#111 Win With Operational Excellence in PE/VC

November 02, 2023

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Welcome - Wimberley Valley Chamber of Commerce

Earlier this week, we shared our top posts from October (+September) - these ones really resonated with thousands of views, shares, and feedback! Please do us a favor and like/share if you haven’t already (or forward to a friend). In the meantime, enjoy! Re-linking here for reference!

Really enjoyed this post Adam posted earlier this week on LinkedIn! Data-driven insights on DocSend, which has hosted 100,000+ pitch decks over the last decade. Here’s what they saw in 2023:

  • Time: VCs spend an avg. of 2m12s reviewing a seed deck, down 40% from 2021

  • Meeting Count: Successful seed fundraises involved an average of 46 meetings

  • Product: 35% of early stage companies that raised did not have a live product

  • Length: Average seed deck length is 16 pages

  • Fundraise Time: Average seed fundraising time was 15 weeks

  • Traction: VCs spent 25% longer looking at traction slide in 2023 than in 2022. For unsuccessful decks, this jumped to 110% more time on the traction slide

Win With Operational Excellence in PE/VC Funds

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of presenting to students running the UNC Kenan-Flagler Private Equity Fund. The subject of the discussions was “Winning With Operational Excellence.” It was exciting to pull together thoughts and takeaways from my experience with PE/VC funds and share how it could apply to their funds, as well as all types of emerging managers.

Why should you care about operational excellence if you’re running a PE/VC fund?

  1. Investors: they want to see it and ultimately will require it

  2. Success: increase your odds of driving outperformance

  3. Competition: everyone’s doing it. Table stakes today and going forward

What are some of the key tactics to achieve operational excellence?

  1. Ownership: mindset applied to finance and operations

  2. Processes, models, technology, analytics to drive value (measured in dollars and time)

  3. Strategic approach with an investor mindset

  4. Apply learnings from experience and other fund types: VC, growth, private equity, hedge, as well as bespoke investment vehicles and family offices

  5. Organization and commitment to a written process

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