with a focus on theimportant issues that are facing boards,
(00:24):
company leadership, and stakeholders.
Joe and I speak with a wide range ofguests and talk about what makes a board
successful or unsuccessful, what it meansto be an effective board member, and
how to make your board one of the mostvaluable assets of your organization.
Before we introduce our guest today,we want to thank the law firm of Nutter
(00:47):
McClennen & Fish who are again sponsoringour On Boards Summit this year taking
place on October 20th in their terrificconference center in the Boston Seaport.
Nutter has been an incrediblepartner with us in every way.
We appreciate all they'vedone to support this podcast.
Our guest today is Raffaela Rein.
(01:10):
Raffaela is a seasoned entrepreneurand board member with expertise
in frontier technology andinnovation-driven leadership.
She began her career as an analystat BlackRock, and she launched
three companies for the world'slargest incubator, Rocket Internet,
across China, Australia, and Taiwanbefore becoming an entrepreneur.
(01:35):
She serves on multiple corporateand private equity-backed boards,
including Porsche, Mutares andInternational University IU.
As the founder of WildWildVenturesand CareerFoundry, she has scaled
startups to 120-plus employees andadvised many venture-backed businesses.
(01:56):
Raffaela serves as a board member forthe German startup Verband, where she
helps improve legislation for startups.
Raffaela
was named one of Forbes top women in tech,and she is among Europe's most influential
women in startups and venture capital.
She has built a career at theforefront of business reinvention.
(02:21):
Welcome, Raffaela.
It's great to have you asour guest today on On Boards.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to be here.
We're excited to have you, and let'sstart with your background and your
professional journey because it hasreally informed where you are currently,
which we'll get to in a few minutes.
(02:41):
So, start with even as far back asBlackRock a little bit, and then
talk about the work you did at RocketInternet, and then we'll go from there.
Yes.
So, I started out at BlackRock in Londonas an analyst in their multi-asset
solutions department, and that wasin 2009, so right after the financial
crisis, and you can imagine it wasn'tthe most exciting time to be in finance,
(03:05):
but it was actually very exciting atBlackRock because BlackRock used the
time to acquire iShares, for example,made a couple of very major moves that
turned BlackRock into what it is today.
So, it was an exciting time and it wasalso the time when Rocket Internet,
which is famous for taking successfultech companies and replicating those
(03:28):
ideas in other parts of the world, orinfamous, you can say even, and they
were specifically targeting people fromplaces like BlackRock, like Goldman, to
come work for them all around the world.
I was approached to move from Londonto Beijing to start a company for
them, and I was 24 at the time.
It sounded like such a challenge andsuch an exciting opportunity, and so
(03:51):
within a few weeks I packed my bag,moved to Beijing, and we launched
what was a copy of Groupon back then.
And
it wasn't a complete culture shock forme because you can imagine working for
BlackRock already in 2009 was a verywell managed, incredibly well managed
(04:12):
company, and then going to China in awork culture that I did not know and
into a tech company where we grew from 40people when I got there to 3,000 people
in just six months, we grew from one cityto 126 cities in China in six months.
So, there was so much chaos inthat crazy scaling phase, and you
(04:35):
actually had to be in the officebefore 8:00 AM to even get a seat.
They just couldn't buy enoughchairs for the amount of people that
joined every day.
But I also realized I love that.
I love that chaos that you have inbuilding something new where you do
not have established processes yet.
You don't know always what the best wayfrom A to B is, and basically I really got
(04:57):
a love for building and entrepreneurship.
So, at the end of that time,I didn't just do China.
I also built after that a company inAustralia for Rocket, and then they sent
me to Taiwan to do the same company again.
The companies in Australia and Taiwanwere both fashion marketplaces, a
little bit like Zappos, you can imagineit, and actually the one in Australia
is nowadays one of Australia's mostsuccessful tech companies, it's called
(05:21):
The Iconic because Australia is very intoonline fashion shopping as it turns out.
Good for them.
Yes,
that's a very big country,e-commerce really helps people
to get their shopping done.
And then I returned to Germany whereI'm from and was committed to start
to build my own company, and back thenit was really start of the big tech
(05:45):
boom, but hardly anyone had the skills.
