Reporting

As a venture capital investor, it’s critical to maintain accurate, up-to-date information about your portfolio companies and investment data. This helps investors make data-informed investment decisions, provide better portfolio support, fulfill audit requirements with relative ease, and not to mention, impress LPs. What’s even better than just having your data well-organized and easy to find, is when investors can seamlessly turn that data into meaningful insights that are easy to share with internal team members and stakeholders. Below we describe three different dashboard types supported in Visible that help investors surface and communicate important updates about their portfolio. Flexible Dashboards for Internal Portfolio Reviews Flexible dashboards in Visible allow investors to integrate metric data, investment data, and properties directly into a dashboard. The flexible grid layout means investors have control over how they want to visualize and communicate updates to their team. Investors commonly use these dashboards to facilitate internal portfolio review meetings which keeps their team up to date and engaged about important updates across the portfolio. View flexible dashboard examples in the guide below. Fund Performance Dashboards for Communicating with LPs Visible allows investors to track, visualize, and share key fund performance metrics. Investors can choose from 14+ different chart types and use custom colors to incorporate their branding into their dashboards. The fund metrics supported in Visible include: TVPI DPI RVPI MOIC IRR Unrealized and realized FMV Total Invested Capital Called and more. Learn about the 30+ fund metrics supported in Visible. Related resource: VC Fund Performance Metrics 101 View a Fund Performance Dashboard example in the guide below. Portfolio Metric Dashboards for Cross-Portfolio Analysis As a venture capital portfolio grows, it’s helpful for investors to be able to pull quick insights across all their companies. Visible’s Portfolio Metric Dashboards let investors compare performance across the entire portfolio for a single metric. This view can be filtered by a custom segment and time period. Visible also automatically calculates quick insights such as: Total Min Max Median Quartiles View a Portfolio Metric Dashboard in the guide below. Visible’s dashboards give investors control over how they want to track and visualize their portfolio KPIs and investment data. Learn more about Visible.

If your portfolio data is patched together in an excel file with questionable version control or is buried in a slide deck prepared six months ago, your team is likely missing the opportunity to take action on important portfolio insights. Up-to-date, accurate portfolio insights help venture capital investors: Provide better portfolio support Make data-driven investment decisions Validate markups and markdowns during evaluation exercises or an audit Demonstrate traction to LPs while fundraising for future funds …but only if the insights are accessible. Visible’s dashboards help venture capital investors visualize and explain the journey companies are on in a way that actually resonates. Learn more about leveraging dashboards in Visible. About the Guide This guide demonstrates how venture capital investors can turn their portfolio data into actionable, accessible insights. The guide also includes examples of three different flexible dashboard types in Visible. Topics covered include: Portfolio data collection best practices Creating dashboards for internal portfolio reviews (Flexible dashboards) Identifying cross-portfolio insights (Portfolio metric dashboards) Sharing portfolio insights with Limited Partners (One pagers) Visible has helped over 350+ venture capital funds streamline the way they collect, analyze, and report on core metrics from their portfolio companies on a regular basis.

Investor Reporting Meaning & Definition Put simply, the definition of investor reporting is the act of sharing key qualitative and quantitative data with your financial investors. Investor reporting can look different for different companies, depending on the company stage and vertical. A pre-revenue company may share a light, qualitative investor report, while a publicly traded company is obliged to share an in-depth report covering everything from executive compensation to granular financials. Whether a company is just 2 founders in a garage or 30000 employees spread across the globe, investor reporting is a vital part of running a successful business. Investor reporting can also take place outside of a physical report. The function of investor reporting, or an investor relations team, also covers board meetings, press conferences, releasing financial data, etc. For a publicly traded company, the meaning of investor reporting involves more regulation and knowledge of government policy. Whereas a startup will communicate directly with their investors, an investor reporting team at a publicly held company primarily deals with analysts who are responsible for providing an opinion to the public on the potential of investment in said company. At a startup, or privately held company, the meaning of investor reporting slightly changes. Instead of focusing on sharing financial and legal information for the public to make an investment decision, privately held companies often focus on engaging and leveraging their investors. Unlike a publicly held company, a privately held company is not legally obliged to report to their investors. However, the numbers show that companies who have taken on venture capital it is beneficial to practice investor reporting. According to our data, companies that regularly communicate to their current investors are twice as likely to raise follow-on funding. Outside of the increasing the likelihood of raising follow on funding reporting to your private investors has other benefits. Chances are if you have accepted venture capital, the venture capitalist and partners at the firm can offer you a wealth of knowledge, experience, and introductions. By practicing investor reporting, founders can build a relationship with their investors and increase their chances of receiving help, time, and introductions from their investors. Related Resource: How to Build a Strong Investor Relations Strategy Investor Reporting Software While most startup founders and leaders know they should be sending investor reports, it can often get lost in the shuffle of building a great product, repeatable sales process, and attracting top talent. To help combat this, there are several solutions and products that help relieve the stress of investor reporting and build a professional and repeatable investor reporting process. The most common investor reporting solution is a simple email update template. These are generally sent on a monthly or quarterly basis and include a recap from the previous period, important company key performance indicators, big wins, losses, and asks for your investors. Visible Updates are a solution to bring a professional, beautiful, and engaging touch to your investor updates. Visible allows you to connect your key data, build beautiful charts, and add qualitative data to create beautiful investor updates. Send your Visible Investor Updates via email, slack, or PDF. In turn, we’ll provide engagement statistics to see how your investors are interacting with your Updates. Visible also allows founders to segment different groups of investors and different stakeholders. For example, a founder may want to send a more in-depth investor report to their board members and maybe a liter version to their less engaged investors. Investor reports can also be used as a means to nurture potential investors. No matter how you define investor reporting, it can be a vital—and often overlooked—aspect of building a strong venture-backed business. Investor Email Templates and Examples Investor Relations Examples As mentioned above, investor relations and reporting can take different forms. Investor relations examples vary greatly from public to private companies, and from early stage to growth stage companies. We’ve highlighted a few of our favorite investor relations examples below. For the examples, we’ll share they are generally intended to be sent on a monthly basis. We’ve also created a library of great investor relations examples. Related Resource: Investor Relationship Management 101: How to Manage Your Startups Interactions with Investors Monthly Update Email Templates Our standard startup investor reporting example The standard investor reporting template by the team at Visible. What we have found to be best practices for investor reporting collected from our users and investor thought leaders. Techstars Minimum Viable Investor Update Email Template In the “Minimum Viable Investor Update”, Jens Lapinski, Former Managing Director of Techstars METRO, lays out 3 