Visible Blog

Data rooms are the culmination of a fundraise, diligence, or M&A event. They combine all of the documents, data, and resources that an investor will use to evaluate a company. In this webinar you’ll learn: The importance of a well-organized data room The must-haves for a pre-seed/seed stage data room When to share a data room Who should you share a data room with And more

Building a startup is difficult. On top of building products or services, hiring top talent, and acquiring customers, founders need to secure funding for their business. This oftentimes comes via customer revenue (bootstrapping), angel investors, venture capital, or debt financing. Related Resource: How to Find Investors For founders pursuing venture capital or equity financing, building a system or process around your raise can help speed up the process so you can spend more time on what matters most — building your business. Learn how you can create an investor pipeline for your next fundraise below: Tips for Improving Your Investor Pipeline At Visible, we compare a fundraising process to a traditional B2B sales process (more on this below). Just as a sales team has the tools and resources in place to help them sell, the same should be true for a founder fundraising. Learn more about building an investor pipeline for your next fundraise below: Treat fundraising like you treat sales At the end of the day, raising venture capital is selling equity in your business. You will need to have many conversations and share assets along the way to help improve your odds of raising (selling equity). As we mentioned above, we compare a fundraising process to a traditional B2B sales process. You can break down the similarities between the 2 below: Top of the funnel — At the top of your fundraising funnel you need to bring in “leads” (AKA qualified investors) for your business. Chances are a small % will go through to write a check so it is important to have a large list — this can come from cold outreach, inbound interest, or warm introductions. Middle of the funnel — In the middle of a fundraising funnel, you are working on moving investors toward the bottom of your funnel. This likely means the investor has some interest and you are actively pitching them or sharing different fundraising assets (investor updates, pitch decks, etc.). Bottom of the funnel — At the bottom of your fundraising funnel, you are working through due diligence with the goal of “closing” a new investor. This generally involves data rooms, reference calls, partner meetings, etc. Related Resource: 6 Helpful Networking Tips for Connecting With Investors Adjust your strategy according to your company As fundraising oftentimes mirrors a sales process, it is important to make sure that you are targeting the right investors (AKA qualified leads). When building a list and targeting investors, it is important to look at the fields and characteristics that matter most to your business. A few suggestions for characteristics to consider: Location/Geography Industry Focus Stage Focus Current Portfolio Motivators Deal Velocity Related Resource: Building Your Ideal Investor Persona Filter and find the right investors for your business with our free investor database, Visible Connect. Give it a free try here. Solidify your fundraising goal Going into a fundraise it is important to have goals in mind. This will help you frame different conversations and your pitch. For example, if you are going to raise $1M, what are your goals and how are you going to spend the capital? It can also be broken down into goals for your actually fundraising process. For example, how many investors do you want to email a week? How many investor meetings do you want in a week? Etc. Go big Investing in startups is a risky investment. Most investors are incentivized to take their time with the process and will only invest in a handful of companies in a given year. In order to help make sure you maintain momentum in your fundraise, it is important that you have a solid number of investors at the top of your funnel to reach out to over the course of a raise. Between our own data and data from famous investors, we have found that most founders should expect to communicate with 50+ investors over the course of a raise. Check it out below: Step-by-Step Guide for Building Your Investor Pipeline If you are ready to build a pipeline for next fundraise, check out our quick steps and tips below. Related Resource: 9 Tips for Effective Investor Networking 1) Create a list of potential investors As we mentioned above, it is important for founders to have a healthy list of investors. We recommend starting with a list of 50 investors and scaling up from there if needed. It is important to consider the characteristics you are looking for in an investor and use free tools (like Visible Connect) to help you find those investors. Related Resource: How Startups Can Use an Investor Matching Tool to Secure Funding 2) Upload your list to your pipeline Compile your list of investors in a spreadsheet (or dedicated tool like Visible). You can upload this list to Visible to start tracking your pipeline and fundraising stages. For example, when you upload your investors, they will all likely be in a “Researching” stage. As you start to reach out to investors and have conversations, you can move them further down your funnel. Check out an example of a Visible Pipeline here. Related Resource: Tailoring Your Fundraising Efforts 3) Use tools to research investors in the pipeline Once you have an initial list of potential investors in place, it is important to do your research. To start, find the person at the firm that you would like to reach out to and see if have any mutual connections. A warm introduction is always ideal, but don’t be afraid to reach out cold if an investor is a good fit (more on this below). It is also worth doing further research on the actual firm. Double-check that you are a fit for their fund and there are no competitors of yours in their portfolio already. Related Resource: How to Write the Perfect Investment Memo 4) Create an introduction email Once you have done your research, it is time to start reaching out to potential investors. As we mentioned above, warm introductions are generally preferred. If you are seeking a warm introduction, make sure you are making it as easy as possible as the person making an introduction (always double opt-in). The introduction email should include a brief introduction of your company, any major milestones or metrics, and why they are a good fit. On the flip side, cold email works as well. To learn more about cold emailing potential investors, check out our post below: Related Resource: 3 Tips for Cold Emailing Potential Investors + Outreach Email Template 5) Track and monitor your pipeline communication As you will be balancing many conversations, it is important to have a place to track and monitor ongoing conversations. This can be helpful when determining what investors you need to spend time on and setting up a rhythm for follow-ups. With Visible, you can track conversations from outside of Visible, send investor Updates, and share your pitch deck so you can fully understand how investors are engaging with your fundraising materials. Fund Your Startup With Visible With Visible, you can manage every stage of your fundraising pipeline: Find investors at the top of your funnel with our free investor database, Visible Connect Track your conversations and move them through your funnel with our Fundraising CRM Share your pitch deck and monthly updates with potential investors Organize and share your most vital fundraising documents with data rooms Manage your fundraise from start to finish with Visible. Give it a free try for 14 days here.

Emerging Managers are often underserved and overlooked in the VC industry. However, the success of Emerging Fund Managers is widely considered the most promising way to improve the future of VC in terms of increasing returns, fueling innovation, and improving diversity. Visible invited Recast Capital to deliver content on fundraising best practices for Emerging Fund Managers looking to raise their first, second, or third fund. Sara Zulkosky has experienced every facet of Venture Capital from deal sourcing and managing investments, working as an LP at Greenspring Associates, graduating from the Kauffman Fellow program, and most recently co-founding and managing Recast Capital — a 100% women-owned platform investing in and supporting emerging managers in venture. Sara walked us through fundraising best practices for Emerging Fund Managers and answered key questions like: How to find Limited Partners How to keep track of and nurture relationships with LPs Which questions to ask LPs during a first meeting Learn more about Visible’s Emerging Manager Fundraising Toolkit.

