1myone.page Install free

Free template

Board report template: the board pre-read on one page

A quarterly board pre-read for a startup board: the CEO's view, the numbers against plan, the one decision you need, and the approvals. Send it two days before the meeting so the meeting can be spent on the decision.

Use this template Write it with AIMarkdown

Use this template needs the free Obsidian plugin; it makes a new note from the outline.

Example · Brightchair · Q3 board pre-read

Brightchair board pre-read, Q3 2026.
ARR up 38%, churn still too high.

Sent two days before the October 15 board meeting: the big picture, the numbers against plan, and the one decision we need from you. Brightchair is scheduling software for dental clinics; 14 people. Numbers are from September 30.

01Big picturethe CEO's view, 10 minutes
$1.24M
ARR, up 38% from $0.90M in June
$340K
net new ARR, plan was $300K
$142K
net burn a month, plan $150K
19 months
of runway at this burn

Highlights

Dental groups buyTwo groups signed for 61 clinics; they brought 29% of net new ARR.
Insurance check shippedFront desks verify a patient's insurance in one click; 70% of clinics use it weekly.

Lowlights

Churn2.1% of clinics leave each month, against 1.2% in the plan. Most leave in their first 90 days.
No VP SalesThe search is in its fourth month. The CEO still runs every group deal.

Where we need help

  1. VP Sales candidates. People who sold software to dental or medical groups.
  2. Intros to dental groups. Groups with 20 to 200 clinics, in the US.
  3. Onboarding advice. Anyone who cut early churn in a product sold to small clinics.
02Calibrationthe numbers against plan, 20 minutes
Metric
Q2 actual
Q3 plan
Q3 actual
On plan
ARR
$0.90M
$1.20M
$1.24M
yes
Net new ARR
$210K
$300K
$340K
yes, ahead
Clinics live
512
640
647
yes
Clinics lost a month
2.4%
1.2%
2.1%
no
Net burn a month
$128K
$150K
$142K
yes
Cash
$3.13M
$2.68M
$2.70M
yes

New clinics in Q3

1,180
demos booked
38% from dental group referrals
→
402
trials started
a clinic tries it for 14 days
→
171
clinics went live
up from 128 in Q2

Q4 forecast

$1.55M
ARR by December 31
$155K
net burn a month, with a VP Sales
1.5%
clinics lost a month, if the new onboarding works
03Deep dive: pricing for dental groupsthe decision for this meeting, 25 minutes

The question Groups ask for one contract for all their clinics. Today every clinic pays $159 a month on its own, and each group deal is priced by hand.

A · Volume discountPer clinic, 10% off from 20 clinics, 20% off from 100. Simple, but it gives margin away.
B · Platform fee$2,000 a month for the group, plus $129 per clinic. Predictable for us, a hard sell to small groups.
C · Group plan$179 per clinic with group reports, single sign-on and one invoice. Groups pay more and get more.

Our recommendation: C The two groups that signed asked for reports and one invoice, not a discount. We ask the board to approve the group plan from January 1, with existing groups moved at renewal.

04Housekeepingfor approval
Item
Detail
Minutes of the July meeting
attached, for approval
Option grants
four grants, 52,000 options: two engineers, a designer, the support lead
409A valuation
due in November; quote from Carta, $3,500

Next meeting: January 14, 2027, with the 2027 plan.

A board report, also called a board pack or board pre-read, is what directors read before a board meeting. At a startup the readers are three to seven people: investor directors, an independent director, the founders. They sit on several boards and read the pack the evening before. They need to see quickly how the quarter went against plan, what is going wrong, and what decision they are being asked to make.

This template follows the order of Sequoia's guide to preparing a board deck: the big picture, calibration (the numbers against plan), a deep dive on one topic, and housekeeping. It is written to be read, not presented, so it fits on one page instead of 40 slides. The example above is for Brightchair, a made-up 14-person scheduling company for dental clinics.

What goes in each section

The headline

The quarter's main metric and its main problem, in one line: "ARR up 38%, churn still too high." Then one paragraph with the meeting date, what the company does and the date of the numbers. Mistake to avoid: a headline that hides the problem the board will ask about anyway.

01 · Big picture

The CEO's view, about ten minutes in the meeting. Four tiles: ARR ($1.24M, up from $0.90M), net new ARR against plan ($340K vs $300K), net burn ($142K a month) and runway (19 months). Then two highlights, two lowlights and where you need help. Brightchair's lowlight is direct: "2.1% of clinics leave each month, against 1.2% in the plan." Its asks are three: VP Sales candidates, intros to dental groups with 20 to 200 clinics, advice on early churn.

Mistake to avoid: listing every project. The board needs the two things that went well and the two that did not.

02 · Calibration

A table of each key metric: last quarter's actual, this quarter's plan, this quarter's actual, and whether it is on plan. This is where the board checks that the company is doing what it said it would. Add one chart of how new customers came in (Brightchair: 1,180 demos, 402 trials, 171 clinics live) and a forecast for next quarter with the assumption behind it.

Mistake to avoid: showing actuals without the plan. Without the plan column a director cannot tell good from bad.

03 · Deep dive

One decision for this meeting, with the most time. State the question, show two or three options with their trade-offs, and give your recommendation. Brightchair asks how to price dental groups and lays out a volume discount, a platform fee and a group plan, then recommends the group plan at $179 per clinic from January 1. Mistake to avoid: bringing a problem with no recommendation. Directors are better at testing a proposal than writing one in the room. When the decision is the company's direction for the year, write it up first as a strategy memo.

04 · Housekeeping

Items for approval in a short table: minutes of the last meeting, option grants (Brightchair: four grants, 52,000 options), the 409A valuation. Put the next meeting date at the end. Mistake to avoid: opening the meeting with housekeeping. Approve it at the end, or by written consent before.

How often and how long

Quarterly for most venture-backed startups, monthly for some early boards. Between meetings, a monthly investor update keeps directors current. One page, or two printed sides at most; detail goes in an appendix. Send it two days before the meeting. A meeting of about 90 minutes spends roughly a tenth on the big picture, a fifth on calibration, most of the rest on the deep dive, and a few minutes on approvals.

How to use this template

Where myone.page helps

Board packs tend to go out as a PDF, and the numbers then live in three places. With myone.page the pre-read is one link: directors open it in the browser without Obsidian, your CFO can fix a figure in place, and the edit comes back to the note in your vault. Pages are end-to-end encrypted, which matters for board material. If your board needs a governance portal with e-signatures, minute books and director access controls, a board portal like Diligent or OnBoard is the better fit.

Questions

What is a board pre-read?

The material directors read before a board meeting: an update, the metrics against plan, and background on the decisions to be made. Reading it in advance means the meeting is spent discussing, not presenting.

How far in advance should the board pack be sent?

At least two days, ideally three to five. Directors need time to read and send questions. A pack that arrives the night before turns the meeting back into a presentation.

What is the difference between a board deck and a board report?

A board deck is slides presented in the meeting; a board report or pre-read is written to be read before it. Many startup boards now send a written pre-read and use only a few slides, or none, in the room.

What should a startup board report include?

Key metrics against plan (revenue, growth, burn, cash and runway), highlights and lowlights, where you need help, one or two topics for discussion with a recommendation, and items for approval such as minutes and option grants.

Read next

Turn your next note into a page

Write in Obsidian as you do now. The free plugin shows the note as a page with stats, tables and charts, and shares it as a link your team can edit in the browser; their edits come back to the note.

Install the free pluginWrite it with AI