items that he finds most useful in his portfolio company updates. Founder Collective “Fill-in-the-blank” Investor Update Email Template An investor Update template for busy founders put together by the team at Founder Collective. Simply fill out the bolded sections and have your investor Updates out the door in no time. Kima Ventures Investor Update Email Template A monthly update email template put together by Jean and the team at Kima. Quickly fill in the quantitative and qualitative data Kima finds most useful. GitLab Investor Update Email Template A 6 part monthly update email template put together by the team at GitLab. Built for investors to quickly read and locate the information that is most relevant to them. Shoelace: Investor Update Email Template A monthly update email template based off of Reza Khadjavi’s, Founder & CEO of Shoelace, investor update email used to wow investors. Coding VC: Investor Update Email Template A monthly investor update email template from Leo Polovets, the general partner at Sosa Ventures, consisting of 5 sections that can be repeated on a monthly basis. Y Combinator Investor Update TemplateA monthly investor update email template from Aaron Harris of Y Combinator focusing on major KPIs and asks for your investors. Other Monthly Update Email Templates Outside of regularly sending your investors monthly email templates, founders will also want to send other stakeholders email reports. This can include your team, individual business units, advisors, clients, etc. We’ve highlighted a few of our favorite stakeholder update email templates below: The CEO Note Template An Update to share information across your company using different methods and styles used by leaders like Marc Benioff, Scott Dorsey, and Kyle Porter. Fred Wilson: The Weekly Update Email A template based off of Fred Wilson’s Weekly Email intended for founders to share what’s on their mind, what happened the past week, and what’s on the schedule for the upcoming week. All-Hands Team Update Email Template An Update template intended to share before your next All-Hands meeting or share after to summarize the meeting. Largely based off of Square’s Town Hall meetings and is broken into 3 major categories; The Team, Mission & Goals, and Agenda & Questions. Pre-Board Meeting Update Email Template A Pre-Board Meeting Update Template that you can share with your board to help you make the most of your meeting time. By sending over a quick packet before your next meeting it will allow everyone to have time to prepare and come ready to discuss the topics that truly matter to the business. V2MOM Monthly Update Email Template V2MOM is a management process and acronym standing for vision, values, mission, objectives, and measures. Portfolio Management Software for Investors While it falls on the shoulders of founders and company operators to report to their investors, it is also important for investors to engage their portfolio companies and transform their portfolio company data into valuable information. A quick reminder from investors to their portfolio companies can help increase the odds of receiving an investor report or data from portfolio companies. Staying on top of portfolio companies allows investors to lend a hand to help the company with their challenges, in turn increasing their portfolio companies’ value. To help investors stay on top of their portfolio, and report to their own investors, there is portfolio management software for investors. At Visible, we have created our own portfolio management software for investors, Visible for Investors. Using portfolio management software, investors can easily lend a hand to their companies and turn their data into actionable reports that can be shared and used across the portfolio. In turn, investors can use this to manage their own investors or limited partners. Investor software generally operates like a traditional customer relationship manager with the customer being their portfolio companies and founders. Our Portfolio Management Software. Visible for investors is investor software to help stay engaged with your founders right from your pocket. Using portfolio management software be the value-add investor that you want to be. Tap into your experience, network, and resources to jump in and help your investments when you see indicators that they may be struggling. Managing an entire portfolio can be tough. Using our portfolio management software easily centralize all of your vital information in one place. From sentiment to investment memos, you’ll be able to customize your Visible instance to your needs. Using automated update request, create your own unique investor report to your firm. Automatically send update requests to your portfolio companies, with scheduled follow-ups, to receive consistent data across your portfolio. Prompt for key metrics, files, operating information and qualitative updates. Investor Management Software Everything we build at Visible is focused on the founder. To help complete the investor Update request founder’s can take advantage of our existing investor management software to tap into our learnings and resources. Easily use our integrations and API to automatically fulfill any investor request. Investor reporting has never been easier with the combination of our investor engagement software and portfolio management software for investors. What is Investor Relations? According to the National Investor Relations Institute, “Investor Relations is a strategic management responsibility that is capable of integrating finance, communication, marketing and securities law compliance to enable the most effective two-way communication between a company, the financial community, and other constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a company’s securities achieving fair valuation.” As we discussed earlier, investor relations can take different forms depending on the owners of the business. Investor relations for a publicly held company will greatly vary than the investor relations for a privately held, venture-backed business. While not required, the benefits of investor relations for a privately held company are instrumental in the growth and health of the company. Sending a simple email update, or creating an investor relations website, allows privately held companies to tap into their investors’ network, experience, knowledge, and ultimately additional capital. At a publicly traded company investor relations is legally obliged to have an internal investor relations team, meet certain requirements, and have the information audited. Often a larger team, the investor relations department is responsible for hosting an investor relations website for the public to access their key information to gather as much information as possible before investing. According to Investopedia, “IR teams are typically tasked with coordinating shareholder meetings and press conferences, releasing financial data, leading financial analyst briefings, publishing reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and handling the public side of any financial crisis.” Benefits & Importance of Investor Relations On the public side, the importance of investor relations is pretty clear. The role is to provide the analyst with vital and required information who in turn who provide public opinion on the company as an investment opportunity. By creating internal audits and becoming the source of truth between all business units. IR can manage an analyst’ expectations in turn influences the overall investment community showing the importance of investor relations in a big way. On the flip side, we have investor relations for privately held companies. In the total opposite fashion, privately held companies are in no way obliged to release their financials and meet any requirements from their investors. However, the benefits and importance of investor relations for a startup can be monumental in the company’s growth and health. The biggest benefit of investor relations is the likelihood of raising additional capital. Venture-backed businesses who send their investors monthly reports are twice as likely to raise follow on funding. As Jason Calacanis, famous angel investor, puts it; “There is another really awesome reason to keep investors updated: they didn’t give you all of their money — they have more! They want to give you more!” Another benefit of investor relations? The investors have likely been in the same situation or encountered it with other investments. At the end of the day, an investors job is to make investments that generate returns for their investors. By using investor relations to share bad news, your investors can step in and help get your company back on track with their depth of knowledge, experience, networks, and capital. All in all, the importance of investors relations at a venture-backed company is vital when it comes to attracting