Visible Blog

For venture capitalists, timing is everything. The ability to recognize a turning point in a portfolio company’s performance, either positive or negative, can be the difference between a missed opportunity and a game-changing intervention. At Visible, we’ve seen how metric alerts can transform a VC’s ability to stay ahead. By proactively flagging key performance shifts, you can deliver guidance exactly when it’s needed or celebrate a win in real time. Recently, we identified a list of high-impact metrics from our proprietary dataset to identify which alerts are set most often and what thresholds matter most to investors. The result: a short list of high-impact metrics and recommended thresholds that VCs can start monitoring today. A Quick Overview of Metric Alerts in Visible Metric alerts allow you to set specific performance thresholds for any tracked metric and receive notifications when they are met or exceeded. This ensures you’re not just reviewing data after the fact, but acting on it in real time. With Visible, you can: Choose alerts for the metrics you care about most. Set custom floor or ceiling thresholds. Define how alerts are triggered (percentage shifts, fixed number changes, period-over-period changes, etc.). Receive timely notifications when your conditions are met. Learn more about how to set up metric alerts in Visible → The Most Commonly Tracked Metrics and Recommended Thresholds Our analysis surfaced six key metrics that investors track most often. Here’s what they mean and the most common set of related metric alerts.. 1. Months of Runway Definition: The number of months a company can continue operating at its current burn rate before cash reserves are depleted. Formula: Runway (months) = Cash on Hand​ / (Average Monthly Operating Expenses – Average Monthly Revenue) Common Alert Thresholds: Critical Alert: < 3 months - Immediate need for capital or drastic cost adjustments. Caution Alert: < 6 months - Funding conversations should be underway. Observation Alert: < 12 months - Useful for keeping an eye on mid-term capital needs. 2. Cash Ratio Definition: Liquidity metric showing a company’s ability to pay short-term liabilities using only cash and cash equivalents. Formula: Cash Ratio = (Cash + Cash Equivalents) / Current Liabilities Floor Alerts: Critical Alert: < 0.5 - Potential inability to cover short-term obligations. Caution Alert: < 0.75 Trailing average for 2+ periods - Warning of deteriorating liquidity. Ceiling Alerts: Observation Alert: > 2.0 Trailing average for 2+ periods without major planned expenses which could indicate idle capital. Overcapitalization Alert: > 3.0 Without investment plans in next 2 quarters - Displays possible inefficiency in capital deployment. Spike Alert: > 50% Change % - Could point to new funding or asset sales. 3. Asset Turnover Ratio Definition: Measures how efficiently a company uses assets to generate revenue. Formula: Asset Turnover Ratio = Net Sales (Revenue) / Average Total Assets Floor Alerts: Critical Alert: Below industry-adjusted threshold (default < 0.5). Caution Alert: > 20% Previous period change. Ceiling Alerts: Observation Alert: > 2.0 Trailing average for 2+ periods without asset base expansion. Spike Alert: Jump > 30% Previous period change - Worth investigating source of sudden efficiency. 4. Debt Ratio Definition: The proportion of total assets financed by debt to better understand leverage and underlying risk. Formula: Debt Ratio = Total Liabilities / Total Assets Floor Alerts: Conservative Alert: < 0.1 - Very low leverage with potential underutilization of debt capacity. Growth Watch Alert: < 0.2 - Trailing average for 3+ periods which could suggest overly cautious capital structure. Ceiling Alerts: Caution Alert: > 0.6 - Leverage is approaching riskier territory. Critical Alert: > 0.8 - High financial risk. Leverage Spike Alert: > 15% Previous period change. 5. EBITDA Margin Definition: Operating profitability as a percentage of revenue, excluding interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Formula: EBITDA Margin = (EBITDA / Net Sales (Revenue) * 100 Floor Alerts: Critical Alert: < 0% - Signaling negative operating profitability. Caution Alert: < 10% (unless industry-adjusted). Compression Alert: > 5% Previous period change. Ceiling Alerts: Observation Alert: > 40% (unless industry-adjusted). Spike Alert: > 10% Previous period change. Efficiency Over-Optimization Alert: >10% trailing average for 2+ periods 6. Revenue Growth (QoQ) Definition: Quarter-over-quarter revenue increase, expressed as a percentage. Formula: Revenue Growth (QoQ) = ((Revenue current quarter - Revenue previous quarter)/ Revenue previous quarter) * 100 Common Alert Threshold: Positive Growth Alert: ≥ 20% Previous period change – Shows strong growth momentum, often worth deeper review or follow-up. Proactive Insights, Timely Action By setting smart, data-driven thresholds for these metrics, you can spot risks and opportunities before they’re obvious in quarterly reports. This approach ensures you’re showing up for founders with the right guidance at the right time. Ready to set up your first metric alerts? Learn how here.

