What should you include in a VC investment memo?
It’s actually a very simple, 2 step process 👇🏻
1️⃣ Model yours from the Table of Contents from one of the longer Bessemer Venture Partners investment memos.
I like the one Alex Ferrara co-wrote for the Shopify Series A as an example. The sections of that memo are:
👉 Market Opportunity
👉 Customers & Pricing
👉 Product
👉 Customers Acquisition & Retention
👉 Competition
👉 Team
👉 Summary Financials
👉 Deal
👉 Outcomes Analysis
👉 Conclusion
👉 Appendix
You can of course trim out a few sections if you’re dealing with a company that’s earlier stage (i.e. no customers yet).
2️⃣ OK. I fibbed, there is no step 2. If you followed step 1 you’re golden. BUT the reason for step 2 is that if you weren’t sure what sections to include in your memo, then you are guaranteed to learn a TON from just reading each of Bessemer’s.
They’re well-written, (surprisingly) transparent and will give you a view into how one of the best of the best VC firms operates.
💡If you’re interviewing with a VC firm there’s an added bonus for using the process above. If you’re asked by the firm “Why did you use this memo structure?” you can say that:
👉 You used the Bessemer memo format as a template. (Unlikely you’ll get pushback as to why you picked that format)
👉 You read ALL the memos (And here’s what you learned in the process).