Building a startup is difficult. On top of building a fundable business, hiring top talent, and acquiring customers — founders need to secure funding for their business. For founders looking for equity financing, one of the first places to look is angel investors or venture capitalists. Local angel investors can be a great source for kicking off a fundraise. While the typical angel check tends to be smaller than a vc fund, an angel check can be a great way to build momentum and start filling in your round. If you’re a founder located in Los Angeles or Southern California, check out our list of 10 angel investors in the area below: Where can I find angel investors in Los Angeles? Angel investors can be anyone around you. While there are noteworthy angels (like the ones listed below), just about any high net worth individual can be an angel investor. Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund is a huge believer in small checks and pitched everyone around her — doctors, optometrists, dentists, etc. Related Resource: 7 Tips for Raising a Friends & Family Round Of course, if you’re looking for “traditional” angel investors you can use networking, events, social media, and online databases to find the right investors for your company. Learn more about finding and pitching angel investors for your startup below: Related Resource: How to Effectively Find + Secure Angel Investors for Your Startup Clark Landry Clark Landry is an entrepreneur and investor based in Los Angeles and Nashville. Clark spent time as an entrepreneur and founded his own startups. Since then, he has started to invest in startups — 120+ investments to date. Industry – Agnostic with a focus on software businesses Notable Startups Funded – a few of Clark’s investment exits can be found below (check out the rest on his LinkedIn) The Trade Desk (in at $16M, NASDAQ IPO, ~$40B market cap) EdgeCast Networks (acquired by Verizon, $390M) Adconion (acquired by SingTel, $235M) Top Level Domain Holdings (IPO on the LSE AIM) Traffic Marketplace (acquired by Vivendi) Funding stage – seed stage Jim Brandt Jim Brandt is an angel investor based in Southern California. Jim is involved with Tech Coast Angels, an angel group in Southern California. Check out what TCA looks for in investments below: Industry: Software and life sciences are the most popular industries for TCA. Check out the industry breakdown for TCA below: Notable Startups Funded – TCA has made 450+ investments. Some of their recent exits can be found below: Procore Technologies (IPO at 368x) Doctible (8x) Findox (6x) Cognition Therapeutics (IPO at 6x) Discover Echo (5x) Rosie O’Neill Rosie O’Neill founded Sugarfina. Since founding Sugarfina, Rosie has turned to angel investing and launching her own fund, Pure Imagination Brands. Industry – Agnostic Notable Startups Funded – 50+ investments, check out a few recent investments below: Abbot’s Butcher The Bouqs Co Thrive Market Funding stage – early stage Related Resource: VCs Investing In Food & Bev Startups Mark Mullen Mark Mullen is an angel investor and the founder of Bonfire Ventures. Prior to his career in angel and venture investing, Mark spent his career at RBC Capital Markets. Learn more about Mark and his investment criteria below: Industry – Agnostic Notable Startups Funded: ChowNow AdStage Bitium Funding stage – Early stage Richard Wolpert Richard Wolpert is a 4x startup founder and has since turned to angel investing. Currently, Richard is a venture partner at Acrew. Learn more about Richard and his investing criteria below: Industry – Agnostic Notable Startups Funded: Carta NestEgg Mob.ly Funding stage – Seed Matt Mazzeo Matthew Mazzeo is an angel investor and currently the General Partner at Coatue Management. Learn more about Matt and his investment criteria below: Industry – Technology, Media Notable Startups Funded: Airtable Loom Slack Funding stage – Seed and beyond Anthony Saleh Anthony Saleh is an angel investor and General Partner at WndrCo. At WndrCo, Anthony is responsible for their seed stage investments. Learn more about Anthony and his investment criteria below: Industry – Media and Entertainment, Future of Work, Cybersecurity Notable Startups Funded Robinhood OpenSea AirTable Funding stage – Seed Tom McInerney Tom McInerney is an active angel investor. Learn more about Tom and his angel investing criteria below: Industry – Agnostic Notable Startups Funded: Notion Segment Bird Funding stage – Seed/Series A Ashton Kutcher Ashton Kutcher (no introduction needed) has turned to angel investing. In addition to angel investing, Ashton has also started Sound Ventures. Learn more about Ashton and his investment criteria below: Industry – Technology Notable Startups Funded Airbnb Uber Airtable Funding stage – Seed/Series A Related Resource: 15+ VCs Investing in the Future of Work Connect with Angel Investors in Los Angeles with Visible Finding the right investors for your business is only half the battle. With Visible, you can… Find the right investors for your startup with Visible Connect, our free investor database Manage and track the status of your raise with our Fundraising CRM Upload and share your pitch deck with investors in your pipeline Build and share your data room directly from Visible when working through due diligence and the final stages of your raise. Manage every aspect of your raise all from one platform. Give Visible a free try for 14 days here.