What is a Portfolio Review Meeting in Venture Capital A portfolio review meeting in the context of Venture Capital is a dedicated time for the investment and operational team members at an investment firm to align on recent updates across the portfolio. Other purposes of this meeting are to exchange cross-functional insights and coordinate the best ways to support portfolio companies. Check out this sample agenda that is similar to what is used by Visible customers. Who Typically Leads Portfolio Review Meetings? Portfolio review meetings can be led by anyone at the firm but since the meetings are largely focused on updates about portfolio companies, it is often led by the person responsible for collecting and synthesizing updates from portfolio companies on a regular basis. At a smaller firm, this person may be a Partner, and at a larger VC firm, this person often has the title of Platform Manager, Director of Portfolio Operations, or someone in finance. Ultimately, it should be led by someone with a wide-lens view of what is going on across the portfolio. Related Resource –> Portfolio Data Collection Tips for VCs Portfolio Review Meeting Frequency According to a poll led by Visible, 50% of VC’s are hosting Portfolio Review Meetings on a quarterly basis, followed by 29% weekly, and 14% monthly. The frequency of this meeting largely depends on the size of your portfolio company and how hands-on you are with your companies. A quarterly frequency makes sense for most VC firms because 70% of investors are collecting structured data from their companies on a quarterly basis. (Source data is aggregated usage data on Visible’s portfolio monitoring platform used by 660+ VC funds). How Investors Are Leveraging Visible to Enhance Portfolio Review Meetings Visible makes it simple to centralize your fund and portfolio company performance so you can conduct your Portfolio Review Meetings in the solution! For a step-by-step resource on how to run your portfolio review meeting in Visible, refer to this guide. VKAV’s Portfolio Company Dashboards Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures (VKAV), a long-term Visible user, hosts a formal Portfolio Review Meeting on a quarterly basis. During this meeting, Portfolio Review Committee members join to review the performance of the portfolio companies during the quarter. Additionally, VKAV’s investment team holds an internal Portfolio Review Meeting every other week. Right now, the purpose of this meeting is mostly to check the status of action items (either for VKAV or the portfolio company). VKAV keeps track of open action items directly on a company’s dashboard in Visible so that it is linked to the broader context of how the company is performing. How Emergence Capital Uses Visible for Portfolio Review Meetings Emergence Capital has transformed its portfolio review process by embracing Visible’s powerful KPI tracking and portfolio monitoring tools. As Andrew Crinnion, Emergence’s Director of Portfolio Analysis, puts it, “Visible streamlines our data collection process, providing a centralized source for all portfolio information,”. By pulling consistent, timely data from their companies, they enter meetings with clarity and agility, minimizing manual prep, elevating transparency, and enabling sharper, data-informed discussions with LPs. Visible’s seamless workflow turns what used to be hours of spreadsheet wrangling into strategic storytelling grounded in metrics. Check out how Emergence Capital turns portfolio data into their advantage. 01 Advisors Approach to Portfolio Review Meetings 01 Advisors a San Francisco-based venture firm utilizes Visible’s Request feature to streamline the way they collect data from companies on a quarterly basis. The team meets 1-2 times per quarter for an internal Portfolio Review meeting. Check out their meeting agenda outline below. 01 Advisors Portfolio Review Meeting Agenda Investment Strategy Portfolio Company Categorization Reserve Allocation Strategy Portfolio Company Support Learn more about how 01 Advisors uses Visible for the internal portfolio review meetings in this video.

Portfolio reviews aren’t just check-ins — they’re decision-making engines. Without a clear agenda, calls can drift into endless updates with no clear next steps. The right structure keeps discussions focused, data-driven, and primed for action. At Visible, we’ve seen hundreds of firms use a similar framework to turn portfolio reviews into strategic power hours. Here’s how: 1. Kick Off with Clarity Open with the meeting focus — quarterly performance, capital allocation, operational health. State key decisions needed (follow-ons, exits, support). Cover quick big-picture updates (fundraising, LP news, major hires). 2. Fund Performance at a Glance Review IRR, DPI, TVPI vs. benchmarks. Check portfolio construction and reserves to spot concentration risks. Flag diversification gaps and emerging threats. 3. Company Deep Dives For each company: Key financials — revenue, burn, runway. Market moves — product launches, partnerships, competitive shifts, regulations. Customer health — acquisition, retention, churn, NPS. Team stability — leadership changes, key hires. Capital & strategy needs — funding runway, follow-on potential. 4. Cross-Portfolio Wins & Challenges Spot patterns and shared roadblocks. Launch value-add programs — hiring support, sales intros, shared services. Share success stories to replicate wins. 5. Strategy & Decisions Lock in follow-on investments and exit plans. Adjust fund strategy where needed. Address underperformers head-on. 6. Clear Action Items Assign owners and deadlines. Set communication plans for LPs and internal teams. Use the Agenda A great agenda turns portfolio reviews from information dumps into action plans. It ensures you leave with clarity, accountability, and momentum. Download our VC Portfolio Review Agenda to start running sharper, faster, more effective meetings.

Portfolio reviews are crucial for venture capital firms to make informed decisions, support portfolio companies, and communicate fund performance to LPs. Whether you’re an experienced Visible user or a first-time VC looking to streamline these sessions, proper preparation and effective use of Visible can transform your reviews into actionable, insightful conversations. In this post, we’ll cover: Pre-review steps to ensure accurate, actionable data A link to a standard portfolio review agenda with VC best practices How to use Visible during the meeting to capture insights and create a lasting record Pre-Review: Setting the Foundation for Success An effective portfolio review starts well before everyone sits down. Here’s how to prepare with Visible: 1. Gather Structured Data with Requests and AI Inbox Consistent, structured data is the backbone of your review. Create a repeatable data request process to collect the 5–15 key metrics quarterly that move the needle the most for your portfolio companies. Additionally, it’s common to ask for qualitative updates from companies as well to ensure you have a holistic view of how a company is performing. With Visible AI, founders can upload files directly to your request, and the platform parses and prefills the data automatically to minimize manual entry and make it a seamless experience for your founders. You’ll likely still receive updates via email from some founder, and the AI Inbox is the answer. Simply forward emails to Visible’s AI Inbox to parse and upload the data directly to the portfolio company's profile in your Visible account. Learn more about building a scalable data collection workflow → 2. Set Up Metric Alerts Metric alerts will notify you when a company’s metrics hit predefined thresholds, allowing you to flag risks or opportunities before the meeting. You can view all alerts in the alerts log to see which portfolio companies require immediate attention. How to set up metric alerts for investors → 3. Update Investment Data Accurate investment records ensure fund-level metrics (like IRR, TVPI, DPI) reflect reality. With Visible, you can: Add rounds and transactions individually (guide) or bulk upload them (guide).As your position values change over time, mark up the Fair Market Values (FMVs) directly in Visible (guide). When you exit a position, follow the native workflow (guide) to record the correct holdings in the portfolio company. Finally, add any manual fund-level inputs to ensure your fund-level metrics remain accurate Fund and company investment data definitions → 4. Design Dashboards and Tear Sheets Dashboards make data actionable during your VC portfolio reviews. Visible supports four dashboard types: Flexible Dashboards: Track multiple companies, fund data, or a single company with no space restrictions Tear Sheets: One-page export-friendly summaries (tear sheet guide) Fund Performance Dashboard: Auto-generated template displaying your fund data (guide) Benchmark Dashboard: Compare portfolio companies by a single metric (guide) Use dashboard templates to scale views across your portfolio (template guide). Define the Portfolio Review Agenda A clear and organized agenda is important to ensure focus, alignment, and productive discussion. By outlining objectives, key topics, and expected decisions, it helps participants prepare and engage effectively. Here is a sample agenda to run an effective portfolio review. Why it works:The flow from fund performance review to company deep dives and strategic planning supports informed decision-making. Then, ending with clear action items, responsibilities, and timelines promotes accountability and follow-through, to help turn discussion into measurable results. Using Visible During the Portfolio Review To make the review actionable and leave a lasting record, add qualitative notes and commentary. Use Visible Notes to document discussion points, action items, and strategic decisions directly in each company’s profile. Add custom properties to dashboards for qualitative data and the change log will help you track how these inputs evolve over time (view change log guide). Review Outstanding Metric Alerts During the meeting, open the metric alerts log to address flagged issues in real time. Add any necessary context to notes and custom properties for continuity in future reviews. Navigate Dashboards Seamlessly Use dashboard templates to quickly switch between companies Reference tear sheets for concise summaries Compare metrics side-by-side in the benchmark dashboard This structured approach keeps discussions focused and ensures nothing falls through the cracks. Final Thoughts By following these steps and leveraging Visible’s features, your portfolio reviews can shift from being status updates to strategic decision-making sessions backed by accurate data and actionable insights. For Non-Visible Users Not using Visible yet? Book a personalized demo to see how our platform can transform your portfolio reviews. For Current Visible Customers Already a Visible customer? Connect with your Customer Success Manager to design a tailored strategy and unlock the full potential of Visible for your next portfolio review session.

