Key Takeaways
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Portfolio support definition: A fund runs portfolio support as the post-investment work that helps companies perform and clear obstacles, covering onboarding, hiring, marketing, fundraising help and events.
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Support as differentiator: Capital alone no longer distinguishes a fund, so formalized portfolio support is what a firm competes on, feeding company performance, brand recognition and the next fund raise.
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Function ownership: Portfolio support belongs to the platform team, held by a Head of Platform or Platform Manager at a larger fund and by a partner at a smaller one.
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Request channels: Portfolio companies raise support requests directly with the fund, through an investment team member, or inside a regular investor update, and a firm needs open communication across all three to triage well.
Venture Capital funds dedicate a lot of time and resources to optimizing their pipeline processes. However, not all VCs apply the same level of intention and effort to their post-investment processes. This is why portfolio support is not only considered an important differentiator for funds but also a critical part of the success of the fund and its portfolio companies.
Value-add portfolio support can help with everything from attracting better deal flow (don’t forget founders talk to each other!), improving brand recognition, raising capital from LPs, and most importantly, helping companies succeed.
What is Portfolio Support?
Portfolio support is a post-investment process that is intended to help portfolio companies perform, grow, and overcome potential hurdles. This typically includes some combination of the following:
- New company onboardings
- Hiring and recruiting
- Marketing and promotional support
- Future fundraising support
- Events
Why is Portfolio Support Important?
In the early days of venture, capital alone was enough to be a differentiator. As the venture capital market has evolved so have the expectations for VC funds.
Formalized post-investment support for portfolio companies has become a differentiator for VC firms — it helps with brand recognition, portfolio company performance, and ultimately improves a firm's odds of increasing returns and raising a future fund.
Who Owns Portfolio Support?
Portfolio company support is typically owned by the person running a firm's platform. For larger funds, this might be a dedicated person or team (e.g. Head of Platform, Platform Manager, etc.). At a smaller fund, this likely falls on the shoulders of a partner.
Related resource: VC Fund Performance Metrics 101
How Do Portfolio Companies Request Support?
In Visible’s survey taken by VC Portfolio Operators, respondents shared that they are made aware of support needs from companies in a variety of different ways. The most common is directly from companies (44%) but also from investment team members (29%) and in third place, from Investor Updates from companies.
From this data, it’s clear portfolio support requests are being shared in myriad ways with different team members at a fund. This highlights the importance of having open and transparent communication across your fund team so that portfolio support requests can be triaged quickly and by the right person.
Getting Started With Portfolio Support Best Practices
This guide is created for VC investors and operators who want to level up their portfolio support. The content of this guide is derived from Visible’s 2022 Portfolio Support Survey, Visible’s July 2022 Webinar on Building Scalable Portfolio Support, and the industry experience Visible has gained through supporting hundreds of investors around the world to improve their portfolio monitoring and management processes.
Contents of the Guide:
- What is Post-Investment Support
- Who Owns Post-Investment Support
- How to Best Scale Your Post Investment Support
- Most Common Portfolio Support Requests + Resources
- Advice for First-Time Platform Managers
Ready to take your support to the next level? Learn how Visible can help you with your portfolio management and reporting here.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is portfolio support in venture capital?
Portfolio support is the post-investment process a venture firm runs to help the companies it has already backed perform, grow, and clear obstacles. In practice it covers onboarding new companies, hiring and recruiting, marketing and promotional support, help with a future fundraise, and events. It is the counterpart to the pipeline work a firm does before an investment is made.
Who owns portfolio support at a venture firm?
Portfolio support belongs to whoever runs the firm's platform function. A larger fund assigns it to a dedicated person or team, such as a Head of Platform or a Platform Manager. At a smaller fund the work sits with a partner alongside their investing responsibilities.
How does portfolio support help a firm raise its next fund?
Formalized portfolio support lifts portfolio company performance and the firm's brand recognition, which improves a firm's odds of increasing returns and raising a future fund. Capital by itself stopped being a differentiator as the venture market matured, so what a firm delivers after the investment now carries that weight.
How do venture firms find out what their portfolio companies need?
Most support needs reach a fund directly from the companies themselves, at 44 percent of respondents in Visible's 2022 Portfolio Support Survey of VC portfolio operators. Investment team members are the next most common route at 29 percent, and investor updates from companies come third.
How should a fund handle support requests that arrive through different people?
A fund needs open and transparent communication across the whole team so a request that lands with one person reaches whoever can act on it. Requests arrive through several channels at once, so a firm without that visibility triages slowly or routes the work to the wrong person.