There weren't enough developers ordesigners, and so I decided to build
an online education company thattrained people very fast in six to
10 months into these new skills thatyou needed in the digital economy.
We grew very fast.
We raised about $10 million, andit grew into what is today one
(06:07):
of the largest online schools,especially for UX and UI design.
We trained about 10,000 people atthis point, and the company is still
around, but I exited my share to aprivate equity in 2018, and that is
when Porsche came and approached me.
I just wanted to ask, so whatis the name of the company?
Oh, CareerFoundry.
I founded it in 2013, careerfoundry.com.
(06:27):
We're still in the business, we're stilltraining people, anybody who's looking
for a career change, although I doubtthere's anyone on this podcast who's
really looking for a career change.
But please do check it outfor your kids and grandkids.
We're global, so we havecustomers all around the world.
After the exit, Porsche approached meand they were looking for advisory board
that was specifically helping them ontheir sustainability strategy, on their
(06:51):
future strategy, and again, it's hardto say no to when some company like
Porsche comes knocking at your door.
There were a lot of perks to this mandate,such as the Porsche driving experience.
I have driven almost every Porschethere is by this point, and my favorite
is the Taycan, the electric car.
There's a lot of debate.
So, if you meet a Porsche lover, everybodyhas their own favorite car, so never go
(07:15):
to a Porsche lover and start a debate.
It's a bit like religion.
Don't start.
Wow.
Yeah, so that was your firstforay into the board world.
Yes.
And as you became more familiar with theboard world, you became aware that there
were some issues with what was going onin the boardroom, and I just wanted to
(07:36):
cut to a couple of things that I've seenfrom a deck you sent me that 30% of CEOs
rate their own boards as ineffective.
How did you begin to understand thatthere was a real gap between what
was expected and what managementwas perceiving from their boards?
(08:01):
First of all, I want to say that I believeI'm actually in very good boards, so all
of my boards, everybody wants to makean impact, everybody does come prepared.
But even in the best boards, Iwould say, sometimes the materials
do not arrive quite on time.
You have sometimes very little time todigest an enormous amount of information
because the better you prepare, thebetter you can really help the management.
(08:24):
That's why I think strong boards inthe end mean strong companies, and
weak boards mean weak companies.
Here in Germany, we have a bit ofa different governance structure
than in the Anglo-Saxon world.
But what we also have is, here many ofthe big corporates in Germany, the CEOs
or the leadership team, they would alsoserve on other boards and they would
(08:45):
have an internal department inside thecompany where their CEO or an executive
to help them prepare for their externalboard mandates, I guess entire departments
in the top German companies for this,and then the people that work in these
departments eventually leave and becomeself-employed as consultants, and then
they help independent board memberssuch as me with their board work.
(09:08):
So, here, it's actually very normal ifyou go to any sort of member meeting
of board members, that people wouldhave a consultant like this or a chief
of staff, or however you call it,that helps them with their board work.
And I think I mentioned this inthe preparation for this podcast.
The other day, I met a board memberor like a private equity investor who
(09:30):
serves on 20 boards and he even employsthree full-time staff just to help
him prepare for all of his board work.
And this is in Germany.
this isn't Jeremy.
So, here it is very normal tobasically not be alone in this
incredible complexity that you arefaced with as a board director.
Raffaela, but talk about the rest ofthe world then, what is happening there?
(09:52):
What are we challengedwith as board members?
Are we getting too much materials?
So, all over the world, I thinkcomplexity has just increased
tremendously over the years.
So, that's partly regulatory.
There's just a lot more lawsbecause things have gone wrong.
There were a couple of bad thingsthat happened in the media, so
regulators made more regulations.
(10:13):
But at the same time, you also havejust a lot more items that need now
board oversight that didn't use to.
So, if we think about ESG, AI,cybersecurity, those used to
be part of the legal departmentor part of the IT department.
But now all of these items need boardoversight because they are critical
governance items for the business.
(10:35):
So, all of a sudden, board directorsdon't just have to be maybe an expert in
a certain area, they have to understandthe risk, like what AI governance means.
