Usually, important decisions in a company require a majority vote of the board of directors to approve them. Control of the board is then defined as a majority

Usually, important decisions in a company require a majority vote of the board of directors to approve them. Control of the board is then defined as a majority voting ability for an individual or aligned group of individuals. For example, 2 founders with equal equity stake will usually have the same incentives. Therefore, a board that has 2 founders and 1 investor is "founder controlled". Between being completely founder controlled and completely investor controlled, there is a "split board". That means equal number of founders to investors, and one mutually agreed upon independent party that could technically vote either way -- often times a person previously very successful in business with insight into the startup's market. In practice, a split board usually means investor-controlled, for a couple reasons: - The independent board member is usually suggested by the investor - The independent board member usually has a stronger incentive to side with a powerful investor