🤝VC Partnership
Deal Sharing and Co-Investing: VC Partners Identification with an Airtable template.
Last updated
Deal Sharing and Co-Investing: VC Partners Identification with an Airtable template.
Last updated
One survival strategy for emerging VCs is to build a partnership network with other investors for deal sharing and co-investing.
Case #1: A VC co-invests to spread deal costs, risk and assists the founder in securing additional funds to complete the round.
Case #2: A VC is well-connected with a promising startup that doesn't fit its investment thesis but can recommend the best matching firm.
Case #3: Two VCs have different expertise, one in computer vision AI, another in the AdTech industry. Both collaborate in the due diligence of a startup revolutionizing billboards with computer vision.
Having just 5 companies in a portfolio that have passed 3 rounds could lead to hundreds of co-investors in a pool mixed with existing partners. Let's call it the 1st level partners network. Beyond sharing one cap table, there are thousands in the 2nd level network, matched by industries, stages, and geographies.
Each case requires targeted outreach to VCs. Quick shortlisting is essential for operational performance. And here, Airtable can help (template below).
1. Portfolio companies from the current firm, angel, or previous investment experience. LP's portfolio or former investors can also be here. Required data:
Company Name
Country HQ
Industries
2. Deals data for each company with corresponding VC names and round stages:
3. VCs list generated from deals includes data about industries, stages, and geography. Type, maturity, and HQ location need to be added manually:
There is no single source of complete deal data. Even the cap table may include SPV companies syndicating different investors, which are listed separately in databases. Based on my analysis, the most comprehensive source of deals is the PitchBook (read post). It limits public access, so without a $10K subscription fee, combination with Crunchbase and other databases can be a sufficient solution. Also, press releases are a good source, which can be found using Google queries:
Airtable offers many options to segment lists using filter combinations and Views. The most obvious use cases include:
Looking for lead investor who can manage legal & financial of due diligence and term sheets, filtering those at the Mature and Established level, excluding Angel Individuals, and matching with industry and geography. Existing co-investors in priority.
Emerging pre-seed stagers or angels could be a great source of deals for seed and Series A opportunities, matching with industry and geography.
Counting companies within the same industry could highlight a sector leader VC valuable for sharing tech and market due diligence and post-investment support.
Series A and later stagers could be a way to help a portfolio company fundraise after the seed stage.
The first step with any target VC should involve establishing an introductory call to identify mutual interest in deal sharing, which should also align with the current fund phase. Then, partners should agree on acceptable deal stages, internal criteria, and communication protocols.
Deal sharing is feasible if the target VC is in an active investment phase. The approach depends on the specific partnership agreement with each target VC:
Pre-DD, if VC needs to confirm interest before conducting due diligence (DD), share DD efforts, or invite the target VC to lead with responsibility for DD if they possess expertise in a specific sub-sector.
Post-DD, if VC has led the DD and seeks co-investors to help the startup close the round.
Follow-on investment stage without DD, based on positive experience and good performance of the company.
Deals should match the target VC's criteria as declared by their thesis and internal rules, which should be disclosed under the partnership agreement:
Company market geo and HQ location
Industry
Detailed stage information (pre/post-product, pre/post-revenue, traction metrics)
Managing up to 10 co-investment partners can be done manually. For a strategy involving extensive partnerships with dozens of VCs, a matching algorithm could be beneficial. In such cases, using individual email templates or API integration directly into the target VC's deal room could be efficient for working with similar or mature funds, increasing success rates while reducing manual effort to extract deal data for internal memo assessments.
An agreed-upon email address for co-investment inquiries or a special subject tag might help to highlight these opportunities in the general deal flow of the target VC.
Once the protocol is approved, the email template can be succinct:
Depending on the partnership agreement, rules regarding reminders may be set. If the deal is promising and the relationship with the GP is strong, a personal message can be sent as a reminder.
Feel free to use, copy, and modify my template:
👉 https://bit.ly/vcpartners_airtable (View Only)
You need to copy it first to your own account to conduct filtering operations and make any modifications.
The template enriches each VC record with industries, stages, and geo based on added portfolio companies and deals. It employs tricky logic combined with automation, which is limited to 100 executions per month on a free plan. Go to Interfaces to trigger stages, industries, and geo enrichment each time you need it.
