Getting high-quality and actionable data from portfolio companies on a consistent basis 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 take them only 3 minutes to complete (if not, something may be wrong with the request or structurally wrong with the company).

Below are some best practices to make sure you get:

Tip: Same time every period.

Set the expectation that you will be sending a request at the same time every cycle. For example, set your request to be due on the 20th of the month following the request period's end. Don't switch between the 10th, the 30th, etc. Founders will not have clear expectations and may submit data at random which will muddy the request process.

Luckily, Visible makes this easy for you. You set your schedule and we take care of all emails, due dates, and reminders.

Appropriate Cadence

We recommend the below cadences. This is 100% customizable as every fund is different.

Tip: Less is more.

Don't send a request asking for every metric under the sun. Focus on the information that you truly need. To provide the most value back to founders, start small, develop a rhythm, and then expand the metrics.

Metrics

Tip: 5 - 15 Metrics.

Depending on how closely you work with companies, ask for 5-15 metrics. If you're not taking actionable next steps based on a metric (e.g. reporting to LPs, providing hands-on support), don't ask for it.

Tip: 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. Check out our Metric Library for some helpful descriptions.

Qualitative Info

Tip: How can you help?

Always make sure to use a qualitative section to see how you can best help the portfolio. If it makes sense, let the founder share their wins and challenges for the period!

Tip: Notify your companies two weeks in advance.

Introducing Your Companies to Visible

As the most founder-friendly solution on the market, we ensure that requesting data is a frictionless process for founders. This means founders don't need to create an account for Investors to get value out of the platform (No log-in required!). For more info, check out: How can my portfolio companies use Visible?

Feel free to use our Intro Email Template to notify your companies about the adoption of Visible two weeks in advance of your first Request deadline.

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.

All customers get world-class support. We are always happy to offer best practices, upload data, get your feedback, and more. Your account advisor is your best point of contact, but always feel free to reach out to support@visible.vc with questions.