Thomas Ikeda of Cendana Capital joined us on September 4th for a candid conversation about what it takes to raise from one of the most respected seed fund of funds. We dig into how LP expectations have shifted, what sets standout Fund I GPs apart, and how to build lasting LP relationships, even in a tough market. About the Webinar Thomas Ikeda is a Principal at Cendana, an investor in very early VC funds across the globe. Thomas joined us for a behind-the-scenes look at what Cendana looks for in fund managers, how LP expectations are shifting, and what it takes to raise and retain LP capital in today’s environment. We cover topics like: What separates standout Fund I GPs from the rest How Cendana evaluates conviction vs. red flags in fund managers How LP <> GP relationships are evolving in a tougher market What LPs want to see before backing Fund II The signals and strategies that help GPs build lasting LP trust We hope to see you at the next Visible Webinar!

Strong investor–founder relationships rely on clear, timely, and accurate data. We’ve rolled out a series of updates designed to make reporting smoother, smarter, and faster for everyone involved. From AI-powered file uploads that eliminate manual entry to a refined inbox that handles complex formats with ease, these improvements are built to help you stay connected to your portfolio without the friction. Check out our recent improvements below: Introducing AI File Uploads in Requests We just made it easier for your portfolio companies to complete Requests. Founders can now upload up to 3 files (valuations, P&Ls, governance docs, and more), and Visible AI will extract the data and auto-fill their request, eliminating the need for manual entry. You’ll still receive structured, reviewable data with full visibility into what’s AI-generated. See how your founders can leverage AI File Uploads below: Clearer Visibility Into Request Status We’ve made it easier to track how your portfolio companies are interacting with your data requests. You’ll now see more consistent and detailed delivery insights. This includes a clearer status for requests as well as proactive alerts when a request email bounces. Improve Workflows with Pre-filled Requests As more data flows into your account via AI Inbox and metric imports, you can now pre-fill Requests with existing metrics for each portfolio company. Founders simply log in, review the data, and submit—no duplicate work required. Other Improvements Seamlessly switch between portfolio companies A cleaner view for portfolio company notes You can now preview files directly everywhere in the app Set the currency for each metric at the portfolio company level in a request Check out the improvements yourself by starting a Visible trial. Optimize your fund's portfolio management, data collection, reporting, and analysis. Try it free for 14 days.

When Andrew Crinnion joined Emergence Capital as Director of Portfolio Analysis, he stepped into a role that required more than crunching numbers. As a Series A investor in B2B SaaS companies, Emergence prides itself on being data-driven, but that only works when the correct data is accessible, consistent, and actionable. The challenge? Their portfolio was growing fast, but performance tracking lived in scattered spreadsheets and inboxes. "Before Visible, it was Excel Sheets and lots of manual emails," Andrew explained. "We were a pretty data-driven firm, which gave me a good foundation. But we needed a better way to scale." A Central Source of Truth Andrew was tasked with finding a portfolio monitoring solution that could grow with their fund and simplify performance data management. After evaluating platforms like iLevel, Dynamo, and Standard Metrics, he ultimately chose Visible. What stood out? "Flexibility," he said. "The ability to build dashboards and calculate our own metrics was huge. Before, I'd ask for something like burn rate and NDR, and I wasn’t always sure how it was being calculated. So being able to calculate it within the system was a big help." The transition was smooth. After merging their existing data into a more structured format, onboarding to Visible was seamless. “It was real smooth to load that into Visible and move forward.” Driving Better Decisions With Visible in place, Andrew can surface insights faster and share them more effectively with the general partners. "Once a company responds to our Visible Request, it graphs it out. I can see if burn rate increases or if runway is dropping off, and it prompts me to ask the right questions to the GPs. It keeps us aligned." The dashboards are a core part of portfolio reviews and one-off requests alike. "They don’t really see how it’s getting made,” he said, “but it makes it a lot easier for me to answer their questions.” Better Data = Stronger LP Relationships When communicating with LPs, the value of Visible became even more clear. When LPs are digging into performance, portfolio metrics, and fund-level questions, the Emergence team is ready. "Visible helps me quickly respond to all our LP requests. I have a repository of data that makes it easy to pull what they need. It also helps GPs answer LP questions faster, with more confidence." By having a centralized system to rely on, Emergence offers transparency and builds trust with its limited partners, a key ingredient in any relationship. Turning Internal Value Into External Impact As Emergence’s data infrastructure matured, Andrew saw an opportunity to scale the value of what they were learning. Portfolio companies were coming to him with questions like, “What should my CAC payback be?” and “How much should I be spending on R&D?” Thanks to the insights they’d built internally with Visible, Emergence launched the Beyond Benchmark report, an external study based on data from over 560 companies. What began as a tool for internal alignment became a valuable resource for the broader SaaS community. Support That Scales With You Throughout the process, Visible’s Customer Success team remained a key part of the experience. “They’ve been great. I’ve shared product feedback, and it’s been implemented. They’re responsive and invested in helping us succeed.” Emergence Capital didn’t just choose Visible, they built a system around it. For funds building out platform or investor relations teams, he recommends investing early in the right metrics and infrastructure. The payoff? Faster answers, stronger LP conversations, and the confidence to scale with clarity. Check out how you can join Emergence Capital and leverage Visible for your portfolio monitoring and reporting here.