additional capital and talent. Investor Relations Salary and Jobs Since the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act, was passed in 2002 the marketplace for investor relations jobs has greatly increased. An investor relations manager job can cover different facets of a business, but generally involve supporting the release of financial information, investor reports, and legal diligence. Investor relations responsibilities are vital to the life of a business from both the legal and operational standpoint. Investor relations jobs are often found as a subset of the companies public relations or finance department. From a legal standpoint, an investor relations manager is responsible for fulfilling legal requirements and financial documentation. Investor relations managers take company financials and data to turn them into compelling data stories that can be shared with analysts and eventually the public. Investor relations managers need to determine what data will affect the public shareholders and present that in an understandable and compelling way. From an internal standpoint, an investor relations manager is responsible for managing crisis and collecting feedback and passing that along to upper management. As CFI puts it, “Communication is also a two-way street; the IR department is also responsible for forwarding input from significant stakeholders of the company to management. During times of crisis (financial or otherwise), the IR department will advise management with a goal to preserve the company’s relationship with its investors, as well as to mitigate any damage to share prices.” According to Salary.com, an investor relations managers salary typically falls between $100,000 and $140,000. Of course, investor relations salary fluctuates depending on experience, education, certifications, etc. On the flip side, there are also investor relations firms that publicly traded companies can use to take on their investor relations responsibilities. The investor relations salary at a company or at an investor relations firm tend to be in the same range. A couple of popular investor relations firm include, KCSA Strategies, Liolis, and Al Petrie Advisors. Related resource: Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Analysis: The Purpose, Formula, and How it Works

The biotech industry has always been an attractive sector for VCs to invest in, and 2023 is no different. With high potential for returns, a rapidly growing industry, and advances in technology, biotech is a favorable investment for VCs. One of the main reasons for this is the high potential for returns. Biotech companies that successfully develop and commercialize new therapies and medical devices can generate significant returns for investors. This is particularly true for companies that develop therapies for diseases with high unmet needs, such as cancer, rare genetic disorders, and chronic diseases. The biotech industry is also expected to grow significantly in the coming years, driven by advancements in genomics, stem cell research, and regenerative medicine. This presents a significant opportunity for investors to participate in the growth of this industry and benefit from its expansion. Advances in technology such as gene editing, AI, and digital health are also making it easier for biotech companies to develop new therapies and medical devices, which can improve their chances of success. Additionally, the growing interest in personalized medicine is also a favorable trend, as precision medicine is gaining more traction in the industry. This approach, which is based on the genetic makeup of each patient, has the potential to lead to more effective and efficient treatments for a wide range of diseases, including cancer and rare genetic disorders. Governments around the world are also investing in biotech research and development and are offering various incentives for biotech companies, which can help to reduce the financial risks for investors. The high demand for healthcare, driven by the increasing aging population and the growing burden of chronic diseases, is also driving the demand for new and more effective therapies and medical devices. Set up Your Biotech Company for Success Biotech startups have a lot to consider as they work to develop and commercialize new therapies and medical devices. There are several key steps that biotech startups can take to increase their chances of success. Identify unmet medical needs Successful biotech startups begin by identifying unmet medical needs in the market, and then developing products or therapies that directly address these needs. By doing so, they are able to differentiate themselves from competitors and demonstrate a clear value proposition to potential customers and investors. Build a strong team A strong management team with a diverse set of skills and experiences is crucial for biotech startups. This team should be able to lead the company through the complex and dynamic biotech landscape, and make strategic decisions that will help the company grow. Leverage technology Advances in technology such as gene editing, AI, and digital health are making it easier for biotech companies to develop new therapies and medical devices. Leveraging these cutting-edge technologies can give startups a competitive edge and improve their chances of success. Create a clear path to commercialization Developing a clear path to commercialization and having a strong business model in place are essential for biotech startups. This helps them to attract investment and partners, and to scale their business. Build partnerships Building strong partnerships with key stakeholders in the industry, such as pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and government organizations can provide access to resources, expertise, and networks that can help the startup to excel. Have strong regulatory compliance Successful biotech startups are aware of the regulations and compliance requirements in the biotech industry and they have the necessary processes and procedures in place to ensure compliance. This helps to avoid delays and ensure a smooth commercialization process. Adapt to market changes Successful biotech startups are agile and adaptable, and able to pivot their strategies and business models in response to market changes. This helps them to stay ahead of the curve and capitalize on new opportunities as they arise. Biotech Metrics to Include in Investor Updates Some specific metrics that biotech companies may include in their investor update include: Clinical trial progress: The number of patients enrolled in trials, the phase of the trial, and any regulatory milestones that have been achieved or are upcoming. Pipeline development: This includes compounds or products in development, as well as their potential for revenue or commercialization. Intellectual property: Patents filed or granted, as well as the strength and potential value of the company’s intellectual property portfolio. R&D expenses: The progress of research projects to investors. Scientific publications and presentations: Scientific publications or presentations in which the company or its scientists have participated, as well as the level of visibility and impact of these publications and presentations. Manufacturing and production: Updates on the progress of their manufacturing and production processes, including capacity and scalability. Product development: Status on the development of a product, including the progress of preclinical studies, clinical studies, and commercialization. Market size and potential for growth: The size of the target market for a product and its potential for growth, as well as the competition in the market. Regulatory: Progress of regulatory approvals and submissions, including FDA, EMA, and other regulatory authorities. Financial metrics: Such as revenue, operating costs, and burn rate. The management team and Board of Directors: Any changes or updates to the management team and Board of Directors. Partnerships and collaborations: New partnerships or collaborations that have been established or are in progress. Depending on the stage of the company, some of these metrics may not be applicable or relevant and will vary from company to company or industry. The Future of Biotechnology The biotech industry is expected to continue to grow and evolve in the coming years, driven by advancements in technology and research. Biotech startups that are able to stay ahead of the curve and capitalize on trends will be well-positioned for success in the future. A few of these key trends are Gene therapy, Regenerative medicine, Personalized medicine, Digital health, and Artificial Intelligence. Gene therapy is a promising new approach to treating genetic disorders and diseases by directly targeting the underlying genetic causes. Advances in gene editing technology, such as CRISPR, have made it