With uncertainty in the VC industry, LPs are being more cautious and scrutinous than in previous years. Meanwhile, LP teams are often understaffed meaning they lack the bandwidth to spend time doing due diligence on the growing number of VC funds. What does this mean for you as you kick off your next fundraise? You need to make it as easy as possible for LPs to understand, analyze, and build conviction about you and your fund. A well-structured, thoughtful data room plays a major role in streamlining the VC fund diligence process. This article highlights how to build a data room LPs will get excited about. What is a Data Room for LPs? A Data Room is a repository comprised of folders, files, and pages created by potential fund managers to give their potential investors access to sensitive information about their team, fund, and track record. LPs use this to ensure a fund meets their own investment criteria. It’s in part a marketing tool, in part a legal requirement, and altogether a critical step in being able to raise capital from Limited Partners. Learn more about Visible's fundraising tools for emerging managers. When do I need to Create a Data Room for LPs? You should start preparing your data room a month or two before officially kicking off your fundraise. At a minimum, you have a solid pitch deck in place and should be familiarizing yourself with an LP data room file checklist to start forming a plan around what content you’re going to need to get in order. Download Visible’s LP Data Room Checklist to start preparing your Data Room. What you need to avoid is having an LP ask for access to your data room and scrambling at the last second to put something together. That’s not the first impression you want to give when you’re trying to get someone to trust you with their money. LP Data Room Pro Tips Include excel files instead of PDFs wherever relevant. Analysts at Limited Partners organizations are going to be extracting and analyzing any data you give them so share it in excel format to make it easier on them. Every LP is different so be prepared to share different Data Room views with different people. Share your initial Data Room with a few LPs you trust and get feedback and then update as needed. Consider sharing a table of contents first, and then asking what an LP needs access to, to save LPs from wasting time digging through all your folders to find what they need. Always keep your founders’ privacy in mind when including information on portfolio companies. Investors have limited bandwidth to spend on diligence. Focus on the quality, not the quantity, of the documents in your data room. What should be included in my Data Room for LPs? We’ve broken down our list below into two sections: Initial Interest Data Room which includes the information you’d want to share with LPs who are just getting familiar with your fund. In-Depth Data Room which includes more sensitive information that you’d want to share only when LPs have expressed serious interest in your fund. Initial Interest Data Room for LPs Cover Letter A cover letter is a great way to add a personal touch to your data room (remember LPs are looking at hundreds of other data rooms) and should include high-level information about the GP and the fund. Your cover letter can answer questions like why you’re starting this fund, why you’re uniquely qualified, and your contact information. Table of Contents Including a table of contents is a great way to quickly help investors navigate to the right place to help them find what they need. Consider making your Cover Letter and Table of Contents public to pique the interest of LPs but make sure the rest of the folders are viewable only upon request. Pitch Deck Your pitch deck, especially if you’re an emerging manager, needs to shine. It is the main qualitative piece of content that LPs will use to vet your fund. If your deck doesn’t resonate or intruige an LP, they may immediately pass on viewing the rest of your data room. The average fund deck is 15-20 pages in length and explains: Your Team — Who is on your team and what relevant experience do they bring. Sourcing Strategy — How are you uniquely positioned to find and attract deal flow. Competitive Advantage — Why will founders choose your fund? What’s your value add? Investment Focus — What are you investing in? Why do you know this market, sector better than anyone else? Track Record — How have previous angel, personal, and private capital investments performed? Fund Structure — What is the size of the fund, stage of investments, and the number of investments. Network — Who is in your corner? Who have you collaborated with that could vouch for you? Appendix — Additional materials for commonly asked questions. The list above is inspired by Signature Block’s post on VC Fund Decks that Close LPs. Investment Process How are you going to find, attract, diligence, invest in, and support deals that are expected to yield a 10x+ return? In this folder of your Data Room, compile content that demonstrates an understanding of your investment sector, market, how you will evaluate risk, and your decision-making framework. Team Don’t skimp out on this section by just including resumes. Especially if this is your first fund, you need to paint a compelling picture that answers ‘Why YOU?’. What special experience and skills does your team exhibit? Why should an LP trust you with their capital and also want to engage with you on a regular basis for the next 10 years? Newsletters or Monthly Updates Your ability to communicate matters. LPs are investing not only for returns but also for insights. Are you able to analyze market trends, draw your own insights, and share them with stakeholders? Excellent! Include examples in this section. Visible lets investors embed Updates directly into their Data Rooms. Fund Model This should be an Excel file forecast of your investment strategy in practice. It is critical to get the math in your model correct. Incorrect calculations in your model signal a poor understanding of VC fund management that will be hard to recover from. Your fund model should include your fund size, average check size, management fees, carry, reserve for follow-on, average valuation, target ownership, etc, as it relates to your IRR goals. To better understand portfolio construction at a high level check out this post. Be sure to share your model in Excel, not PDF. LPs are going to use this file to stress test your model based on different assumptions. Track Record This should be an Excel file spreadsheet detailing your previous investments as well as a roll-up summary. The column headers should include the Company Name, Initial Investment Date, Initial Stage, Current Ownership, Realized Capital, Fair Market Value, Multiple of Capital, and IRR. Ready to take the next steps with Visible? If you’re raising your first fund and don’t have a fund track record, include examples of angel investments, SPVs, or personal investments. Be sure to specify how you found the deal and your specific involvement. Read more about sharing your track record as an Emerging Manager. Due Diligence Questionnaire (DDQ) Think of this as a standardized FAQ that LPs will use to easily understand and compare your fund against other funds. This should be a living document and updated over time as you engage with different types of LPs. No need to recreate the wheel for your DDQ. The Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) has put together a standard template found here. This concludes what should be in your ‘Initial Interest Data Room’. Keep reading to get a better idea of what LPs ask for once you’ve passed the initial stages of their diligence. In-Depth Data Room for LPs The content below is usually only shared when LPs are conducting more in-depth diligence on a fund. It’s not best practice to share these files from the start (unless asked) because investors only have limited attention and bandwidth. In-Depth Data Room Content: References Sample Term Sheet Details on Portfolio Companies Case Studies Limited Partnership Agreement If you’re on your 2+ fund you may also be required to show the following: Previous Investment Memos Audited Tax Returns ESG Policy Conclusion Creating a well-organized Data Room is an important step toward making a good impression on LPs during your fundraising process. Preparing your Data Room in advance will help you stand out in today’s competitive VC fundraising environment. Interested in learning about Data Rooms for VC’s?