Supporting portfolio companies with hiring and fundraising is table stakes for VC firms in 2025. Relationships and networks have never been more important as human-to-human connection becomes an even more essential differentiator in the age of AI. Evan Walden, CEO of Getro, and Toni Alejandria of Preface Ventures joined us for a webinar to cover the ins and outs of how best-in-class VC funds leverage their networks to help portfolio companies hire top talent and raise capital. You can check out the recording below: We cover topics like: How best-in-class teams scale their platform function How to balance consistency and customization How to help companies source top talent How to leverage network effects to support fundraising Want more great insights? Check out Thrive Through Connection, our podcast about the power of founder and investor relationships.

Getting structured, consistent updates from your portfolio companies is one of the most important — and often most painful — parts of investor operations. Whether you’re managing a growth-stage fund with dozens of companies or just getting organized as an early-stage firm, the ability to centralize performance data is critical to helping your team, your LPs, and your founders succeed. That’s where Visible comes in. In this post, we’ll walk you through how to build a streamlined, scalable reporting workflow using Visible — one that gets you clean, structured data with minimal back-and-forth and maximum insight. Step 1: Finalize Your Metrics and Properties The foundation of any great data collection process in Visible is your data structure — that means defining the metrics and properties you want your portfolio companies to report on. Metrics are time-series KPIs (e.g., Revenue, Burn, Runway). Properties are qualitative fields that give context (e.g. Highlights, Lowlights, Asks) As an investor, you have full control over what data you collect. You can tailor metrics and properties to your investment strategy or reporting needs. Once a company submits a request, their responses will be mapped automatically to these fields in your account. Learn how to create Portfolio Metrics → Learn how to create and edit Properties → Pro Tip: Start with a simple set of 10–15 key metrics and 3–5 properties. This gives you high-signal data without overwhelming your founders. Step 2 (Optional but Recommended): Invite Companies to Visible While founders don’t need a Visible account to complete your request (they can always fill it out via a secure link sent to their inbox), inviting them to create a free account unlocks some advantages: They can view and refer to past data, so they’re not starting from scratch each time. They can pre-fill requests with AI, saving time and improving accuracy. They can save their request progress as a draft and come back at any time or collaborate with teammates as needed. They can turn the same data into investor updates that can be used to nurture relationships with current and prospective investors. They can update their metrics in Visible and then link them directly to investor requests. It’s faster, accurate, and lets them reuse their data across updates and dashboards. In short, you make their life easier — and that makes them more likely to complete requests consistently. How to invite portfolio companies → Why a free Visible account helps founders → Step 3: Create Your Request Now it’s time to build your first request. Visible’s Request Builder lets you create fully customized, recurring (or one-time) forms that ask for exactly the metrics and properties you care about. You control: Which companies receive it Which metrics/properties are requested The frequency (e.g. quarterly, monthly) Deadlines and reminders How to build a recurring request → Best Practices:Most investors ask for data quarterly and request 10–15 metrics per company. This keeps the lift manageable for founders and gets you a strong dataset.We also see that investors achieve the highest response rates when they send ~5 notifications for the request. Typically there are two notifications prior to the request, one on the due date, and two after the due date. Pro Tip for Your Portfolio Companies: If a founder is using Visible, they can leverage AI to auto-fill the request by uploading related files and then they can repurpose that data into an update for all their investors — saving hours of work. Step 4: Supplement with the AI Inbox Even with structured requests, founders will often send insights via email. Instead of letting those updates live in your inbox, use Visible’s AI Inbox. Just forward an email to your unique AI inbox address, and Visible will: Match the email to the correct company Extract the metrics Create an AI generated summary Add the metrics to a company’s profile automatically This turns unstructured emails into usable, structured data. How to set up your AI Inbox → Pro Tip: Add your AI inbox address as a contact, or set up auto-forwarding from a shared team email to streamline this process. Step 5: Pre-Fill Data to Save Time for Founders Already have a data point from the AI Inbox or that you’ve added manually? Save your founder from entering it again by pre-filling the field in their next request. This: Reduces friction Encourages higher response rates Improves data consistency How to pre-fill responses with existing data → Best Practice: Even if there is not currently data associated with your portfolio companies today, we recommend toggling on pre-fill existing data to ensure that metrics will populate if they are added in the future. Bring It All Together By following these five steps, you can build a data collection process that serves as the foundation for your reporting, portfolio analysis, and centralized data management — giving you the structured data you need, without creating manual overhead. With Visible, you can: Define your data structure once Automate recurring collection Capture both structured and unstructured updates Give founders an easy way to report — and benefit from the process A well-run data collection process doesn’t just help you track performance. It builds trust with your portfolio and gives you the data to help them grow. Want help setting this up for your fund? Reach out to our team or explore more best practices at support@visible.vc

