Raise capital, update investors and engage your team from Visible. Use the YC Investment Memo Template to get started.
Memos are a clear and concise document to lay out strategic vision, rationale, and expectations (in case you missed it, we wrote about the importance of memos earlier this week). We found the Y Combinator Investment Memo to be particularly interesting.
The YC Investment Memo
Memos have been something that most of us likely associate with VC funds writing for a prospective investment. The YC memo flips this idea on its head. In the YC Series A Guide, they share an investment memo template aimed towards founders. YC suggests sending your memo to investors in advance of a meeting to set the tone for the conversation. The idea is that by articulating your own memo, you can:
- “Clarify your own company’s pitch and story”
- “Incept your vision of the memo into their (potential VCs) brains.”
To give you an idea of what a memo may look like, we turned it into a Visible Update Template.
Pitch Deck vs. Memo
Using a memo to power a fundraise is an interesting idea. As YC suggests, founders that are strong writers may benefit from using a memo. The pitch deck has always been the go-to form for sharing data but Billy Gallagher of Rippling makes the case for using a memo in tandem.
Billy Gallagher shares a few key advantages to a memo that we’ve summarized below:
- It is standalone — By sending a memo in advance you do not have to worry about the investors missing any context. Investors will be able to read and digest the memo on their own. Opposed to a pitch deck that may require a pitch and narrative around different components.
- Less time — A memo will allow investors to quickly pass or take the next meeting. This way you can spend time on the firms that are truly interested.
- Helps GP Pitch — At the end of a process a GP will have to pitch their other partners on why their fund should make an investment. By writing your own memo, it will make sure that the GP is properly presenting your company and idea to their peers.
We are not suggesting that every company suddenly start sending memos to kickoff an investor meeting. However, there are clear advantages and an interesting tool that more founders should study. If a memo sounds like a good fit for you and your company, give it a shot!
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