possible to precisely target and repair disease-causing mutations, leading to the development of new gene therapies for a wide range of conditions. Regenerative medicine is the practice of using cells, tissues, and organs to repair or replace damaged or diseased parts of the body. This field is rapidly advancing, with new therapies being developed for conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and spinal cord injuries. The use of precision medicine is gaining more traction, this approach which is based on the genetic makeup of each patient, has the potential to lead to more effective and efficient treatments for a wide range of diseases, including cancer and rare genetic disorders. The integration of digital technology into healthcare is increasingly becoming a reality, enabling real-time monitoring and data collection, which will help to improve treatment outcomes. Biotech companies are now investing in digital health solutions, including wearable devices, mobile apps, and telemedicine, to improve patient care. AI is becoming increasingly important in the biotech industry, with companies using machine learning and deep learning to analyze large amounts of data, including genetic data, to identify new drug targets and develop new therapies. VCs Main Focus Areas in Biotech Depending on the VC firm’s investment strategy and the portfolio the focus may vary but some general areas of interest include: Biotechnology: Startups working on developing new drugs, therapies, and diagnostics, as well as those working on advancing biotechnology platforms such as gene therapy, CRISPR, and synthetic biology. Medical Devices: Such as implantable devices, diagnostic tools, and digital health technologies. Digital Health: Telemedicine, virtual care, and remote monitoring technologies. Biotech IT: This includes startups working on developing new software and IT solutions to support the biotech industry, such as bioinformatics, computational biology, and data analytics. Biotech Services: Such as contract research and development, clinical trial management, and regulatory consulting. Biotech Agriculture: Startups working on developing new tools and technologies to improve crop yields, reduce waste, and improve food safety. Biotech Energy: New biofuels, renewable energy, and sustainable materials VCs Investing in Biotech Companies 8VC Location: San Francisco, California, United States About: 8VC aims to transform the technology infrastructure behind many industries. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth Recent Investments: Oula Anduril Loop Check out 8VC’s profile on our Connect Investor Database Arch Venture Partners Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States About: ARCH Venture Partners invests primarily in companies co-founded with leading scientists and entrepreneurs, concentrating on bringing to market innovations in information technology, life sciences, and physical sciences. ARCH currently manages five funds totaling over $700 million and has invested in the earliest venture capital rounds for more than 90 companies. ARCH investors include major corporations, financial institutions, and private investors. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth Recent Investments: Synchron FogPharma Treeline Biosciences Check out Arch Venture Partners’ profile on our Connect Investor Database 5AM Ventures Location: Menlo Park, California, United States About: 5AM Ventures is a California-based venture capital firm that aims to finance seed- and early-stage life sciences companies. Investment Stages: Series A, Series B, Growth Recent Investments: Escient Pharmaceuticals CAMP4 Therapeutics Dianthus Therapeutics Check out 5AM Ventures’ profile on our Connect Investor Database Atlas Venture Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States About: Atlas Venture is the leading international early-stage venture capital firm, investing in communications, information technology and life sciences companies. Atlas Venture investments are evenly divided between the United States and Europe. Founded in 1980, Atlas Venture has organized six international funds, and currently manages more than $2.1 billion in committed capital. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth Recent Investments: Nimbus Therapeutics Be Biopharma Triana Biomedicines Check out Atlas Ventures’ profile on our Connect Investor Database Forum Ventures Location: New York City, San Francisco, and Toronto, United States Thesis: B2B SaaS; Future of Work, E-commerce enablement, Supply Chain & Logistics, Marketplace, Fintech, Healthcare Investment Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed Recent Investments: Sandbox Banking Tusk Logistics Vergo Check out Forum Ventures profile on our Connect Investor Database OrbiMed Location: New York City, United States About: We have been investing globally for over 20 years across the healthcare industry: from early-stage private companies to large multinational corporations. Our team of over 100 distinguished scientific, medical, investment, and other professionals manages over $17 billion across public and private company investments worldwide. Investment Stages: Series A, Series B, Series C Recent Investments: Pathalys Pharma Amolyt Pharma MBX Biosciences Check out OrbiMed’s profile on our Connect Investor Database Polaris Partners Location: Massachusetts, United States About: Polaris Partners ​has a 20+ year history of partnering with ​entrepreneurs and innovators improving the way we live and work. Investment Stages: Series A, Series B, Series C Recent Investments: Jnana Therapeutics FOLX Health CAMP4 Therapeutics Check out Polaris Partners’ profile on our Connect Investor Database Third Rock Ventures Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States About: Telescope Partners is an active growth equity firm partnering with best in class entrepreneurs across the technology landscape. We invest ourselves and our capital in companies building long-term, sustainable businesses. Investment Stages: Series A, Series B Recent Investments: Corvia Medical Terremoto Biosciences MOMA Therapeutics Check out Third Rock Ventures’ profile on our Connect Investor Database Versant Ventures Location: San Francisco, California, United States About: Versant Ventures caters to the healthcare sector with early and later stage venture, private equity, and debt financing investments. Investment Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth Recent Investments: iECure Jnana Therapeutics Nested Therapeutics Check out Versant Ventures profile on our Connect Investor Database Sofinnova Partners Location: London, United Kingdom About: Sofinnova Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in the life sciences sector, from seed to later-stage. Thesis: We invest in people and science to create opportunity. We commit to long-term partnerships with entrepreneurs who are as passionate as we are about pushing the frontiers of innovation to contribute to a better future. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth Recent Investments: Amolyt Pharma Micropep Prometheus Materials Check out Sofinnova Partners’ profile on our Connect Investor Database F-Prime Capital Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States About: F-Prime grew from one of America’s great entrepreneurial success stories. Fidelity Investments was founded in 1946 and grew from a single mutual fund into one of the largest asset management firms in the world, with over $2 trillion under management. For the last fifty years, our independent venture capital group has had the privilege of backing other great entrepreneurs as they built ground-breaking companies, including Atari, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and MCI. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B Recent Investments: Neumora Therapeutics Elicidata Ashby Check out F-Prime Capital’s profile on our Connect Investor Database Start Your Next Round with Visible We believe great outcomes happen when founders forge relationships with investors and potential investors. We created our Connect Investor Database to help you in the first step of this journey. Instead of wasting time trying to figure out investor fit and profile for their given stage and industry, we created filters allowing you to find VCs and accelerators who are looking to invest in companies like you. Check out all our investors here and filter as needed. After learning more about them with the profile information and resources given you can reach out to them with a tailored email. To help craft that first email check out 5 Strategies for Cold Emailing Potential Investors. After finding the right Investor you can create a personalized investor database with Visible. Combine qualified investors from Visible Connect with your own investor lists to share targeted Updates, decks, and dashboards. Start your free trial here.

