Several unique characteristics of ventures distinguish them from public firms, and lead to distinctive monitoring issues in ventures. In this paper, I develop a theoretical framework that links the attributes of the venture and the board composition with venture board monitoring and its implications for firm performance. Contributing to the strategy literature on corporate governance, the framework offers counter-intuitive deviations from how agency theory is typically conceptualized, highlights that unexpected "principal problem" could emerge as the separation of ownership and control is reduced, and presents novel insights about interdependence between agency and resource dependence theories. This framework also adds to the research on entrepreneurial firms by complementing the extant emphasis in the literature on resource provisioning and by offering a richer view of key actors by opening the black box of strategic action in ventures. More broadly, by focusing on an under-examined but important context beyond public firms, this paper highlights rich opportunities for developing a contingency theory of governance.