They have to understand multipleESG regulations and they have to
understand what cyber risks mean.
They have to understand if the companyis set up for all of these things.
(10:55):
Basically, just the breadth of expertiseand the breadth of knowhow you need to
have and need to gain very rapidly asa director these days has accelerated
and just alone in the last fiveyears since I've become a director.
Another third factor that adds a lotto the amount of materials that the
board gets is the management's thoughtthat, "Well, we provided the material."
(11:16):
They want disclosure, they want boardsto have that, even if it's a 600-page
document, so definitely there are reamsand reams of materials that we now get.
Also, like at this point, I've spoken towell over a hundred directors and it's
also from the company side of things,it's safer for them to give you more.
(11:37):
Say something happens, you don'tsay, "Oh, you didn't give us enough."
I'm going to say it'ssafer, but it's easier.
I mean, it takes more thought totake it from a thousand pages to 200
pages than to just say, "Here, wegave you everything. Don't complain."
It's not a great trend to have moredocuments going out to the board.
With everything that has happened inthe past and continues to happen now, no
(12:00):
management team wants to be in a positionwhere they didn't provide information
that might later turn out to be important.
I think that that's not a great trend.
Yeah.
And also, if you think about it, we usedto, for example, do the annual report,
and that would be a big part of the boardto make sure the report is correct, and
that alone will be a few hundred pages.
Now, you also have the non-financialreport that's a few hundred
(12:22):
pages more, and you have allkinds of other disclosures.
So alone, that has gone from a fewhundred pages to a few thousand
pages in the last few years.
So, with that challenge in mind, Raffaela,looks like you're working on a tool
that will help boards cope with this.
Talk about what you're building.
(12:44):
As I mentioned earlier, here in Germanywe have this system that you can get a
consultant or chief of staff who actuallyhelps you, not just with your preparation,
but also with thinking things throughdeeply, doing deep market research,
basically doing weeks and weeks of workto help you prepare for a board meeting.
I actually hired one of these consultantswhen I had one of my first mandates
(13:08):
and I felt fantastically prepared,like I was really, you can say, one of
the best prepared persons in the room.
I obviously then could havemore impact in the meeting.
I could help ask maybe more impactfulquestions, and it was fantastic, but it
was also very expensive because it wasan actual person who did weeks of work
(13:29):
for every board meeting I would join.
Did you feel like you were givingsomeone else some of the work you
should be doing as a board member?
Yes and no.
But I'm an entrepreneur, and inthat sense, I believe I'm better by
not doing everything alone becausethat's how companies are built.
(13:51):
If you only had one-person companies,nobody would've gone very far.
I do actually think there's people thatare better at many things than I am, and
I do generally like to rely on peoplethat are better or work with people that
are better than me in other aspects.
Makes a lot of sense.
Yeah, from that experience, I thought nowwith GenAI, especially with AI agents,
(14:11):
which is sort of the latest version andthe latest hype also in this AI cycle
that we're in, they can actually act likehuman analysts or even better, because
they can do weeks of research in an hour.
And the first time where it'sactually possible to do what
this human board analyst did as atechnology service, it just wouldn't
(14:34):
have been possible before GenAI.
That is what I'm currently building.
It's called BoardLens.
You can imagine it like if you hireda Goldman Sachs analyst who works
exclusively for you and this is aperson who's both trained in financial
analysis but also market analysis,due diligence, who maybe even has an
(14:54):
auditing background and basically reallysupports you in all endeavors of the
board, also regulatory side, and helpsyou both save time, but also make sure
you really fulfill your fiduciary duty.
You have a bigger impact in the boardmeeting, and in the end, also potentially
foresee vulnerabilities and risks faster,and that way you can help the management
(15:17):
steer the company in a better way.
So, what will be different in the productyou're developing, BoardLens, from
someone using their company's custom AICopilot or some other custom Copilot, how
will it differ what you're developing?
(15:39):
So, first of all, most boards do nothave access to any Copilot, even if
the company already uses somethinglike that, at least none of my
boards do I have access to this.
