Earlier today I received the quarterly update from a venture partnership where I’m a limited partner. Limited partners are the investors behind the investors. The LP update includes information about the fund (like number of investments, amount of money deployed, etc.) as well as a page for each portfolio company. Similar to an executive summary, the LP portfolio summary explains the startup in a straightforward way with limited hype. Here are the typical sections in an LP portfolio summary:
- Company name
- Geographic location
- One line company description
- Investment summary table
- Amount invested
- Total equity capital invested
- Ownership percentage
- Investment date
- CEO
- VC board member
- Investment overview
- Company overview
- Market overview
- Management team
For entrepreneurs looking to raise money, writing an LP portfolio summary from the perspective of your potential investor is a good exercise to get in the mindset of the investor and think through the respective details. The key is to present the information in a concise way that is informative without being jargon-filled.
What else? What are some more thoughts on writing an LP portfolio summary from the investor perspective?
David Cummings on Startups 