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 doing weeks and weeks of work to help you prepare for a board meeting.”

“I don't like the word 'Copilot' for BoardLens because it feels too passive. I like the word “analyst” because if you think of a Goldman analyst, they will do their best to really make you shine and to prepare you, so you should think of it as an analyst that fights for you.”

 ”The breadth of expertise and the breadth of knowhow you need to have and need to gain very rapidly as a director these days is significant and has accelerated dramatically in the last five years.”

Links raffaelarein.com

https://boardlens.ai/

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/governance-insights-center/library/board- effectiveness-and-performance-improvement.html

Raffaela Rein Bio

Raffaela Rein is a seasoned entrepreneur and board member with expertise in frontier technologies and innovation-driven leadership.

She serves on multiple corporate and private equity-backed boards, including Porsche, Mutares, and the International University IU.

As the founder of WildWildVentures and CareerFoundry, she has scaled startups to 120+ employees and advised venture-backed businesses.

Named one of Forbes’ Top Women in Tech, Capital’s 40 Under 40, and among Europe’s most influential women in startups and VC, Raffaela has built a career at the forefront of business reinvention and innovation driven leadership.

She began her career at BlackRock and launched three companies for Rocket Internet across China, Australia, and Taiwan before becoming an entrepreneur.