But we could get there, but I think wewill go two, three steps further than a
ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot will evergo, like we are building a whole dashboard
(16:00):
that doesn't just help you critically andthink through the board materials, also
do market research, regulatory research,and is really trained to think like an
analyst, not like a large language model.
So, maybe to explain this, a ChatGPTor a Copilot are so-called LLM (Large
(16:21):
Language Model), but they're still notthinking like a human, whereas AI agents,
they really think and act like humans, sothey can do a full on financial analysis
and actually pick out if they thinksomething might be an irregularity or
doesn't match up, but they can equally goout and find, for example, out of all of
the media coverage a company may have onthe internet, they can say, what of this
(16:45):
is relevant for you as a board member?
So, they can do what wouldtake you weeks in research and
present it to you in a few hours.
One more thing, we'll also train it,for example, on cases where things
have gone wrong, that it can detectrisks early, flag risks early.
We will train it with proprietary data, sowe will have partnerships with proprietary
(17:06):
data providers, so that say you servein a private company, we will be able
to tell you what are typical benchmarksfor liquidity or leverage positions in
your industry, your market, your size.
We will hopefully train it with bestpractices for boards through partnering
with, again, potential educationproviders for board materials.
(17:26):
So, we'll basically
act and think like a board director.
Again, if you were a bank, you wouldn'tdo your main value creation activities on
ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, because thisis really where you create your value,
so as a board member, why would you goto a generic tool as a board member if
you could have the best in class tool?
Raffaela, that sounds amazing.
(17:47):
I couldn't read 700 pages, butnow I can at least deal with them.
How are you thinking about themodality, meaning, is it that I
first share or upload the materialswith my BoardLens Copilot, and
then do I ask questions off it?
(18:08):
Or is it doing a standard set ofthings and answering some questions
already saying, "Here are the importantthings that you should look at.
Here are a few deviations fromyour industry that I see in
your board materials and so on.
How is the interaction with BoardLens?
Yeah, it will give you immediately afull analysis, so it will not just give
(18:31):
you an executive summary, but it willimmediately analyze it for you, so it
will immediately ask questions around it.
But then there is a chat functionalitywhere you can go deeper, so you can
ask, "Hey, tell me on which pageshould it say that or give me more
context around that," or whatever youmay want to ask so you can go deeper.
That's also why I don't like the wordCopilot because it feels so passive,
(18:54):
whereas I like the word analyst becauseif you think of a Goldman analyst,
they would do their best to reallymake you shine and to make you prepare,
and I think you should think of itlike an analyst that fights for you.
We're kind of hoping that Goldmanwill come on as a sponsor of this
podcast, so it's so great thatyou put in a good word for them.
(19:15):
Raffaela, my sense is this is just arandom number, but let's say 70% of
current board members do not actually comeprepared and have read all the materials.
They may have glanced through itand so on, but not really actually
read, and they're in the meetingand that's when they're doing it.
Now, with BoardLens being availableto them, does it already actually just
(19:39):
give them another excuse saying, "Well,I actually now do not need to read. My
analyst has given me a good key highlightsand things that I should be looking at,
and that's good enough. I do not nowneed to read all of these materials."
As a board director, you always havea fiduciary duty and you have, most of
(20:01):
the time, also a liability yourself.
So, I would not advise not reading ityourself, but BoardLens will inform,
when you read the full document,what you should pay attention to.
It will have given you somecritical things to think about.
It will have prepared you in a moreactionable way and more tangible way.
But I would not recommend not reading thematerials, whether it's before AI or now,
(20:23):
but unfortunately there are these people.
But to be honest, my sense also withwhom I'm speaking now is that those
people, BoardLens will be more used bypeople who actually want to do a good
job, who want to do impact, and thosethat don't prepare today, I don't think
they would actually buy a tool like this.
Okay, and then the next part isjust doing a thought experiment.
(20:46):
BoardLens is working very, very welland in the not too distant future,
are we seeing a world where boardswill have a non-human AI as one of the
directors at the board itself, becausethat will be the smartest board member
that you can imagine, not only theanalyst, but even one level above that.
(21:10):
Or several.
Let's say, I want one Goldman, Iwant one from some other sector.
I want someone who's a human capitalAI and now I create a diverse board
composition by different AI board members.