Teams at leading funds rely on Visible’s AI Inbox to turn email updates into clean, structured data, automatically mapped to the right portfolio company. But as reporting formats and file types have evolved, so have the needs of our users. That’s why we’ve made some powerful upgrades to AI Inbox, enhancing how it extracts data, processes large files, and provides you with more control when you need it most. Smarter Model Selection for Better Results You can now choose which AI model to use when extracting data from files and email updates. In addition to OpenAI’s GPT-4.1, we’ve added support for Gemini and other models to give you complete control over how you use AI to structure your data. Whether you're working with board decks, Excel exports, or investor updates pasted into emails, AI Inbox adapts to get the most accurate data possible. Customize AI Instructions for Edge Cases Most documents work great with default settings, but for edge cases, you can now guide the AI with custom instructions. Use the new “Configure extraction” option to: Add context (e.g. "Check the table on page 8 for financial data" or "Ignore embedded charts") Refine the extraction and interpretation of metrics Troubleshoot unusual layouts or inconsistent formatting This empowers you to adapt the AI Inbox to your specific needs in one-off scenarios. Try the Refined AI Inbox If you’ve used AI Inbox before, you’ll notice the improved performance immediately. If you’re new to it, now's a great time to start structuring and centralizing your data with AI Inbox. Log in to Visible and give it a spin for yourself (or learn more about AI Inbox here)!

When monitoring a portfolio, having the right insights at the right time is crucial. Whether it is a sudden dip in cash runway or a surge in MRR, knowing exactly when portfolio company key metrics shift can mean the difference between proactive support and missed opportunity. Our recent updates to Metric Alerts make it easier to stay connected to your portfolio’s performance. Support Companies With Smarter Alerts We have redesigned Metric Alerts to help you monitor your entire portfolio with ease, spot red flags faster, and stay connected to each company’s performance. A New Home for Alerts Metric Alerts now live in a dedicated section of your sidebar under Monitoring. Here you will find: A New Alert button for fast setup A Log View showing every triggered alert with icons, timestamps, and direct links to your portfolio metrics Easy edit access. Click the metric name or the icon button to quickly update alerts in a side panel Now you can manage all alerts in one place without any hassle. Portfolio-Wide Metric Selection You no longer need to set up alerts company by company. With the Metric Alerts, you can: Select any Portfolio Metric, such as Revenue or Runway, and apply the alert across all companies Receive notifications when a company’s metric meets a specific criteria Creating alerts across your portfolio ensures that you will never miss any shifts across your portfolio. Proactive Support Metric Alerts equip you with actionable information to stay on top of material changes. Use the Log View to track historical alerts and identify patterns Drill down to the Metric page from the alert to conduct further analysis Edit alert criteria instantly using the side-panel form Founders rely on you to be proactive, responsive, and informed. With Metric Alerts, you can stay connected to the numbers and the people behind them. Put Metric Alerts to Work The new and improved Metric Alerts are now available to all Visible customers. Whether you are looking to monitor key metrics across your entire portfolio, catch red flags sooner, or strengthen your relationships with founders through proactive insights, Metric Alerts are designed to keep you connected and in control. To explore how Metric Alerts can streamline your portfolio monitoring and support your investment strategy, head here.

Tear sheets are an important component of the venture capital industry. If you’re new to VC, it's crucial to understand what a tear sheet is and how to create a valuable and effective one for your fund. What is a Tear Sheet? A tear sheet is a single-page summary of an individual company. A tear sheet is a critical term to understand in the venture capital world. Beyond a simple understanding of what a tear sheet is, it’s important to learn how a tear sheet is best used and how to create one. The term “tear sheet” originated from pre-internet business when S&P would produce summary sheets for public companies on one page. All of these single-page summaries could be torn out of a larger book containing all of the summary sheets. This act of tearing out the relevant page stuck around. Even though the physical act of tearing a sheet is gone, the single-page summary, the tear sheet, has withstood the test of time and is an extremely important piece of collateral for anyone working in VC to understand. A tear sheet should contain overview information about a company. This should include the total investment amount, gains/losses, sector, and a summary of company performance. Essentially, anything that will allow the reader to get a quick snapshot of the business and give them an understanding of earning potential that is possible should be included on the tear sheet. The LPs (limited partners) or investors at a VC firm are a key audience that will be viewing the tear sheet. You want to make a good impression when presenting information to LPs. Therefore, when thinking about putting together tear sheets for your portfolio companies, it’s important to make them look professional and use them to effectively communicate concise updates about your companies. Well-put-together tear sheets can go a long way in impressing LPs. View Tear Sheet examples from Visible. Tear Sheet Templates When building out tear sheets for your portfolio companies, make sure to include both metrics and qualitative data about your companies. If you’re looking for a tear sheet template (read on to learn more about tear sheet templates in Visible!) make sure to find a template that includes both of these categories. Start with metrics, or quantitative data about the company. A few metrics to consider including*: Revenue – Revenue and revenue growth over time is an easy way to understand the health status of a company. While not an accurate portrayal of the company as a whole, it gives LPs a sense of the stage of the company. FTE Headcount & New Hires – This is typically considered non-sensitive data from portfolio companies but again gives LPs an idea of the stage of the company and how they’re growing over time. It also is an indicator of how a company is using their cash. True North KPIs – Depending on the type of company, this might differ. The true north KPIs in a tear sheet template should be the key performance indicators that are guiding the business every single day. Beyond revenue goals, examples of other KPIs could be active users, a customer net promoter score, active customers, or average contract value. *Note: It’s important to maintain privacy for portfolio companies and receive permission to share information with LPs. It’s also a best practice to share the same level of detail across all companies. Another important section to include on a tear sheet is an investment overview. Some items to include are: Total Invested – It’s helpful to remind LPs about the total invested in a company and how it compares to others in the portfolio. Date of Initial Investment – This gives a sense of how long it has been since the initial investment and gives context on when to expect a return. Investment Multiple – This provides LPs with an idea of the expected return in the future. Shifting from the metrics on your tear sheet template, consider the following qualitative points to include in your tear sheet: Company Tagline – This is an easy and concise way to orient or remind an LP about what the company does. Sector – This simple static property again helps provide context to LP’s who have invested in several funds. HQ Location – Helps everyone stay on top of where the portfolio is located. Narrative Update – This section is a commentary on recent highlights from the portfolio company. As always, it’s important not to disclose sensitive information about a portfolio company. Asks – Depending on your relationship with your companies and LPs, it may be appropriate to share ‘Asks’ from portfolio companies with LPs. For example: Company A is looking to hire a Head of Engineering based in Berlin and is seeking candidate referrals. Tear Sheet Examples A great place to start when creating your portfolio tear sheets and looking for tear sheet examples is to ask your network. Talk to experienced funds in your network. If they’ve raised several funds and have close relationships with their LPs, they probably have a great idea of what LPs like to see when receiving updates about portfolio companies. You can also check out Visible’s Tear Sheet Examples here. Using Visible for Portfolio Tear Sheets Visible is an incredibly useful tool for funds to report to the LPs on a consistent basis. You can take the quantitative data and qualitative information suggested above and turn it into a template right in Visible. Check out a tear sheet example in Visible below. How Visible Automatically Builds Tear Sheets Visible is the perfect tool to build tear sheets for all your companies in just a few clicks. Visible automatically builds tear sheets by: Equipping investors to automatically collect structured data from portfolio companies on a regular basis. As an investor, you can decide what data is most relevant to request from each company. Creating tear sheet templates that automatically pull in metric data, investment data, and qualitative properties that already exist within Visible. Interested in exploring how to build Tear Sheets in Visible? Tear Sheet Basics If you're searching for the best company tear sheet template, you're not alone. Tear sheets have become a go-to resource for venture capital (VC) firms and investors who want to deliver quick, effective updates to limited partners (LPs). Whether you're looking for a free tear sheet template, trying to understand what a tear sheet is in business, or need a tear sheet example to model your own, knowing how to structure and present this information is crucial. A tear sheet (sometimes called a one-pager) is a concise summary of a portfolio company. It typically includes key metrics, investment details, and recent updates. For VCs, it's a powerful way to maintain transparency and professionalism with LPs. If you're new to this, a VC tear sheet example can offer a strong visual starting point. Platforms like Visible allow you to skip this step by making it easier than ever to pull live data from your existing dashboard to generate a polished tear sheet template in seconds. For those managing this process manually, there are several formats to explore: a tear sheet template Word, tear sheet template PowerPoint, or even a tear sheet Excel template, many of which are available as free tear sheet template downloads. A free VC tear sheet example can show you how to create a tear sheet that balances both quantitative metrics and qualitative context. This is especially helpful for those asking, “What is a tear sheet in business strategy?” or looking for the best LP tear sheet example PDF to elevate their investor communications. Whether you're refining your own internal workflow or just getting started, Visible’s platform offers tear sheet generation to streamline the process. You’ll save time, improve consistency across your portfolio, and present the kind of clear, confident communication that LPs expect.