Raising capital for a business is hard. On top of building a fundable business, you need to find the right investors for your business. One of the aspects founders will look to first in an investor is their location. Some investors (VCs and angel investors) will invest based on a company’s location. Finding a list of investors in your area can be a great way to start building a fundraising list (of course you’ll want to make sure the investor fits your other criteria too). Related Resource: Venture Capitalist vs. Angel Investor If you are a startup based in Miami or the surrounding area, check out the list of angel investors in the area below: 1. Gold Coast Angel Investors As put by the team at Gold Coast Angel Investors, “Gold Coast Angel Investors is an early-stage investment group based in Miami, FL. We enjoy the process of mentoring and helping aspiring entrepreneurs while pursuing maximized returns… If you’re a business that is ready to pitch to our angels, see more information about getting funding. We try to target South Florida for our investments but look for the best deal possible for our members, whether in Miami, Manhattan, or Menlo Park, CA.” A bit more research on the Gold Coast Angel Investors site and you’ll find that when evaluating a company’s stage and industry, they’ll look for the following (visit the link directly here): 2. Black Angels Miami As put by the team at Black Angels Miami, “We are connecting amazing members/investors and founders. Opening the door to the technology startups eco-system. Enabling access to top-notch investment opportunities across the country. Changing the landscape of venture investing by leveraging the value of diversity. BAM believes diverse perspectives improve investment outcomes. With this in mind, we intend to recruit members of all races, creeds, and orientations while proactively increasing participation by Black investors.” Black Angels Miami does not make direct investment into companies but can make introductions to investors that are fit for your company. You can check out a few of the things they look for in potential candidates below (direct link here): 3. Miami Angels As put by the team at Miami Angels, “Our group is comprised of over 150 angel investors, many of whom have been entrepreneurs themselves. Beyond providing capital, we collaborate with our founders to ensure they have access to talent and future funding… Miami Angels’ broad and diverse membership base allows us to invest across multiple industry sectors at the post-launch Seed Stage. We look at companies where our expertise can have a real impact. We invest in US-based, post-launch SaaS-enabled companies.” You can learn more about what Miami Angels looks for in an investment by using their investment criteria doc: 4. New World Angels As put by the team at New World Angels, “New World Angels is a group of Florida business leaders who provide funding, knowledge, and guidance to entrepreneurs building early-stage companies. We seek entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds and cultures. We seek to fund entrepreneurs and products that can create real impact in marketplaces and across our society.” New World Angels allows you to apply for investment directly on their website. Before starting your application, you’ll want to make sure that you are fit for them. They lay out criteria below (or direct link here): “New World Angel investors focus on early-stage companies, usually in Florida, that are seeking their first or second major outside investment. We typically make investments ranging from $250K through $2 Million. We can lead larger investment rounds in syndication with other investment firms. We typically focus on companies with valuations under $20MM.” 5. Access Silicon Valley Miami As put by the team at Access Silicon Valley, “Access Silicon Valley is the “virtual bridge” to Silicon Valley, where startup entrepreneurs and serial entrepreneurs in real-time, get access to relevant content, and have the opportunity to interact with, angels, VCs and great entrepreneurs that they otherwise wouldn’t get the opportunity to see, hear or possibly connect with. In addition, we have put together valuable workshops to prepare startup entrepreneurs for the roller coaster ride of the startup world! We encourage you to join us.” Access Silicon Valley does not make direct investment but they host virtual events and offer resources to help entrepreneurs find investors and angel investors in their community. Related Resource: How to Effectively Find + Secure Angel Investors for Your Startup 6. Florida Funders As put by the team at Florida Funders, “Florida Funders is a hybrid between a venture capital fund and an angel investor network that discovers, funds and builds early-stage technology companies in Florida. We exist to evolve Florida from the Sunshine State to the Startup State by ensuring there is as little friction as possible in the ecosystem, that investors have access to meaningful deal flow and entrepreneurs have access to a wide range of accredited investors.” Florida Funders has a thorough list of criteria, FAQ, and information for founders looking for investment (direct link here). You can check out their general criteria below: Visible Helps You Connect With Angel Investors in Miami Finding the right investors for your business is only half the battle. With Visible, you can… Find the right investors for your startup with Visible Connect, our free investor database Manage and track the status of your raise with our Fundraising CRM Upload and share your pitch deck with investors in your pipeline Build and share your data room directly from Visible when working through due diligence and the final stages of your raise. Manage every aspect of your raise all from one platform. Give Visible a free try for 14 days here.

