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Working with VCs and early stage companies, I’ve been seeing more and more SaaS tools that help automate workflows. As a former employee of various large technology firms, I understand how different the sales cycle can be to implement a new platform for large enterprises so this might not be for those teams. But, from my perspective, there are tools I would recommend to emerging VCs, or startups, that have just been formed to create a more collaborative workflow for a decentralized team.

My recommendations are my own personal opinions when working with these organizations and highlight the various products that I found useful.

From reading

Halle Kaplan-Allen’s, “An emerging manager’s not-so-secret superpower”⁠

and

Francesco Corea’s encompassing, “The VC Tech Stack”⁠

, it is true that there are too many tools out there to choose from so I wanted to recommend the ones that I felt had the most capability and allowed for an easier experience to onboard with a focus on balancing that capability, ease-of-use, and price.

For VCs, there is really one north star, optimization of time. From there, that can be broken out into three buckets: LP collaboration (back-office), business operations (front-office), and portfolio collaboration (back + front office).

LP collaboration focusing on the back-office tasks that include tracking potential and current LPs, reporting, and fund administration.

Business operations that focus on deal-team activities including sourcing and fielding deals, diligence, and storing data towards the goal of writing term sheets.

Portfolio collaboration focusing on the relationship between investors and portcos including tracking portfolio metrics, introducing founders to advisors or potential employees, and generally helping them scale.

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Screen Shot 2021-12-14 at 8.20.30 AM.png

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The world of venture capital and early stage startups is fast-paced, dynamic, and constantly evolving. As a result, it's critical for firms and companies in this space to have the right tech stack in place to help them operate efficiently and stay ahead of the competition. In this article, we'll explore some of the key components of a modern tech stack for venture capital firms and early stage startups.

Recommendations:

Thus, if I were to start a fund or company today, I would pick the following stack:

Customer Relationship Management Software

At the heart of any successful venture capital firm or early stage startup is a solid understanding of their customers. A good CRM system can help you manage your customer interactions, track leads, and manage your sales pipeline.

Lightweight CRM:

Streak⁠

Airtable⁠

Coda.io⁠

⁠

Heavyweight CRM:

Hubspot⁠

Salesforce⁠

⁠

Financial Management, Human Resources, and Accounting Software

Managing your finances is critical for any business, but it's particularly important for venture capital firms and startups. Accounting and financial management software like QuickBooks, Xero, and FreshBooks can help you manage your expenses, invoices, and financial reporting.

Bank:

Mercury⁠

Chase⁠

⁠

Corporate Card:

Ramp⁠

Brex⁠

⁠

Domestic PEO:

Justworks⁠

Sequoia⁠

⁠

Domestic Payroll:

Bill.com⁠

Gusto⁠

⁠

International Payroll:

Deel⁠

⁠

Fund Admin:

Aduro⁠

AngelList⁠

⁠

Portfolio Monitoring/Investor Relations:

Standard Metrics⁠

⁠

Cap Table:

Pulley⁠

Carta⁠

Equity Effect⁠

⁠

Accounting:

QuickBooks Online⁠

Xero⁠

⁠

Communication and Collaboration Tools

Effective communication and collaboration are critical to the success of any venture capital firm or startup.

Internal Wiki:

Coda.io⁠

Notion⁠

⁠

Video Conferencing:

Zoom⁠

Jitsi⁠

(open-source)

Video Conferencing Note Taker:

Fathom⁠

⁠

Document Creation:

PandaDoc⁠

⁠

Document Storage:

Dropbox⁠

Google Drive⁠

Coda.io⁠

⁠

Survey:

Typeform⁠

⁠

Documentation Capture:

Tango⁠

⁠

Internal URL Shortcut Tool:

go/links⁠

O/slash⁠

⁠

Password Manager:

Bitwarden⁠

(open-source),

1Password⁠

⁠

Related to business operations:

Automation:

Zapier⁠

⁠

Related to deal sourcing:

Deal Sourcing:

Harmonic.ai⁠

Pitchbook⁠

⁠

Related but geared more for early-stage companies:

SOC2 Compliance:

Drata⁠

⁠

Data Visualization:

Metabase⁠

Product-Led Sales:

HeadsUp⁠

⁠

Website:

Webflow⁠

⁠

Some cool examples of process that I’ve come across:

⁠

Coda - Madrona Venture Group’s Investment Decision Making⁠

⁠

Github - Bloomberg Beta⁠

⁠

Web Deck - Space Cadet⁠

⁠

Methodology

Ease-of-use

Capability including integrations with other products

Price

Customer Service

View of Stack

View of Stack

⁠

Related Information/Sources:

The Emerging Manager Toolbox

https://www.notion.so/The-Emerging-Manager-Toolbox-6f25be9a352948538dd604d5e6757437

The VC Tech Stack

https://francesco-ai.medium.com/the-vc-tech-stack-77eb94f6e230

Part 2: Tech Stacks to Scale a VC Fund Efficiently

https://medium.com/alpaca-vc/part-2-tech-stacks-to-scale-avc-fund-efficiently-8fd2bb42ba1b

What’s your VC’s Tech Stack?

https://medium.com/blue-future-partners/whats-your-vc-s-tech-stack-results-from-a-survey-of-early-stage-venture-capital-funds-7ddbeaf987c0

What’s your VC tech stack? Results from a survey of early-stage VC funds

https://teten.com/whats-vc-tech-stack-results-survey-early-stage-vc-funds/

Title

The Emerging Manager Toolbox

Source

Halle Kaplan-Allen

Date Published

November 10, 2021

URL

https://www.notion.so/The-Emerging-Manager-Toolbox-6f25be9a352948538dd604d5e6757437

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