How do you structure pool meetings?

Monthly meetings are a helpful way to set the tone as your pool is getting off the ground.
Pando Team

You’re still thinking through how you want your pool to interact and a big part of that interaction is during your monthly meetings.

As your pool grows, the date and time of your meetings might change.

Your meeting objectives might change too, so it’s important to think of these as fluid conditions for your pool.

As more voices enter into your pool, you may want to adapt the structure of your pool meetings or you may want to set aside smaller groups to maintain optimal engagement during these meetings. Ultimately, it’s up to you and your pool how you evolve as a group

An important thing to consider is who is leading the pool meetings. At first, it can be yourself and your co-founding members that are filling this role. Once other poolers become more comfortable with the meeting structure, they can also be included in the schedule. Having new leaders every meeting can help get everyone to be equally involved every month.

What should we cover in our pool meetings? Below are some common topics:

  • The top 2-3 priorities of each pooler and what they might have “asks” for.
  • Do they need a recommendation for a graphic designer or for someone to look over their pitch deck?
  • A general check-in on how each pooler is currently doing personally and professionally. A simple structure we’ve seen used is to use colors to identify how you are, using the “red, yellow, green conversation”: Red meaning not well, yellow meaning okay, and green meaning great.

During the first meeting as a new pool or with new pool members, most pools will take time to run through introductions and to learn more about new pooler’s companies and aspirations. You should also poll the room for what people might want to discuss in meetings.

Fun themes for pool meetings:

  • Pitch deck series where people practice their funding pitches and get advice on how to improve
  • Brainstorming weeks where people come with some new projects they are working on and can ask for help/people’s thoughts
  • Lesson Plan weeks: “How to Network in VC”, “How to find the right angel investor”, “How to brand yourself as a founder”

As time passes, you’ll find how you want to allocate your community’s time but also how you might want to hear from other poolers.

Your pool meetings are where you can set the tone of the community so feel free to have fun and invest in each other for an hour once a month.

Key Takeaways:

  • Create your pool leader rotation with your new members.
  • Have a running google doc with the priorities for the next meeting ready.
  • Listen to your pool to find what they would like to allocate time to when you meet.