Raise capital, update investors and engage your team from a single platform. Try Visible free for 14 days. The cloud computing industry is a rapidly growing and innovative space attracting significant investment from venture capital firms worldwide. VCs are often attracted to cloud computing startups due to their potential for high returns, driven by factors such as the growing demand for cloud computing services and the scalability and innovation of the industry. Accel estimates, “there is around $770 billion available to buy cloud companies, with $440 billion of cash on the balance sheets of strategic investors and $330 billion of dry powder from technology-focused private equity funds” Reuters reports. Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz has also stated that the shift to cloud computing has created new opportunities for investment and innovation, similar to the shift from centralized mainframe computers to the current distributed model with the advent of personal computers. He predicts that cloud computing will result in a significant wave of technological innovation in areas such as networking infrastructure, storage, and servers. Gartner has forecasted that end-user spending on public cloud services will grow by 20.7% to reach $591.8 billion in 2023, up from $490.3 billion in 2022. The forecast indicates that infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) will experience the highest growth rate of 29.8% in 2023. Other segments like platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and software-as-a-service (SaaS) are also expected to see growth, with Gartner forecasting growth rates of 23.2% and 16.8% respectively for 2023. The forecast suggests that inflationary pressures and macroeconomic conditions will have a push and pull effect on cloud spending, while organizations will only spend what they have and cloud spending could decrease if overall IT budgets shrink. Source: Gartner (October 2022) What Makes Cloud Computing Interesting for Investors Cloud computing startups are an attractive option for venture capitalists (VCs) due to their many advantages. One of the most significant advantages is their ability to scale services up or down as needed, which allows them to handle large amounts of traffic and data while also quickly adapting to changes in customer demand. Another advantage is the high gross margin of cloud startups, which is driven by the low variable costs and high demand for cloud services. This means that a cloud startup can generate a high-profit margin even with a relatively small customer base, and with a subscription-based revenue model that provides a predictable and recurring revenue stream. Cloud startups have a global reach, as they can serve customers all over the world, and can offer a wide range of services such as software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS), which allows them to target a diverse range of customers with different needs. The exit opportunities for cloud startups are also quite attractive, including strategic acquisition and IPOs. Overall, the barrier to entry and operational costs for cloud startups are much lower than traditional software companies, making it relatively easy for them to get started with a small amount of capital and have a high earning potential. Metrics Specific to Cloud Companies That Startups Should Be Tracking Tracking vital metrics specific to cloud computing is crucial to ensure its success and growth. These metrics provide insight into the performance, scalability, and efficiency of your cloud services, and can help identify areas for improvement. For example, tracking metrics such as network traffic, storage usage, and server utilization can help a cloud company optimize their infrastructure and reduce costs. Monitoring customer engagement metrics such as sign-ups, retention, and customer lifetime value can provide valuable insight into customer behavior and help inform product development and marketing strategies. Additionally, tracking metrics related to security and compliance, such as data breaches and regulatory compliance, can help a cloud company ensure that they are meeting industry standards and protecting their customers’ data. By tracking these vital metrics, cloud companies can make data-driven decisions, improve their services, and ultimately drive growth and profitability Network traffic: Measuring the amount of data that is transferred in and out of the cloud environment can help identify bottlenecks and optimize infrastructure. Throughput: The number of requests or data transfer per second that a cloud service can handle. Storage usage: Tracking how much storage space is being used can help identify areas where capacity needs to be increased or optimized. Server utilization: Measuring the utilization of servers can help identify underutilized resources and optimize the allocation of resources. Cloud resource costs: Monitoring the cost of resources such as compute, storage, and network can help cloud companies optimize their resource usage and reduce costs. Sign-ups and retention: Measuring the number of customers signing up for services and the rate of customer retention can provide valuable insight into customer behavior and help inform product development and marketing strategies. Customer lifetime value: Tracking the revenue generated by each customer over time can help cloud companies identify their most valuable customers and target their marketing efforts. Data breaches: Tracking incidents of data breaches can help cloud companies identify vulnerabilities in their security systems and take appropriate measures to protect customer data. The number of security incidents and the response time to them. Regulatory compliance: Monitoring compliance with industry regulations such as HIPAA, SOC2, and PCI-DSS can help cloud companies ensure that they are meeting industry standards and protecting customer data. As well as the number of compliance requirements that the company’s cloud service meets. Service availability: Measuring the availability of cloud services can help cloud companies identify and resolve issues affecting service uptime and availability to customers. Latency: The time it takes for data to be transferred to and from the cloud. Painless Metric Tracking with Visible, try for free for 14 days here! Future of Cloud Computing The cloud computing industry is constantly evolving and the future is expected to bring some significant changes. One of the major trends that is expected to shape the cloud industry in the coming years is the increased adoption of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies. Organizations are increasingly recognizing the benefits of using a combination of public and private clouds to meet their specific needs. Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies allow organizations to take advantage of the benefits of different cloud providers and to build more resilient and flexible IT infrastructure. This approach enables organizations to choose the right cloud for the right workload and to avoid vendor lock-in. Another trend that is expected to shape the future of cloud computing is the emergence of edge computing. Edge computing is the practice of bringing computing power closer to the edge of the network, in order to reduce latency and improve performance. As organizations look to support new use cases such as IoT and real-time analytics, edge computing will become more prevalent. As the adoption of cloud services continues to grow, there will be an increased emphasis on security and compliance. Organizations will be looking to protect their data and comply with industry regulations, which will drive innovation in areas such as identity and access management, data encryption, and threat detection and response. Finally, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will continue to shape the cloud industry in the future. Cloud providers will continue to invest in these technologies, making them more accessible and affordable for organizations. This will enable organizations to leverage these technologies to improve their operations, automate repetitive tasks and gain insights from data. Resources for Cloud Startups Cloud industry groups like the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) provide information, resources, and networking opportunities for cloud startups. These groups offer information on industry standards, best practices, and regulatory compliance, and host events and webinars to connect startups with other industry professionals. Cloud-focused communities and forums: Cloud-focused communities and forums like Stack Overflow and Quora provide a platform for cloud startups to connect with other industry professionals and share information and resources. Professional services: Professional service providers like Deloitte, PwC, and KPMG offer advisory services and cloud computing consulting to startups. They can help startups with cloud strategy, cloud migration, and cloud optimization. Cloud providers: Cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offer a wide range of services, tools, and resources for cloud startups. These providers offer various services such as storage, computing power, and databases that startups can use to build and run their applications. VCs Investing in the Cloud Computing Space Ignition Partners Location: Washington, United States About: Ignition Partners, a dedicated early-stage enterprise software venture capital firm, invests based on decades of operating experience and enterprise relationships. We have lived through the transitions from mainframe to mini to PC to cloud. We are the only firm operating with significant footprints in both Seattle and Silicon Valley, and our network has a global reach. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth Recent Investments: Snaplogic Archipelago Aviatrix New Enterprise Associates Location: Menlo Park, California, United States About: New Enterprise Associates is a global venture capital firm investing in technology and healthcare. Investment Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth Recent Investments: Regression Games PixieBrix Timescale Intel Capital Location: Santa Clara, California, United States About: Intel Capital is a force multiplier for early-stage startups – inspiring and investing in the future of compute via investments in Cloud, Silicon, Devices, and Frontier. Investment Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth Recent Investments: SaVia Medical Informatics Astera Labs Mohr Davidow Ventures Location: San Mateo, California, United States About: For 30 years the Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV) team has invested in early-stage technology-based startups that redefine or create large new markets. The firm partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to build companies where big data, applied analytics, and the reach and power of the web/mobile cloud can be leveraged to drive emerging opportunities in verticals ranging from social commerce to finance to online marketing to consumer-driven healthcare and cleantech IT. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B Recent Investments: Kabbage Aryaka Webscale Battery Ventures Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States About: Battery Ventures is a leading venture capital firm focused on investing in technology companies at all stages of growth. With a team of over 30 experienced investment professionals, Battery leverages its people, expertise and capital to actively guide companies to category dominance. The firm has invested in over 160 technology companies worldwide across the communications, software, infrastructure, and media and content industries. Investment Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B Recent Investments: Seek AI Mews Galileo Aspect Ventures Location: San Francisco, California, United States About: Aspect Ventures is a venture capital firm investing in the emerging mobile marketplace. Investment Stages: Seed, Series B, Growth Recent Investments: Silverfort Future Family Vida Health 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 Formation 8 Location: San Francisco, California, United States About: Formation 8, a California-based technology investment firm, focuses on seed, early, and later stage venture investments. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth Recent Investments: Aviatrix Ascus Biosciences Fieldwire Looking for Funding? We can help 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 yours. Check out all our investors here and filter as needed. To help craft that first email check out 5 Strategies for Cold Emailing Potential Investors. Related Resource: All-Encompassing Startup Fundraising Guide 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.

