Brad Feld, a venture capitalist of 25 years an author of several books, has just republished a book that first came out in 2013 and to which Feld, with the help of coauthors Matt Blumberg and Mahendra Ramsinghani, has added quite a bit for this new, second edition.

Called Startup Boards:A Field Guide to Building and Leading an Effective Board of Directors, its timing couldn't be better. With the public -- and now startup -- markets in turmoil, board members who may have gotten along swimmingly in the longest bull market in history may suddenly find themselves at odds with the management teams they've funded, as well as their fellow board members. After all, hard decisions are being made right now, and faced with very different financial pressures, many VCs are discovering their jobs just became a lot more challenging, too.

We talked with Feld last week about the book and the challenges currently facing startup boards, and we touched on a wide number of issues, from the importance (or not) of having an odd number of directors to avoid gridlock, and why every startup board should have independent directors from nearly the get-go. You can listen to our conversation here; meanwhile, we hope you'll find the excerpts below, edited for length and clarity, helpful.

TC: Why rework and republish this book? Why do startups need it?

BF: One reason is until recently, we've had this incredible, positive market for entrepreneurship and venture specifically where there's been huge value created [notwithstanding a] handful of cases where there's been really bad governance that resulted in the cataclysmic failures of companies. At the same time, there's been this narrative, especially amongst companies, that they don't really need boards, [with] more entrepreneurs not taking advantage of the benefit of a board -- especially outside board members.

This whole notion of what role a board really plays and how it can be helpful to a fast-growing company wasn't just lost but in a lot of ways was being ignored.