About Airtree Ventures Airtree is a Sydney-based venture capital firm backing founders based in Australia and New Zealand building the iconic companies of tomorrow. The firm was founded in 2014 and is now deploying out of its 4th fund with $1.3 billion in assets under management. Their portfolio includes over 105+ portfolio companies and 250+ founders who have helped create over 17,000 jobs. Airtree’s portfolio includes the region’s breakout technology companies, such as Canva, Go1, Employment Hero, Pet Circle, Immutable, and Linktree. For this case study, we spoke to Dan Lombard who is the Data Lead at Airtree Ventures. Related article: Airtree Ventures already returned its first fund thanks to Canva while maintaining the majority of its stake Fragmented Systems and Processes Prior to Visible Prior to the integration of Visible, Airtree relied heavily on a fragmented system of spreadsheets to manage their portfolio of 105+ companies. Each quarter, four employees were tasked with managing the relationships with the points of contact at 15 to 20 portfolio companies through manual outreach and communications. This reliance on spreadsheets resulted in inefficiencies and potential data loss, as spreadsheets are prone to break when modified. Challenges With Data Accuracy and Scaling Manual Outreach to a Growing Portfolio Before Visible, 80% of Airtree’s portfolio monitoring problem was having clean data and scaling outreach to their portfolio companies. They faced two primary challenges with their former system: Operational Efficiency: Four team members spent significant time manually collecting data from over 100 companies every quarter. The Airtree team members were sending one-off email communications to each company and manually keeping track of who needed to be followed up with at each company which diverted resources from other critical projects they could be working on. Data Integrity and Scalability: Frequent changes to the data in spreadsheets resulted in errors in the sheets and data loss, which caused frustration as there was no way of understanding which changes were made to the sheet and when. This process made it difficult to scale portfolio monitoring operations as Airtree grew. Why Airtree Chose Visible as their Portfolio Monitoring Platform Airtree chose Visible for its robust, scalable, and user-friendly platform. Key factors influencing their choice included: Ease of Use and Customization: Visible's platform offered unparalleled customization and ease of use. Support and Development: Visible’s team actively listened to feedback, offered best practices, and continuously invested in their product, ensuring a partnership that catered to Airtree’s evolving needs. Automation and Integration: Visible excelled in automating portfolio monitoring and offered a frictionless experience for founders. Airtree leveraged the Visible API to seamlessly integrate data into their existing data warehouse system. Airtree’s historical data collection process, previously led by four Airtree team members, is now a streamlined process led only by Dan, who leverages Visible Requests to collect data from their portfolio of 105+ companies. Visible Requests empowers Dan to send customized link-based data requests to each company, automate the email reminder process, and easily keep track of where companies are in the reporting process. View an example Visible Request below. Onboarded to Visible within 24 Hours Visible provided Airtree with an efficient and supported onboarding. When asked about Airtree's onboarding with Visible Dan Lombard shared the following: Visible stood out by enabling a swift and seamless transition that was operational in less than 24 hours, a stark contrast to other providers who estimated a quarter for full implementation. This rapid integration was facilitated by a comprehensive onboarding template provided by Visible. Visible API & Airtree’s Data Infrastructure With the implementation of Visible, Airtree wanted to take a more sophisticated approach to the way they handle their portfolio data with the goal of driving more valuable insights for their team. The approach needed to be automated, integrate with other data sources, and have a singular view accessible for the whole team. This was not possible when their data lived in disparate systems, files, and spreadsheets. Dan Lombard has led the improvement of Airtree's data infrastructure. Now, data sources like Visible and Affinity are piped into Snowflake via recurring AWS Lambda jobs. Airtree leverages the Visible API daily. Dan mentioned that while Airtree collects data quarterly, a daily sync of the data is crucial because Airtree is always onboarding new companies, communicating with their founders, and uploading historical data. “The Visible API gives us this level of daily fidelity and only takes the AWS Lambda job 5 minutes to populate an entire data architecture.” - Dan Lombard, Data Lead at Airtree Ventures Once the data is in their database, Snowflake handles the ETL and entity matching. Airtree then has Streamlit sit on top of Snowflake to query data, provision access, and build out new insights. Advice for Other VC Firms Building Out Their Data Infrastructure Don’t overcomplicate things to start. It is easy to get caught up in the bells and whistles. Dan recommends a bias towards simplicity. Start small and use it as a stepping stone as you build things out. Conclusion Airtree’s adoption of Visible transformed their portfolio management by automating key processes and centralizing data, thus enabling more strategic decision-making and efficient operations. The case of Airtree is a testament to how the right technological partnerships can profoundly impact business efficiency and data management.