Raise capital, update investors and engage your team from a single platform. Try Visible free for 14 days. 2022 has been a challenging year in the startup world. After a hot start to the year, funding and growth has slowed. As Tomasz Tunguz pointed out in the chart below, funding has collapsed since October. At Visible, we’ve spent 2022 building tools to help founders update investors, raise capital, and track key metrics. With the help of these 6 new features, founders will be able to level up their investor relations and strike when the funding iron is hot. Check them out below: Share and Comment on Fundraising Pipelines You can now share a fundraising pipeline via link. This allows you to ask current investors or peers for introductions or information about investors in your pipeline. In turn, your investors or peers can leave a quick comment to help make an introduction to investors they know. Customize Fundraising Columns and Properties Our fundraising pipelines have become more flexible so you can further tailor your pipeline to match your fundraise. With customizable fundraising columns and properties, you will be able to select the properties you would like to see at the pipeline level. Check out some of the most popular custom fundraising properties below: Min & max check size Who can make/made a connection? Data room shared? Investor type Will they lead? Log Emails with Potential Investors in Visible With our BCC tool, founders will be able to simply copy & paste their unique BCC email address into any email. From here, the email will automatically be tracked with the corresponding contact in Visible. This is great for cold emailing investors, nurturing investors, and staying in touch with current investors. To learn how to get BCC set up with your Visible account, head here. Automatic Fundraising Follow-up Reminders Over the course of a fundraise, most founders should expect to communicate with 50-100+ investors. In order to best help you stay on top of their ongoing conversations, you can now set email reminders for when to follow up with potential investors. This is a great way to speed up the fundraising process and get back to what matters most — building your business. Pitch Deck Branding and Custom Domains Control your fundraise from start to finish. With Visible Decks, you can share your deck using your own domain. Plus you can customize the color palette of your deck viewer to match your brand. You can check out an example here. Include Pitch Decks in Updates Keeping current and potential investors in the loop is a great way to speed up the process when you are ready to raise capital. In order to best help nurture current and potential investors, you can now include your Visible Decks directly in Updates. This can help when kicking off a raise, nurturing potential investors, or sharing a board deck with your board members. Custom Properties as Merge Tags in Updates As we mentioned above, updating current investors and nurturing potential investors is a great way to speed up a fundraise when the time is right. To best help you customize your Visible Updates, you can now use custom properties as merge tags in Updates. For example, if you’re tracking the city in which your investors live you can use that in an Update. Improved Dashboard Layout and Widgets If you’re sharing Visible Dashboards with your team or more involved investors, you can now customize the layout and include additional widgets (like text, tables, and variance reports). This will allow you to give additional context to any of the data your key stakeholders might be looking at regularly. Our mission at Visible is to help more founders succeed. Over the next 12 months, we’ll be building more tools to help you do just that. Raise capital, update investors and engage your team from a single platform. Try Visible free for 14 days.

A few years ago we interviewed Lindsay Tjepkema, Founder of Casted, about starting a podcast. One of her key tips was to “wring out your content.” If you’re going to take the time to record a podcast, you should take the time to repurpose and distribute that content on different channels. How to Repurpose Investor Updates The same is true for investor relations and fundraising. If you’re going to take the time to send an investor update, you can “wring out” your metrics, big wins, asks, audience, etc. to fuel other fundraising materials. An investor update can be re-purposed to help build out other fundraising assets — for example: Potential Investor Monthly Updates — For a simple hack, take your normal investor update and edit it down to a few key metrics and wins to nurture potential investors. Pitch Decks — If you’re sharing data in your investor updates, this can be used to help build out the different metrics and data you’ll need in a pitch deck. Data Rooms — Data rooms are a combination of all of the data and assets you’ll share over the course of a fundraise. Including past investor updates is a surefire way to show potential investors your history of regular communication. Cold Emails to Investors — Investor updates can be a starting point for crafting a cold email to potential investors. Board Decks — There is likely a lot of crossover between the content in an investor update and a quarterly board meeting. Investor updates can be a great backbone for building out the different slides in a board deck. Team Updates — A modified version of your investor update is also a great way to keep your team in the loop and build trust. Investor communication is no easy feat for founders. Taking the time to send monthly updates already puts you ahead of 50% of portfolio companies — taking the few minutes to wring out your investor updates will help you speed up your next raise when you are ready. Reading List How to Handle: Keeping Your Investors Updated Brett Brohl of Bread & Butter Ventures breaks down the 5 components he likes to see in investor updates. Learn more Investor Outreach Strategy: 9 Step Guide On the Visible Blog, we share a 9 step guide to help founders develop a plan to reach out to potential investors. Read more Why You Should Always Send Your Investor Updates Kera DeMars of Hustle Fund makes the case why founders should send investor updates. Read more

The General Partner (GP) and Limited Partner (LP) relationship is built on trust. The best way to establish trust with LPs is through transparency, authenticity, and regular communication. When LP reporting is done well, LPs should easily be able to understand how both the fund and the fund manager are performing and be able to use this information to inform their investment strategies in the future. The best GPs view sending LP Updates as a relationship-building activity and as a fundraising tool — not as a way to simply check off a requirement from their LPA’s. For emerging managers, your relationships with initial LPs are of critical importance for your reputation as a fund manager and future fundraising. This rapport forms the basis of the fund manager’s credibility and will surface again when future LPs are doing diligence on the emerging manager. First-time fund managers will need to have clean data to support their track record and positive relationships with current LPs to set themselves up for success in raising additional funds. The Weekend Fund recently wrote a thoughtful article on How to Write LP Updates with four main takeaways: Send LP updates consistently Go beyond the basics Be authentic Don’t share sensitive information without portfolio founders’ sign-off We’ve translated this guidance into actionable steps that can be streamlined with Visible’s Portfolio Monitoring and Reporting tools below. 1. Send LP updates consistently. Weekend Fund Advice — “One of the biggest mistakes new fund managers can make is not sending LP updates consistently. Most send quarterly updates. At Weekend Fund we send updates approximately every two months. Regular, detailed, and transparent updates builds trust with your LPs, which is particularly important if you want them to write a check into your next fund.” Visible provides fund managers with tools to make sending updates to LPs on a regular basis easier. To start, you can Upload Your LP Contacts (including custom contact fields) via CSV within seconds. Then you can create Custom Lists to organize your contacts. We suggest organizing your LPs by Fund and also by whether they’re a current LP or a potential LP. This means within minutes you have all your contacts organized into custom segments that are useful to you. You can then simply choose which list you want to send an Update to in the future. Visible also streamlines the creation of your LP Update content by letting you choose from an Update Template Library. You can easily pull a template into your account, further customize it as needed, and save it as your own template to use for future updates. 2. Go beyond the basics. Weekend Fund Advice — “Of course, you should introduce new investments, share updates from the portfolio, report performance metrics, and other key updates from the fund, but the best updates go a step further to educate and inform LPs. This might include your analysis on the market, perspective on emerging trends, or learnings from experiments.” Visible’s LP Update editor supports rich text, videos, images, files, and perhaps best of all — custom data visualizations. This means you can visualize your custom fund analytics that will resonate with your LPs and embed them directly into your Update. The data is derived from data hosted within your Visible account and updates your charts in real time. It’s also a great idea to include a market overview section at the top of your update to shed light on how you’re evaluating and staying ahead of the curve in the markets in which you invest. This is a great way to continue to instill LP confidence in you as the steward of their capital. On top of that, it’s important to remember that “many LPs invest in funds as a learning opportunity. The updates are the primary artifact to support that learning.” (Source) You can also stand out to LPs by getting creative and embedding a video recording of your recent portfolio updates directly into your Updates. Open the update below to view an example of how a Visible customer incorporates video into their updates — —> View Update Example with Video Embed 3. Be authentic. Weekend Fund Advice — In general, people gravitate toward authenticity. Writing with personality is more engaging and magnetic. LP updates are an opportunity to share your unique voice and build your fund’s brand. The Weekend Fund incorporates authenticity in their updates through their narrative updates and transparency, but also by including personal photos. Visible lets you embed personal photos directly into your Update in two clicks. —> View the Weekend Fund’s Update Template 4. Don’t share sensitive information without portfolio founders’ sign-off. Weekend Fund Advice — “Fund managers often have inside knowledge into how a company is doing. Some founders are extremely sensitive to information shared about their company, even when the news is positive. It’s prudent to get approval for any non-public information shared with LPs.” Visible recommends explicitly asking for portfolio company’s permission to share information with LPs. One way to do this is by incorporating it into the descriptions of your Request blocks. (How to Build a Request in Visible). Here’s an example below — It’s important to remember that as a GP you’re not only competing with other GPs for LP capital but also with every other asset class. So it’s to your advantage to use every tool in your toolkit to stand out and impress LPs. Over 400+ VC funds are using Visible to streamline their portfolio monitoring and reporting processes.