Data rooms are the next step to help us on our mission of giving founders a better chance of success. Data rooms are the culmination of a fundraise, diligence, or M&A event. They combine all of the documents, data, and resources that an investor will use to evaluate a company. With data rooms, you can now manage all parts of your fundraising funnel with Visible. Find investors with Connect, our free investor database. Track your conversations in our Fundraising CRM. Share your pitch deck with potential investors. And communicate with current and potential investors with Updates. Learn more about Visible Data Rooms and how you can leverage them for your next raise below: Organize and Structure Key Fundraising Documents Build data rooms specific to your raise. Organize your data room with folders, upload files, and create pages directly in Visible. Segment and Share Specific Folders Securely share your data with investors. Segment their access by individual folders or give them access to the entire data room. Understand How Investors Are Engaging with Your Data Rooms View analytics to understand how individual investors are engaging with different documents and files in your data room. Data rooms are enabled for all Visible users. Log into Visible below to get started on your first data room below: Create a Data Room Check out a few of our other resources to help get you started: What should be in a data room? How to write a cover letter for your data room How to create a data room How to share your data room How to create a folder in your data room How to view the analytics in your data room Build and share your data room with Visible At Visible, we oftentimes compare a fundraise to a B2B sales and marketing funnel. At the top of your funnel, you are finding new investors. In the middle, you are nurturing and pitching potential investors. At the bottom of the funnel, you are working through diligence and ideally closing new investors. With the introduction of data rooms, you can now manage every aspect of your fundraising funnel with Visible. Find investors at the top of your funnel with our free investor database, Visible Connect Track your conversations and move them through your funnel with our Fundraising CRM Share your pitch deck and monthly updates with potential investors Organize and share your most vital fundraising documents with data rooms Manage your fundraise from start to finish with Visible. Give it a free try for 14 days here.

Accounting and finance are skills that every founder should hone. While you don’t need to be an expert, you should be comfortable with different financial statements and be able to answer questions from current and potential investors. Check out our quick breakdown of startup financials below: What are startup financials? Startup financials are the vitals behind how a company operates. Financials are the metrics and data that drive the different financial statements for a startup — income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, changes in equity, etc. As we wrote in our post, Building A Startup Financial Model That Works, “The goal of a financial model is not to be exactly right with every projection. The more important focus is to show that you, as a founding or executive team, have a handle on the things that will directly impact the success or failure of your business and a cogent plan for executing successfully.” Why are startup financials important for pitch decks? An investor’s job is to generate returns for their investors (AKA limited partners or LPs). In order to invest in the best companies, investors need to leverage data and their own insights to fund companies they believe have the opportunity to generate returns for their investors. Related Resource: How To Build a Pitch Deck, Step by Step Part of this process involves collecting financials and data. Different investors might look for different things when it comes to a company’s financials and metrics — inevitably, an investor will need to take a look under the hood to see how a company operates. Learn more about the financials that VCs look for in a pitch deck below: Essential startup financials to include in pitch decks As we previously mentioned, different investors will look for different metrics and data when it comes to a pitch deck. In order to best help you prepare the metrics and data you need, we laid out the following common metrics that VCs might look for in a pitch deck below (as always, we recommend sharing what you believe is best for your business): Related Resource: Tips for Creating an Investor Pitch Deck Gross revenue Gross revenue is the sum of all money generated by a company. This is important for a pitch deck because investors will want to understand how much revenue a business is generating. For companies that are pre-revenue, make sure you are targeting investors that invest in pre-revenue companies. Cost of goods sold As put by the team at Investopedia, “Cost of goods sold (COGS) refers to the direct costs of producing the goods sold by a company. This amount includes the cost of the materials and labor directly used to create the goods. It excludes indirect expenses, such as distribution costs and sales force costs.” Gross profit As put by the team at Investopedia, “Gross profit is the profit a company makes after deducting the costs associated with making and selling its products, or the costs associated with providing its services.” This is important because investors want to understand how your business efficiently turns revenue into profit. Operating expenses Operating expenses are exactly what they sound like — the expenses a business incurs from normally operating. Operating expenses help investors understand how and where your business is spending money. Net income As put by the team at Investopedia, “Net income (NI), also called net earnings, is calculated as sales minus cost of goods sold, selling, general and administrative expenses, operating expenses, depreciation, interest, taxes, and other expenses.” Net income truly reflects the profitability of a company as it takes into account all of the expenses a business will face. Related Resource: 18 Pitch Deck Examples for Any Startup Understanding forecasting vs accounting Over the course of building a startup, founders will inevitably have to understand different basic accounting, forecasting, and budgeting principles. Learn more about forecasting vs. accounting for your startup below: Related Resource: 7 Essential Business Startup Resources Financial forecasting A financial forecast and financial model is a tool that founders can use to tell their startup’s story. As we wrote in our post, Building A Startup Financial Model That Works, “The goal of a financial model is not to be exactly right with every projection. The more important focus is to show that you, as a founding or executive team, have a handle on the things that will directly impact the success or failure of your business and a cogent plan for executing successfully.” Accounting Basic accounting is a skill that every founder should be familiar with. Accounting is a realistic look at the financial performance of your business. It’s critical to have a grasp on all elements of your company’s books to ensure your company can grow and scale in an effective way and avoid costly financial errors down the line. Related Resource: A User-Friendly Guide to Startup Accounting Financial statements: your startup’s report cards Having a grasp on your financials is a surefire way to clearly articulate your needs for capital and how you plan to spend any additional funding. Learn more about common financial statements for startups below: Related Resource: 4 Types of Financial Statements Founders Need to Understand Income statement As put by the team at Harvard Business School, “An income statement is one of the most common, and critical, of the financial statements you’re likely to encounter. Also known as profit and loss (P&L) statements, income statements summarize all income and expenses over a given period, including the cumulative impact of revenue, gain, expense, and loss transactions. Income statements are often shared as quarterly and annual reports, showing financial trends and comparisons over time.” Balance sheet As put by the team at ProjectionHub, “A startup balance sheet or projected balance sheet is a financial statement highlighting a business startup’s assets, liabilities, and owner’s equity. In other words, a balance sheet shows what a business owns, the amount that it owes, and the amount that the business owner may claim.” Statement of cash flows As put by the team at Accountancy Cloud, “A cash flow statement, or CFS, is a financial statement that accurately summarizes the total amount of cash that goes into and eventually leaves a startup business. Cash flow statements are designed to accurately measure if a startup is managing its cash wisely.” Impress potential investors with Visible With our suite of fundraising tools, you can easily find investors, share your pitch deck, and track your fundraising funnel. Learn more about our pitch deck sharing tool and give it a free try here. Related resource: What is Internal Rate of Return (IRR) in Venture Capital

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.

