> The board at Tesla is basically Elon’s buddies. There is no oversight or independence there, they do what he wants.

This is true at most companies with a competent CEO.

My uncle had an inimical board that tried to remove him, but he somehow replaced them all one by one before they could. Needless to say he replaced them with people who didn't want to remove him ("buddies"; but what kind of a leader surrounds himself with people that want him to fail?). He's never told me how he did that despite my asking several times.

> This is true at most companies with a competent CEO.

No it's not.

Competent CEOs hire boards that align with their world-view but are independent enough to provide useful advice. And almost all startup boards will have investors who definitely will not rubber stamp the sort of thing going on at Tesla.

Some companies have board governance rules that mandate a majority of the board seats be of "outside and independent" individuals, but of course this can easily be gamed and, of course, these rules themselves can be put to a vote during shareholder meetings.

Still, it's always worth considering these structures before one invests--especially in med-to-large-cap public companies.

Alternatively, in private small-cap and venture-boards, the seats are nearly always filled by founders and lead investors and I would argue that's a "good thing".