The world has been consumed by data and metrics — startups are no exception. Founders need to leverage their key data and KPIs to fuel growth, build products, create interest from potential investors, and more. At Visible, we have a tool built for VC funds to collect data from their portfolio companies and enable GPs to report to their investors (LPs). In order to better help founders determine what metrics they should be tracking, we analyzed our data and found the most common metrics VCs are collecting from their portfolio companies. Check them out below: The Most Common Metrics Revenue Cash Headcount Customers / Users Total Operating Expenses The 5 metrics above are high level metrics that might sound obvious. However, great founders are able to recall them at anytime. Not knowing your key operating metrics is a ????. These can be used as the backbone for investor updates, board meetings, and determining more granular metrics to track. P.S. 75% of investors are collecting anywhere between 1 and 10 metrics so chances are your own investor updates should land in the same range. Reading List Key Insights from High Alpha’s Finance Leaders The team at High Alpha shares key takeaways from the finance leaders in their portfolio — they share why efficiency metrics are key in the current market, how data storytelling can be a differentiator, and more. Read more Time to Refine Your Metrics: Defining Growth and Success at a PLG Company Mikaela Gluck of OpenView Ventures highlights the key metrics that product-led companies should be tracking. Read more 6 Metrics Every Startup Founder Should Track On the Visible Blog, we share 6 basic metrics that every founder be tracking and sharing with their stakeholders. Read more

The following is a guest post from the team at Sendspark. Use Sendspark to connect with customers, investors, team members, and other stakeholders. Learn more here. Communicating with investors is a skill all founders should hone. Regular and predictable communication is a surefire way to build trust and improve your odds of unlocking an investor’s capital, network, experience, and more. Learn how you can leverage video + email updates to communicate with your investors below: Why Send Videos in Investor Updates Whether you’re pitching new investors or updating existing ones, sending videos to investors can help you build investor relationships. Here are some ways it can help you: Stand out from the crowd Build a personal relationship Show, rather than tell Save time Have great communication skills Let’s dive into the best use cases and strategies that are going to help you close your next round! When to Send Videos to Investors 1. Investor Outreach A strong video in your investor pitch can help you get that first conversation. One question that comes up a lot is should you make a personalized video when pitching investors? And the answer is a bit nuanced. The world seems to be changing, but right now, I’d still recommend getting a warm introduction to an investor (even if that means cold emailing one of their portfolio founders), and using a video as a supplemental material in your “forwardable email”. This helps you play it cool, while still getting valuable information across in your blurb and video. Personalized videos become significantly more important after the first meeting, on your way to closing the deal. 2. Investor Follow Up Sending a video recap after an investor conversation is a great way to lock in key points. Investors might have had 10 other conversations with strong founders that day, so this short video can remind them what they liked most about you. It can also help you stand out among the competition. A video recap will give investors a shareable clip to pass around to other partners or decision makers at the firm who didn’t get to speak to you directly. This way, the wonderful aspects that make your pitch unique won’t get lost in translation. For this video, I’d 100% recommend making it truly personalized to the investor you spoke with. Don’t try to include everything about your business, just the key points that you found best resonated with them during the call. 3. Diligence When it comes to diligence, video messages can help you speed up the process. Here are some ways you can use video to get to a “yes” faster: Record over your usage dashboards or product metrics Request video testimonials from customers who can advocate for your product Respond to any objections or concerns thoroughly 4. Investor Updates An investor investing is the first step in a long partnership. Great investor communication over time will help you build a strong partnership, help investors help you, and lead to subsequent checks in future rounds. Just like in B2B Sales, it’s easier to get your existing customers to pay more than to close new customers. Never take your investors for granted, and continue to keep them informed and excited about what you’re building. Here are some ways you can strengthen your investor updates with video: Record yourself discussing your current initiatives Show off a new feature or product launch Introduce a new team member or advisor Request a video from a customer to share why this matters to them How to Send Videos in Investor Updates You can send videos in investor updates using Sendspark and Visible together. First, create a free account with Sendspark to easily record videos of yourself or your product. Sendspark is great for this because… It’s super fast to record a video of yourself or your product — no editing needed! Videos will automatically look polished and professional with your own branding and logo You can add calls-to-action for investors to schedule a meeting, reply with video, or take another next step You get insight into who’s watching your video, how far they watched, and what actions they’re taking After creating your video, just paste your video URL into your investor update on Visible. You’ll see the video preview automatically appear in your email, giving you a super polished and professional-looking update. Check out an example below: Give Visible a free try for 14 days here. Send investor updates, manage your fundraise, and keep tabs on your most important metrics — all from one platform. Tips for Making Great Investor Videos Be clear and concise. When it comes to pitching investors, Aaron Blumenthal, Director of Global Accelerator Programs at 500 Startups, says, “every 10 seconds buys you your next 10 seconds.” You need to keep your viewer engaged for the entire length of your video — so make it easy for yourself and keep your video to 20-30 seconds. Give the gift of information. Whether it’s a pitch, a recap, or an update, reward your viewer with a nugget of information that makes them feel great that they watched the video. That being said, remember rule #1 and don’t try to put everything in the video. Just discuss 1-2 points that are better said or shown than written. Be conversational. Even if you are recording a video for multiple investors at once, each one is viewing alone, so use singular words like “you” instead of “y’all” to make the experience more intimate and personable. Imagine you are speaking 1×1 to an investor via Zoom — not pitching a room full of people at Demo Day. Know your video will be shared. This has two implications: (1) don’t put confidential information in your video that you don’t want floating around, and (2) use this knowledge to your advantage with soundbites that you want shared – your vision, your asks, your unique spark, etc. Don’t include content that you wouldn’t want shared among different audiences. Don’t overthink it. Remember: we are our own harshest critics (especially us founders ????). Investors — especially those who have already invested — love getting these more personal updates. They are not judging you nearly as hard as you are judging yourself (especially if your numbers are up and to the right). Final Thoughts When fundraising, and running a business in general, you see a lot of “shoulds.” You should do this, you shouldn’t do that. All great founders do this, and if you don’t, you’ll never succeed. However, that’s not the point of this post. You don’t HAVE to use video when emailing investors. Rather, it’s a great option to have in your arsenal. My belief is that the founders who win lean into their strengths and indisynchronies. What makes you special? What makes you unique? Video can help you tap into that – and easily communicate who you are, what you’re doing, and why it’s important – in far less time than text. I hope Sendspark helps you have fun and enjoy the ride.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles are becoming a topic of increasing interest in Venture Capital — and for a good reason. Beyond the benefits of long-term, multistakeholder value, the data is clear that environmentally-and-socially responsible companies will outperform in years to come. On October 4th we discussed ESG best practices for Venture Capital investors with Tracy Barba from 500 Startups and ESG4VC. Tracy Barba has been working in Venture Capital for the past 25+ years and at the forefront of implementing ESG practices in Venture Capital since 2012. Most recently she joined 500 Startups as their Head of ESG and Global Stakeholder Engagement where she leads the design and implementation of their ESG policy and practices. We’re grateful she could join us and discuss the following topics: What is ESG and why is it becoming mainstream now Best practices for incorporating ESG into your fund processes Tips for monitoring ESG across your portfolio Q&A