Tomasz Tunguz, VC at Redpoint Ventures, recently shared a chart (above) detailing the best time of the year to raise capital. 2022 looks a lot different than 2021 (and the previous 10 years). After a hot start, the # of deals has collapsed since October. As fundraising slows and the holidays/New Year approach, founders might want to consider re-grouping and putting together a plan for raising in 2023. Check out 3 ways to get a head start on your 2023 fundraising efforts below: 1. Build the right audience As we mentioned in a previous Visible Weekly, most founders should expect to communicate with 50-100 investors over the course of a raise. When balancing 50+ conversations it is important to make sure you are spending time on the right investors. Use Visible Connect, our free investor database, to filter and sort investors by the fields that matter (sweet spot check size, investment geography, fund size, etc.). 2. Track ongoing conversations 50+ conversations is a lot. If you’re running a fundraising process off the cuff, using the last few weeks of the year to set up a pipeline and outreach process will allow you to spend more time on what matters most — building your business. Check out some tips for setting up a Fundraising Pipeline here. 3. Keep investors engaged with updates If you’re planning on sending an investor update to your current investors at the end of the year, you can use a “lite version” to engage with potential investors (think big wins, fundraising status, high growth metrics, etc). Check out an example here. Reading List The Best Time of Year to Raise for Your Startup Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures studies recent funding data to understand the best month to raise venture capital. Read more 3 Tips for Cold Emailing Potential Investors + Outreach Email Template On the Visible Blog, we share a template to help you craft cold emails for potential investors. Read more Founder How-To: Writing Forwardable Emails Stephanie Rich of Bread & Butter Ventures breaks down how founders can best write a “forwardable email” for fundraising. Read more

Visible is a founder-friendly portfolio monitoring and reporting solution used by VC’s around the world. Thanks to the continued engagement from our investor community, the last twelve months at Visible have been full of growth. As a Visible user, you’ve helped bring more transparency to the Venture Capital industry through improved KPI tracking, accessing deeper portfolio insights, and by more regularly communicating with your companies, teammates, and LP’s. Here are some 2022 highlights: 7k+ Requests completed by portfolio companies around the world 550+ LP Updates were sent to investors 800+ Investors deepened their VC expertise by engaging with our educational webinars 300+ VC firms verified their profiles in our Connect database Biggest Product Updates of 2022 More Flexible & Scalable Dashboards Portfolio Dashboard Templates – A more scalable way to visualize and extract insights from portfolio company data. Flexible Dashboard Grids – Flexible widget sizing means you have more control over how you can display data visualizations for you and your team. Intraportfolio Benchmarking and Insights – Compare individual company performance against portfolio quartiles using custom segments. Improved Portfolio Request Experience Request UI Overhaul – It’s now much easier to understand when your Request has been sent, % completion, and when the next scheduled reminder email will be sent. Multiple File Uploads in Requests – Companies can upload multiple files into the same file block in a Request, saving them time each reporting cycle. Export Request Summaries – Easily export and analyze Request responses in just a few clicks. Re-open a Request – Mistakes happen. Re-opening a Request lets companies re-submit their data. Advanced Investment Insights Chart Investment and Fund Metrics – Chart and visualize key fund metrics such as TVPI, RVPI, DPI, and more. Automatic SAFE Conversion & Token Support – Visible supports 6+ investment types. Multiple Funds – Segment your investment data by fund in custom-built reports. Interested in learning more about Visible’s portfolio monitoring solution for investors? Book a demo below. Interested in learning more about Visible? Meet with Our Team Webinar Recap from 2022 More than seven thought leaders from around the world joined us to share their expertise in different topics related to improving the venture capital ecosystem. Check out the recordings and resources below. ESG Best Practices with Tracy Barba ESG for VC –> Watch Here Building Scalable Support with Jessica Lowenstein of K50 Ventures and Erica Amatori of Left Lane Capital – Watch Here Benefits of a Hybrid SPV + Fund Strategy with Kingsley Advani of Allocations — Watch Here LP Reporting Best Practices with Aduro Advisors — View the Report SaaS Company Benchmarking with Christoph Janz of Point Nine Capital — Watch Here Best practices for portfolio monitoring & reporting with Gale Wilkinson of VITALIZE Venture Capital — Watch Here Interested in learning more about Visible? Meet with Our Team How to Partner with Visible in 2023 Increase your VC firm’s brand awareness by hosting your Update template in our public Update Library for investors. Refer your investor friends to Visible and receive a $500 Amazon gift card. Invite us to host a webinar for your portfolio companies on ‘Investing in Investor Updates’. Verify your firm’s profile in our investor Connect Database. To get started with any of the partnership opportunities above, send an email to belle@visible.vc. Interested in learning more about Visible? Meet with Our Team