Why wouldn't that be somethingthat we'd see five years from
(21:31):
now or 10 years from now?
I can totally see that, andI think it would be fun.
Imagine that with an AI version of WarrenBuffet on a board, it would be, let's
say, at least very quote worthy, I hope.
At the very least, yeah.
Isn't that the temptation, you think?
Okay, you said Warren Buffet.
I can create a Warren Buffet-like AI.
(21:52):
I can feed it the information that I thinkthat level would have, and now, instead of
going out and recruiting board members, Ican create on a computer or have someone
create on a computer the profile that Iwant and feed it the information I want so
that it will know what I need it to know.
(22:13):
It will have the data I thinkthat is important for it
and it won't interrupt me.
It won't be rude to other board members.
It won't try to takeover the conversation.
It won't do all of the things that chairsstruggle with in virtually every board.
(22:35):
Why wouldn't that be a really temptingway to build a board and maybe have a
couple of humans just for old times sake.
Well, I think it's more thanfor old times sake, I think,
especially in public boards.
I don't see regulators, and at leastnot in five years going down the path.
Maybe if the AI was actually built bythe regulator, maybe they would allow
it, but otherwise, I don't think theywould allow you to put an AI that
(22:57):
just agrees with everything you sayon your board as a public company.
Yeah, I can totally see a mix.
Personally, I use AI a lot forbrainstorming and thinking things through,
and I feel it helps me ginormously andoften in a better way than maybe a human.
because sometimes a human for reallycomplex questions, they wouldn't
have the time or the context.
(23:18):
So, I can totally see that an AIboard member or a set of board
experts that's AI based would help.
But on the other hand, I think also someof the human advice or judgment that
that board directors bring, I don't seethat actually being able to replace that
so quickly because say often I speakwith young founders and I would pick
(23:40):
something up just from one or two wordsthey say or gestures they make because
I have been there, and I just havethis radar that turns on because I've
been there and I see the struggle andI see they just say one or two words,
but I know exactly what they're goingthrough and I can immediately navigate
that and address certain topics thatan AI would just not get from one or
two words, or they wouldn't see thebody language in the same way I do.
(24:03):
Maybe not today, but in five years, AImay be able to do much of what you said,
and I want to push back on something else.
You said a bunch of AI justdoing what they're told and
just agreeing with management.
That's a problem on boards today, humanboard members often will not push back.
(24:23):
They don't want to be theonly one voicing opposition.
The CEO or the board chair maywant to take their seat away.
With AI, that fear would not be there.
They could be trained to say what theyreally think rather than just agreeing so
I could make the argument that in X years,five to seven years, you could train the
(24:46):
right AI to be a better board member, saywhat you need to say, take the positions,
answer the question honestly, not becauseyou're looking around the room and you
don't want to stand out and the personthat brought you on the board is sitting
next to you, not because the CEO is really
Charismatic.
(25:07):
What did you say?
Charismatic.
I said overbearing.
Either way, and it's reallyjust trying to get to a result
that she or he wants to get to.
AI may not care about that, so Icould make the case that AI actually
solves some of those problemsbetter than almost any human.
I could definitely see a world wherea regulator says one of the regulatory
(25:29):
board members has to be on your board.
But I think also that brings up aphilosophical question, because that
could then mean will all politiciansbe AI at some point because there's
a lot of things that are flawedand potentially an AI would be less
susceptible to a certain, yeah, part.
Yeah, I think this may go in phases andthe first phase is the analyst, and then
(25:49):
the next phase is that it is a non-votingboard member with expertise skills.
They're saying everything but they don'thave the human vote or the fiduciary
vote for it, and I think phase threemight be the vote as well that comes.
I think for that, society andregulation has to be ready to accept
(26:10):
that the vote will also come from AI.
Yeah, I think the regulation issueis going to be front and center.
What is it that is going to be required?
Do you require a certainpercentage of humans on a board?
Do you require that the votesare taken in a different way?
(26:31):
It's like what we had with the womenquota, you'll have a human quota.
Yeah, I would say this is alittle different than that though.
All right, but it is, likethe tables are turning.