Portfolio support plays an important part in differentiating good investors from great investors. However, it can be hard to be a value-add investor when time and resources are constrained, which is why building scalable support is key. We were joined by Jessica Lowenstein, Head of Platform at K50 Ventures, and Erica Amatori, Head of Platform at Left Lane Capital for a discussion on: How each fund defines its approach to support What systems/processes are needed to scale support Tips for onboarding new companies into your portfolio Navigating information flow between the investment team and ops Advice for new funds thinking about formalizing their approach to support Visible for Investors is a founders-first portfolio monitoring and reporting platform. Schedule time with our team to learn more.

Building a startup is incredibly difficult. Leading an early-stage startup can almost feel impossible. On top of building a product, successfully selling and marketing a product, hiring top talent, and more – a founder is responsible for engaging with stakeholders across the board (team members, investors, board members, mentors, etc.) Related Resource: The Complete Guide to Investor Reporting and Updates Investors might simply seem like a source of capital. However, they can offer so much more. Investors can offer future capital, their own experience, and network to help move your business forward. It is your responsibility as a founder to have a game plan to place to communicate and leverage your investors. Learn more about building an investor relationship management plan below: What is Investor Relationship Management? As we previously mentioned, investors can offer much more than capital. Venture capitalists and startup investors have likely been operators themselves. They will be able to offer future capital, takeaways from their own experiences (and their other investment experiences), and their own network to help with hiring and finding early customers. Related Resource: The Complete Guide to Stakeholder Management for Startup Founders At the end of the day, investors are human and value relationships. It is a founder’s duty to properly communicate with investors and strengthen relationships. While each and every founder <> investor relationship is different, a strong relationship management system looks something like this: Monthly investor updates sent via email Quarterly board meetings (in person or via Zoom) One-off calls and conversations Related Resource: How to Create a Board Deck (with Template) Of course, all of these are business-centric meetings so it is important to make sure to build personal relationships along the way. Learn more about the key components and benefits of strong investor relationship management below: Key Components of Investor Relationship Management Relationships require work. A founder <> investor relationship is no different. The components of building a relationship with investors will vary from person to person but we generally suggest leveraging the following tools as a backbone for your investor relations. Related Resource: How to Build a Strong Investor Relations Strategy 1) Monthly Investor Updates At Visible, we have found that companies that regularly communicate with their investors are 300% more likely to raise follow on funding. A monthly investor update can go a long way when it comes to building relationships with investors. Related Resource: How To Write the Perfect Investor Update (Tips and Templates) Monthly updates should take no more than a few minutes of your time and can pay dividends down the road. You’ll be able to regularly surface challenges you are facing to get your investors to help on the fly. Check out a few popular monthly updates for inspiration below: The Visible “Standard” Investor Update Template Visible Lite Monthly Update Y Combinator Investor Update Related Resource: How to Write the Perfect Investment Memo 2) Quarterly Board Meetings Monthly updates are great for keeping investors in the loop and getting their input on the fly. Quarterly board meetings are a great opportunity to look back at the quarter and shape your future roadmap and decisions with your board. Quarterly board meetings will allow you to sit down with vital stakeholders and spend valuable time digging into future decisions and strategies. However, it is important that you as a founder come to a board meeting well prepared and make the most of the time. We recommend sharing some information beforehand so investors can prepare as well. 3) One-Off Meetings Monthly investors and quarterly board meetings should be the minimum when it comes to building investor relations. Inevitably there will be conversations and questions that arise that will not fit into either. With that said, it is important that you reach out to individual investors for one-off conversations and meetings as needed. On top of being an opportunity to tap into a specific investor’s capital, network, experience, etc. a one-off meeting is an opportunity to strengthen your personal relationship with them. 4) Tools and Management At Visible, we oftentimes compare a fundraise and investor relations to a traditional B2B sales and marketing funnel. At the top of your funnel, you are bringing in new investors (leads), building relationships throughout the middle of the funnel, and closing and delighting them at the bottom of the funnel. Just as a sales and marketing team has dedicated tools we believe the same should for investor relations. With Visible you can find investors, send monthly Updates, share your pitch deck, and manage relationships with our CRM. Give Visible a free try for 14 days here. Related Resource: Investor CRM: Seamlessly Manage Relationships and Finances Related Resource: Why a CRM is Essential for Investor Relations Related Resource: How to Find Investors Best Practices: Investor Relationship Management Edition As we’ve previously mentioned, every founder and investor relationship is different. We find that the stage, geography, focus, etc. might impact how to best communicate and build relationships with investors. However, there are a few best practices that generally stay consistent from relationship to relationship. Check out a few best practices for managing relationships with investors below: Include Wins and Losses First things first, investors need a pulse on how your business is performing so they know where they can best help. We suggest sharing both your wins and losses with investors on a monthly basis. Sharing wins is easy and investors want to help celebrate your accomplishments. Sharing losses is what differentiates okay from great communication. By being able to be transparent and share things you are struggling with investors will be able to build trust with you and your business and help you work through them. Share Key Metrics Investors will also want a quantifiable pulse on your business. Sharing a handful of key metrics is a great way to keep investors in the loop. We always recommend working through the specific metrics with your investors. Once you decide what you are going to share, make sure the metrics you are sharing stay consistent from month to month. Related Resource: 6 Metrics Every Startup Founder Should Track Make Asks Arguably one of the most beneficial parts of sending investor updates is the opportunity to make an asks. Investors likely have been in your shoes before (or are working with other companies in a similar position). Use this as an opportunity to make targeted asks to tap into their capital, experience, and network. We recommend being as specific as possible and making the job as easy as possible for the investor. Stay Consistent Keeping things predictable and consistent from month to month is a great way to strengthen trust with investors. For example, you’ll want to make sure you are calculating metrics the same way from month to month or are sharing your Updates around the same time of the month. Inconsistencies might trigger a red flag and investors will question if something is going south. Respond Promptly to Investors Being responsible can go a long way in any relationship. Be sure to respond to your investors as quickly as possible. Even if you do not have an answer being responsive is a great way to strengthen your relationship. What is an Investor Relations Strategy? At the end of the day, investor relations mirror any relationship. By communicating with investors and having a strategy in place, you’ll be able to set yourself up for future success. Related Resource: 6 Helpful Networking Tips for Connecting With Investors Manage Your Investor Relationships with the Help of Visible With Visible you can find investors, send monthly Updates, share your pitch deck, and manage relationships with our CRM. Give Visible a free try for 14 days here.