Visible supports hundreds of investors around the world to streamline their portfolio monitoring. One of the most common questions we receive is — what metrics should I be collecting from my portfolio companies? Everyone from Emerging Managers writing their first checks to established VC firms ask this question because they want to make sure they're monitoring their portfolio companies in the most effective way possible. The Standard Metrics Value-Add Investors Should be Monitoring It’s important to know which metrics are the best to collect from portfolio companies so that investors can extract the maximum amount of insight from the least number of metrics. This streamlined approach is easiest for founders and allows investors to get what they need to provide better support to their companies, inform future investment decisions, and have good records in place for LP reporting or fundraising. Below we outline the six most common metrics investors collect from portfolio companies. 1) Revenue Definition: Money generated from normal business operations for the reporting period; also known as ‘net sales’. We recommend excluding ‘other revenue’ from secondary activities and excluding cash from fundraising. Revenue tells you how a company’s sales are performing. This metric is a key indicator for how a business is doing. It can be analyzed to understand if new marketing strategies are working, how a change in pricing might affect the demand for a good or service, and the pace of growth in a market. By asking for revenue from just ‘normal business operations’ you’re excluding money a company could also be making from secondary activities that are non-integral to their business. This helps keep the revenue data more precise, allows you to compare the metric more accurately across the portfolio, and will allow you to use it more accurately in other metric formulas such as Net Income. Visible helps over 400+ VCs streamline the way they collect data from companies with Requests. Check out a Request example below. 2) Cash Balance Definition: The amount of cash a company has in the bank at the end of a reporting period. Cash Balance is an important indicator of ‘life expectancy’. This metric is essential to track because it tells you about the financial stability and risk level of the company. There’s no bluffing with this Cash Balance metric. A company either has a healthy amount of cash in the bank at the end of its reporting or they don’t. Cash balance also gives you an idea of how soon a company will need to kick off its next round of financing. 3) Monthly Net Burn Definition: The rate at which a company uses money taking income into account. The monthly burn rate will be positive for companies that are not yet profitable and negative for companies that are considered profitable. Net burn is usually reported as monthly and calculated by subtracting a company’s ending cash balance from its starting cash balance and dividing that by the number of months for the period. We recommend collecting this metric from companies on a quarterly basis but still asking for the monthly rate — this helps rule out any one-off variability. Monthly Net Burn = (Starting cash balance – ending cash balance) / months Monthly Net Burn is an indicator of operational efficiency. This metric becomes even more relevant during market downturns when the focus shifts from growth at all costs to growth with operational efficiency. This is a good metric to benchmark and compare across all companies in your portfolio. You can also use this metric to calculate a key metric, Cash Runway. Related resource: Burn Rate: What It Is and How to Calculate It Related resource: How to Reduce Burn Rate: 8 Cost-Saving Strategies for Startups 4) Cash Runway Definition: Cash runway is the number of months a business can survive before it runs out of cash. It can be calculated as: Runway = Cash Balance / Monthly Net Burn Cash runway tells you when a company will run out of cash. This metric is essential because it determines when a company needs to kick off their next fundraising process, usually, it’s when they have 6-8 months of runway left. If you see one of your companies hit a cash runway of six months or less, you should be reaching out to see if they need support or guidance on their fundraising efforts. While Runway is definitely considered a key metric, you don’t need to ask your companies for it since it can be calculated easily with other data you should already have on hand (Cash Balance & Monthly Net Burn Rate). 5) Net Income Definition: Net income is a company’s total earnings (or profit) after all expenses have been subtracted. It is calculated by taking a company’s revenue and subtracting all expenses, including operational expenses, interest expenses, income taxes, and depreciation and amortization. Net Income = Revenue – Total Expenses Net Income is an indicator of profitability. If net income is positive, meaning revenue is greater than a company’s total expenses, it is considered profitable. This is a metric that startups should have readily available since it’s the ‘bottom line’ of an Income Statement, making it very easy to report. This metric can also be used in a formula to calculate Net Profit Margin, total expenses, and cash runway. 6) Total Headcount This is the total number of full-time equivalent employees excluding contractors. Contractors are excluded because of the variability of the nature of contract work — a contractor may only work a few hours a month or they could work 20 hours per week. This variability will cause back-and-forth clarification between you and your companies which wastes time. This metric gives you insight into company growth and operational changes. This metric is important to track because it’s a reflection of decisions made by the leadership team. If there’s an increase in headcount, the leadership is investing in future growth, on the other side, if there’s a major decrease in total headcount it could be because the leadership team has decided to reduce burn by letting people go or employees are churning. All are post-signs of operational changes worth paying attention to. Check out an Example Request in Visible. Suggested Qualitative Questions to Ask Your Companies While metrics are the best way to aggregate and compare insights across your portfolio, you may also be wondering which qualitative questions you should ask portfolio companies as well. Qualitative prompts can be a concise and valuable way for startups to share more narrative updates on company performance with their investors. Below we outline the two most common qualitative questions investors ask portfolio companies as well as suggested descriptions. 1) Recent Updates & Wins Description: Please use bullet points and share updates related to Sales, Product, Team, and Fundraising. This will be used for internal reporting and may also be shared with our Limited Partners. We suggest asking companies for bullet points on these four categories because it’s a focused way for investors to understand the narrative context behind a company’s metrics. With your companies’ permission, this narrative update can also serve as the foundation for your tear sheets for your LP reporting and your internal reporting. 2) Asks Description: How can we best support you this quarter? You can make your reporting processes more valuable for your portfolio companies by asking your companies if there are specific ways you can provide support to them in the next quarter. Once you have responses from your portfolio companies, you can take action on their requests and you’ll be able to extract support themes to inform the way you provide scalable portfolio support. Monitor Your Portfolio Companies Seamlessly With Visible It’s important to know which are the most important metrics to collect to ensure your portfolio data collection processes are streamlined and valuable both for you and your companies. In this article, we highlighted Revenue, Net Income, Cash Balance, Runway, Net Burn Rate, and Total Headcount as the top metrics to collect from all your portfolio companies. With Visible, its also easy to ask for any custom metric and assign it just to specific companies. Investors of all stages are using Visible to streamline their portfolio monitoring and reporting processes. Book some time with our team to learn how Visible can automate your portfolio monitoring processes. Visible for Investors is a founder-friendly portfolio monitoring and reporting platform used by over 400+ VCs.