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

What is a Community-driven Company? A community-driven business is a company that puts community at its core. This can be a case where the community is the product (e g. Reddit) or where the community is central to the business’s identity and success (e.g. Peloton). A community-driven company is one whose value is its members and its success depends on them. The value that is derived from the community benefits both its members and the company. The community can either be the company’s product or its community is built around its product. These companies are often founded by individuals who believe they can solve problems better through collaboration and are built around a specific mission, problem, or just simply the community itself. Lolita Taub of Ganas Ventures points out that there are various takes on what community-driven companies are but it’s part of what makes this model so special. At Ganas, they focus on companies whose, customers identify as members members are able to create value for other members members start the marketing and sales flywheel She also believes that companies with the community at the core will become unicorns and produce outsized returns. What Makes a Community-driven Company Valuable and Successful? Community-driven companies are becoming increasingly common in today’s competitive environment. In order to survive and thrive, organizations need to adapt to changing customer demands and expectations. Community-driven companies are able to respond faster to these changes because their users are directly involved in decision-making processes. This new way of thinking about customer relationships means that companies no longer focus solely on selling products or services. Instead, they create value for their customers through the experience of the community- redefining the relationship between consumers and businesses. Companies that are driven by their customer base and community are growing at a faster rate than other companies. They also tend to outperform competitors because they focus on solving real problems instead of chasing trends. Which is why community-based businesses are becoming increasingly popular. Some of the other community-driven benefits include: Less marketing spend Brand Loyalty and LTV Lower operating and sales costs (companies can be leaner and small) Retention Referrals Defensible business model (difficult to replicate) What’s a Community-Led Company’s Secret Sauce? Community-led growth (CLG) is a type of go- to market strategy that these companies are using to leverage their communities to sell. The important thing to note here which Lolita points out, is that “community-led growth should not be confused with marketing. Community-led growth companies focus on creating a safe space for their community to come together, share value, create relationships, and best use their products/services to solve a problem or help achieve a goal.”. As a result of nurturing this space, “your community acts as a multiplier for company growth”. Community-driven companies are also often considered more innovative because they focus on solving problems or sharing information, and they get the answers from the people that matter most- their customers as well as enthusiasts on the topic. This approach has become known as ‘community-based innovation’ (CBI). They rely heavily on their customers or consumers to create new ideas, develop new products, and even provide feedback. This also tends to make running a community-driven company less expensive to start and run. Taking feedback or observing what the community is saying gives you the best understanding of customer needs and wants. When you then use this information to shape future decisions you have a competitive advantage and can deliver exactly what is wanted and needed. This also helps build trust between the company and its customers. In addition, it allows the company to stay relevant and responsive to changes in the marketplace. What Might the Future of Communities Look Like? With social media platforms becoming more powerful than ever before, communities are booming. People are creating their own networks, sharing information, and collaborating together. This has led to the rise of the Creator Economy, which has allowed people to monetize their following. According to CMX Community Industry Report, “Communities are cautiously dipping their toes into Web 3.0- 15% of communities are actively working on Web 3.0 focused projects and an additional 17% are considering it. Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are the most common form of Web 3.0 project that community teams are working on.” Web 3 is not only allowing companies to monetize on their community but their members can now also benefit as well through NFTs and DAOs. What is the Difference Between a Web2 and Web3 Community-driven Company? Ganas Ventures highlights two pain points for each: “Web2 companies – People create content, products, and services – Companies earn money Web3 companies – People/communities create content, products, and services – People/communities earn money” Related Resource: 10 VC Firms Investing in Web3 Companies Additional Resources and Tools for Startups Community-Driven Companies: What They Are and Why We’re Investing in Them CMX Community Industry Report Ganas Ventures Resources Follow Lolita Taub for updates in the space Origami– helps Web3 communities launch and grow their DAOs Paragraph– Paragraph turns your subscribers into members through NFTs which gives your audience ownership in your community. VCs Investing in Community-Driven Companies Flybridge About: Flybridge is a seed and early-stage venture capital firm whose mission is to assist entrepreneurs in growing innovative, global companies. With more than $625 million under management, the firm is focused on seed and early-stage investing in technology markets and is led by a team with domain expertise and more than half a century of combined experience in venture capital. Thesis: We see a vibrant community as a source of competitive advantage and we are excited to invest in companies and entrepreneurs who share our vision for the power of community across a range of sectors. Investment Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed Recent Investments: Dame Products Trend Teal Ganas Ventures About: Ganas Ventures invests in pre-seed and seed Web 2 and Web 3 community-driven startups in the US and Latin America. Thesis: Ganas Ventures invests in pre-seed and seed Web 2 and Web 3 community-driven startups in the US and Latin America. It’s run by solo-GP Lolita Taub. ​​ Investment Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed SV Angel About: SV Angel is a San Francisco-based angel firm that helps startups with business development, financing, M&A, and other strategic advice. Investment Stages: Seed Recent Investments: Kiln Payload FlowForge Lerer Hippeau About: Lerer Hippeau is an early-stage venture capital firm founded and operated in New York City. Since 2010, we have invested in entrepreneurs with great ideas who aren’t afraid to do hard things. Our portfolio includes more than 350 leading enterprise and consumer businesses including Guideline, MIRROR, Blockdaemon, K Health, Allbirds, ZenBusiness, and Thrive. We’re experienced operators who invest early and stay in our founders’ corners as they build iconic companies. Thesis: We seek entrepreneurs with product vision, consumer insight, focused execution, and unwavering ambition. When we are lucky enough to meet such people, our hope is that they will choose us as a long-term partner. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C Recent Investments: Anode Labs Onward Bookkeep The Community Fund About: A $5 million early-stage fund that invests in community-driven companies through an investment partner team. Thesis: We’re an early-stage fund that invests in community-driven companies. Investment Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed Recent Investments: Elektra Health Kindra Founders Fund About: Founders Fund is a San Francisco based venture capital firm investing in companies building revolutionary technologies. Thesis: We invest in smart people solving difficult problems. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B Recent Investments: Namecoach Speak Elemental Machines General Catalyst About: General Catalyst backs exceptional entrepreneurs who are building innovative technology companies and market leading businesses, including Airbnb, BigCommerce, ClassPass, Datalogix, Datto, Demandware, Gusto (fka ZenPayroll), The Honest Company, HubSpot, KAYAK, Oscar, Snap, Stripe, and Warby Parker. Thesis: General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that makes early-stage and growth equity investments. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth Recent Investments: Guild OneSchema Buildkite K50 Ventures About: K50 Ventures is the most trusted first-check investor for mission-driven founders building a better future for the 99%. We invest up to $2M in pre-seed and seed stage companies in the US and LATAM that are prioritizing access, affordability, and wellbeing across the categories of Health, Finance, and Work. K50 partners with those who refuse to accept the status quo; those who have a vision for how to radically improve daily life for everyone – in our local communities, and around the globe. Since 2016, we have invested in 170+ companies including Groww, Mammoth Biosciences, Self, Tul, Frubana, Kueski, Fintual, Valon, Real, Osana Salud, June Homes, among others. Investment Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed Recent Investments: June Homes HoneyBee Osana Salud Halogen Ventures About: Halogen Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund focused on consumer technologies prioritizing a female in the founding team.Thesis: Halogen Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund focused on female led consumer technology companies. Investment Stages: Early Stage Recent Investments: Ellevest Vivoo Live Tinted Graph Ventures About: We are a group of founders & operators with experience starting and scaling technology co’s globally. 300+ investments. Investment Stages: Pre-seed, Seed Recent Investments: Tract Comm Technologies Disclo Founder Collective About: Founder Collective is a seed-stage venture capital firm that has invested in over 300 startups, including Uber, Airtable, PillPack, SeatGeek, The Trade Desk, Whoop, and Cruise. Founder Collective’s mission is to be the most aligned fund for founders at the seed stage. FC has offices in NYC and Cambridge, MA and has been the top-rated seed fund on the Forbes Midas list for four of the last five years. Investment Stages: Seed Recent Investments: Kapu Odyssey Energy Solutions Gigasheet Looking for Funding? We can help 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 VC’s and accelerators who are looking to invest in companies like yours. Check out all our investors here and filter as needed. To help craft that first email check out 5 Strategies for Cold Emailing Potential Investors. Related Resource: All-Encompassing Startup Fundraising Guide 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.

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.