The foundation of a great relationship between General Partners and their Limited Partners (LPs) is based on trust and transparency. A great way to foster this dynamic is by sending regular, insightful communications to your LPs. While it can feel intimidating to go outside the box and share details about your fund performance in addition to the standard LP reporting requirements, this is a great way to stand out as a General Partner. With competition for funding being as intense as it is in today's climate, it's a smart move to go above and beyond to impress LPs and establish a trustworthy reputation as a GP. A guide to LP reporting best practices for VCs This guide was created in partnership with Aduro Advisors, a premier Fund Admin led by industry veterans. We partnered with Aduro for a webinar where we discussed the process of reporting to Limited Partners and best practices in-depth. This guide is a summary of that discussion. The contents of this guide include: The importance of the LP reporting LP reporting best practices Sending LP updates as a fundraising strategy What to include in an LP Update A quarterly LP reporting update template LP update templates for VCs If you're not sure where to get started with your communication with LPs try checking out LP update templates for VCs or asking other GPs in your network for examples of what they're sharing with LPs. Some basic LP communication rules to follow include: 1. Send your updates on a regular cadence 2. Go beyond just the basics 3. Be authentic with your communications 4. Don't share sensitive information about your companies For more tips check out: Tips for Writing LP Updates for Emerging Managers (with Templates) For more inspiration check out Visible's LP template library for inspiration. Resources for reporting to LPs for venture capital investors Check out these additional resources to inspire your next LP communication. How to Report to Limited Partners with Gale Wilkinson of Vitalize VC Tips for Writing LP Updates for Emerging Managers (with Templates) 4 Tear Sheet Examples to Give You Inspiration for Your Next LP Report

Braughm Ricke is the Founder and CEO of Aduro Advisors — a premier fund administrator, selected by Fund Managers for its purpose-built software platform, FundPanel.io, and highly-trained service team led by industry veterans. Braughm joined Visible.vc on May 10, 2022 to discuss best practices for engaging with and reporting to limited partners. A summary of the insights from the webinar is captured in a report co-created by Visible and Aduro. The topics covered in the report include: The importance of the LP Reporting LP Reporting Best Practices Updates as a Fundraising Strategy LP Reporting Content Breakdown [Template] Quarterly LP Reporting Update Visible for Investors is a founders-first portfolio monitoring and reporting platform. Schedule time with our team to learn more.

Stay engaged with your founders right from your pocket. Monitor your portfolio and be the value-add investor you want to be with Visible for Investors. Learn more One of the core responsibilities of a general partner (GP) is to report with both their Limited Partners (LPs) and portfolio companies. Gale Wilkinson, Founder of Vitalize Venture Capital, joined us to break down how their team engages with and reports to their LPs. Why send LP Reports? Just like any relationship, the LP <> GP relationship is all about trust. In order to better establish a relationship and improve the odds of raising capital for a future fund, GPs and venture funds need to have a system in place to report to and communicate with their LPs. >> Check out Visible’s LP Template Library here. Raise Future Capital Not only are venture funds and general partners competing against other venture funds for LP capital, they are also competing against other asset classes. Of course, LPs will look back at your performance of previous investments but will also be judging you and your skills as a partner. Having a proven history of strong performance and communication is a surefire way to increase a GPs odds of raising funds. Help Portfolio Companies Different limited partners will offer different skill sets and opportunities. All portfolio companies are looking for help — that might be customer introductions, fundraising options, and hiring. Limited Partners can be a great source for VCs to help out portfolio companies. In turn, this only improves a founder’s relationship with the fund and improves their odds of success. Due Diligence Some limited partners will have a proven track record or expertise in the market. Because of this, they might understand the space even further and can help when it comes to due diligence and vetting potential investments. As Gale shares above, they have an LP that has expertise in workflow tech and help them with due diligence in the space. How to create a tear sheet for your LPs Gale and the team at Vitalize have done an incredible job of using tear sheets to help keep their LPs in the loop. The Vitalize team uses both the qualitative and quantitative data they collect from their portfolio companies and create a single page tear sheet for each company they can share with their LPs. Check out a few example tear sheets below: A few things they include in their tear sheets: Company Information LPs are generally busy and have investments across many different asset classes. In order to help with them understand what a portfolio company does, be sure to include a quick description and the reason why you invested. Qualitative Updates The team at Vitalize also likes to include qualitative updates from each portfolio company. This is generally tied to revenue milestones but can also cover financing rounds and major hires. Investment Information Of course, LPs want to see the financials and information behind an investment. The team at Vitalize includes basic investment information like initial investment dates, capital invested, Vitalize’s value, and more. Core Metrics Using the KPIs and data that the Vitalize team collects from their portfolio companies they build a simple table that shows a companies quarterly performance. A few of the metrics the Vitalize team tracks and shares are: Revenue COGs/COS Gross Margin % Total Expenses EBITDA Cash Balance Months of Runway LP Reporting Templates to Get You Started Ready to take your LP reporting to the next level? Check out our LP Reporting Templates to get you started. Or schedule a call with our team to learn more here.