Getting regular, high-quality, and actionable data from portfolio companies is important. It allows investors to make better investment decisions, provide better support to companies, and share meaningful insights internally across the firm and with LPs. This practice should also be highly valuable for founders. They should be able to share wins and challenges and seek support from their investors. The reporting process should only take companies 3 minutes to complete (if not, something may be wrong with how the investor is asking for structured data or the reporting company may not be as familiar with their key metrics as they should be). Below are some best practices to make sure you get: High response rates from companies Structured data (comparing apples to apples) Actionable insights Related resource: How to Reduce Burn Rate: 8 Cost-Saving Strategies for Startups Set Reporting Expectations Early On ✔️ Tip: Set expectations during the onboarding process (if not sooner) It’s way easier to set reporting expectations with companies early on (and with fewer companies) rather than changing your reporting requirements a few years into your relationship with portfolio companies. Some investors choose to outline their reporting expectations in a side letter as a part of the investment documents. It's recommended that investors also have a dedicated conversation around reporting expectations during the onboarding process. Related Resource: A Guide to Onboarding New Companies to Your VC Firm When and How Often to Collect Portfolio Data ✔️ Tip: Collect data at a predictable frequency Set the expectation that you will be sending a Request for company data the same time every reporting cycle. Visible has data that shows that Mondays are great due dates and if you’re sending out quarterly Requests for data, we suggest giving your companies 2-4 weeks after quarter close to get their information back to you. Don’t randomly switch between the 10th, the 30th, etc. This makes it difficult for founders to prioritize your reporting requirements and gives the impression that your due dates don’t really matter. Visible makes scheduling data Requests and subsequent reminders a breeze for investors. Investors can select the due date, email notification dates, and customize the messages that will get sent out to portfolio companies. ✔️ Tip: Collect data at an appropriate frequency We recommend the following cadences. This is 100% customizable as every fund is different. Weekly – Companies in an accelerator program Monthly – Pre-seed investments Quarterly – Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, Series B + investments What Data to Collect from Portfolio Companies ✔️ Tip: Less is more Don’t send a Request asking for ‘nice to have’ metrics. Only ask for the information you really need and are going to use. We suggest starting small, getting a rhythm, and expanding the data as needed. Metrics ✔️ Tip: Ask for only 5-15 metrics Depending on how closely you work with companies, ask for 5-15 metrics and no more. If you’re not taking actionable next steps based on a metric (ex: reporting to LP’s, providing more hands-on support, informing investment decisions) then it's likely you don't need to be asking for it. The most common metrics investors ask for include: Revenue Cash Balance Cash Burn Headcount Runway Related resource: Which Metrics Should I Be Collecting from Portfolio Companies View examples of data Requests in Visible. ✔️ Tip: Use a metric description to reduce back-and-forth If you are asking for Burn and don’t provide context, you might get 15 different variations. Should it be negative? Should it be trailing 3 months or the current month? Should it include financing? Be descriptive about what you want. Qualitative Questions to Ask Portfolio Companies ✔️ Tip: Define what type of information you're looking for As an investor, it's a great idea to give companies the opportunity to share support requests on a regular basis. Consider including a description to clarify what type of support your firm can provide companies. Additionally, most investors also ask for companies to report narrative highlights and lowlights from the question. It's important to clarify what type of information you're actually looking for so companies are not wasting time sharing information an investor is not actually going to use. Implementing a Portfolio Monitoring Platform ✔️ Tip: Notify your companies two weeks in advance Introducing Your Companies to Visible As the most founder-friendly solution on the market, we ensure that requesting data is a frictionless process for founders. This means founders don’t need to create an account in order for Investors to get value out of the platform (ie: No log-in required!). Still, it's a great idea to give your companies notice about the adoption of Visible so they can keep an eye out for the first Request that will land in their inbox. Feel free to use our Intro Copy Template to notify your companies about the adoption of Visible two weeks in advance of your first Request deadline. Customize Your Domain Investors can white-label the automatic emails that are sent from Visible so that the emails use their firm's domain. You can also customize the sender address to anyone at your firm. Visible's Customer Support All Visible customers get world-class support and a dedicated Investor Success Manager. We provide an efficient, hands-on onboarding experience, training for new team members, and support on an ongoing basis. Visible is trusted by over 350+ VC funds around the world to help streamline their portfolio monitoring and reporting.