That's how AI will take over and ruleus, either you order the machine what to
do, or the machine orders you what to do.
But this is incredibly fascinating in thefuture to kind of look forward to that
(26:52):
makes us all more efficient, effective,and be able to manage risk better.
I would say also it's something that weneed to give deep thought to, and I'm
curious just to kind of close out howshould we be thinking about the future?
AI is here, and it's just goingto get more and more advanced
and more sophisticated, and havemore and more human-like skills.
(27:16):
What do we need to be thinking about tomake sure that the future, at least in
the boardroom, is balanced so that there'sa mix of AI and humans in the boardroom,
how do we think about that and what kindof regulations might we want to consider?
That is a very good question, and in theend, no one knows where the future goes.
(27:37):
What I do think, and I'm generallya believer, to go away from the
pure box ticking and really thinkingwhat can I bring into the boardroom?
What are my unique skills as a boarddirector, and how can I support
management, help on the governance?
In different companies also more supportis wanted or in some also less, so it
also depends on the circumstances, butin the end, yeah, I believe it's asking
(28:00):
what is my unique source and how canI bring that in more, because I think
sometimes on boards there's a verystrict agenda, and it can be easy to
not bring in your own lens on topics,or, for example, suggest to speak about
certain things that are happening.
At at least, we should all haveconversations about AI and how the company
(28:21):
is not just tackling the risks, but alsothe opportunities of AI in the company.
I think it's things like that, and if thecompany's perfectly covered, all fine.
But I think especially when it comesto AI, probably everybody can do more.
Also, when it comes to the team, how dowe get the team to wanting to explore
AI and use it in the best possible wayand make the company more effective?
(28:43):
Yeah, Raffaela, speaking of using AI,one of the obvious thing that will
come up and must have come up is theconfidentiality, security, and privacy
of the information, that very importantand sometimes sensitive, strategic
information that is being now sharedwith BoardLens or AI in general,
(29:08):
how do we alleviate those concerns?
These concerns are absolutely valid, andthat's why directors should not upload
anything into ChatGPT or Copilot atleast not if there's not an enterprise
version that the company has bought.
But at least in all of the boards whereI serve, we, for example, have enterprise
versions for most of these tools, andnormally that means the data that is
(29:32):
uploaded is not used for training.
It is SOC 2 compliant.
It basically stays within theenvironment and it doesn't leave.
It doesn't get blasted outinto the internet for everybody
to see, quite frankly.
And this is what we will do at BoardLensas well, so there will be a dashboard
that a IT department or head of IT canaccess where they can look at all of
(29:54):
the standard security protocols that youwould have as an enterprise software and
can basically just look at it as theywould look at any vendor and we will have
the full security suite that you wouldneed to deal with sensitive information.
And you're not commingling the data, yourAI is getting trained on only your board
materials, and it's not cross-sharedacross organizations other than general
(30:18):
industry data and all of those thingsthat that are publicly available.
Exactly.
That's obviously very importantbecause as board directors, we have
a fiduciary duty not to disclose anynon-public information and I certainly
wouldn't want to violate that.
I think you get a high fine if youdo so we make sure that won't happen.
Well, Raza and I will really watch veryclosely on the development of BoardLens.
(30:42):
It will be really interesting to see,once it's on the market, how it's
working and to really be a part ofseeing what the future may look like.
And you are recruiting beta testers?
Yes.
So, we are looking for early users.
We're launching in June, so ifanybody's interested in using
it, yeah, we're excited to haveyou in to bring this to market.
(31:04):
Absolutely.
Fantastic.
Raffaela, it has been terrificspeaking with you today.
Thanks so much for a great conversation,and thank you all for listening to On
Boards with our guest, Raffaela Rein.
Thank you for having me.
It was a fun conversation.
We loved it.
Please visit our websiteat OnBoardsPodcast.com.
(31:24):
That's OnBoardsPodcast.com.
We would love to hear yourcomments, suggestions, and feedback.
If you're already not a subscriber, pleasebe sure to subscribe at Apple Podcast,
Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast.
And remember to leaveus a five-star review.
And please tune in for thenext episode of On Boards.
(31:45):
Thanks.
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