Key Takeaways
- Request cadence anchor: A portfolio management request should arrive on the same date every period, because a rotating due date leaves founders with no expectation of when to submit.
- Cadence by stage: Accelerator cohorts report weekly, pre-seed through Series A companies report monthly, and Series B and later companies report quarterly.
- Request restraint: A fund should request only the metrics the firm will act on, starting with a small set and expanding once the reporting rhythm holds.
- Metric definitions: A request for burn without a definition returns inconsistent calculations, so a fund should state the sign, the time window, and whether financing counts.
Getting regular, high quality, and actionable data from portfolio companies is important. It allows you to make better decisions, support your portfolio, share insights with portfolio company founders, report to LPs and more.
This practice should also be highly valuable for founders. They should be able to share wins, challenges and get help from you, their stakeholder. It should only take them 3 minutes to complete (if not, either something may be wrong with the request or structurally wrong with the company).
Below are some best practices to make sure you get:
- Timely information (e.g. 100% completion)
- Structured data(comparing apples to apples)
- Actionable insights (how can we help companies)
Timing & Cadence
Same time every period
Set the expectation that you will be sending a request the same time every month. e.g. your request will be due the 20th post month or quarter end. Don’t randomly switch between the 10th, the 30th, etc. Founders will not have an expectation and know they can submit whenever they want.
Christoph Janz of Point Nine Capital sets his own expectation on the monthly beat: "I think monthly reporting is pretty typical, and we're fine with that. And most companies do that. Obviously most companies look at their metrics much more frequently, some metrics probably on a weekly basis, some on a daily basis."
Luckily Visible makes this easy for you. You’ll be to set you schedule and we take care of all emails, due dates and reminders.
Appropriate Cadence
We recommend the following cadences. This is 100% customizable as every fund is different.
- Weekly – Accelerators in Cohort
- Monthly – Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
- Quarterly – Series B & later
Request Content
Less is more.
Don’t send a request asking for every metric under the sun. Only get the information you truly need. If you are truly providing value back to the founders, then start small, get a rhythm and expand the data.
Metrics
5-15 Metrics.
Depending how closely you work with companies, ask for 5-15 metrics and no more.
Use a metric description!
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 current month? Should it include financing? Be descriptive about what you want. **Here is our Metric Library** that has some helpful descriptions.
Qualitative Info
How can you help?
Always make sure to use a qualitative section to see how you can best help the portfolio. Also let the founder share their wins and challenges if it makes sense!
There is a reason the quiet ones need asking. Preface Ventures pulled its own data before a 2025 Visible webinar and found that companies which communicate less tend to struggle more, and that two out of three times the reason is a layer of bad news the founder does not want to surface.
Rollout
Let your current (and new) portfolio companies know to expect a regular request from you and what to expect.
Intro Template
- Feel free to use our Intro Copy Template if you need some inspiration.
Custom Domain
All of your requests will come from you. However, with Visible you can fully white label the request emails so they come from your email and domain.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should a portfolio reporting request take a founder to complete?
A portfolio reporting request should take a founder about three minutes to fill in. When it runs longer than that, either the request is asking for more than the fund needs or the company cannot produce its own numbers, and both are worth resolving before the next period.
Why should a portfolio update request include a qualitative section?
A qualitative section tells a fund how it can help, which the metrics on their own do not show. Asking what founders need, what they won in the period, and where they are stuck makes the request worth something to the founder rather than only to the fund.
How should a venture fund introduce a new reporting process to its portfolio companies?
A venture fund should tell current and incoming portfolio companies that a regular request is coming and what it will contain, before the first one arrives. Sending it from the firm's own email address and domain keeps the request recognizable to founders.
