Deal Flow Is Your Fund's Lifeblood

The quality of your deal flow determines the quality of your portfolio. Yet most VC firms manage their pipeline with a chaotic mix of spreadsheets, email threads, and someone's memory. If you're the associate responsible for keeping deal flow organised, here's how to build a system that actually works.

Map Your Sourcing Channels

Before you can manage deal flow, you need to understand where it comes from. Track the source of every deal for three months, and you'll likely find:

• Inbound (40-50%): Cold emails, website submissions, LinkedIn messages
• Network referrals (30-40%): From founders, other investors, advisors
• Proactive sourcing (10-20%): Your own research, conferences, thematic mapping

The deals from proactive sourcing typically convert at 3-5x the rate of inbound. That's where you should be spending more time.

Build a Consistent Pipeline Framework

Every deal should move through clearly defined stages:

1. New/Inbound — Just received, not yet reviewed
2. Initial Screen — Passed the 30-second filter, needs 5-minute review
3. First Meeting — Founder call scheduled or completed
4. Deep Dive — Active diligence in progress
5. IC Ready — Memo drafted, ready for committee
6. Term Sheet — Approved, negotiating terms
7. Closed/Passed — Final outcome

Tag every deal with its current stage and update weekly. Your partners should be able to see the full pipeline at a glance.

Prioritise Ruthlessly

You can't give equal attention to everything. Use a simple 2x2 matrix: conviction (high/low) vs. urgency (competitive process/no timeline pressure). Deals in the high-conviction, high-urgency quadrant get your time first.

For quick conviction signals on new deals, run them through Predict Ventures. The benchmarking data helps you rapidly assess whether a startup's metrics are genuinely impressive or merely average for its stage.

Maintain Relationships with Passed Deals

Just because you pass today doesn't mean the company won't be interesting in 18 months. Set follow-up reminders for promising companies that were too early or had fixable weaknesses. Some of the best investments come from the "not yet" pile.

Weekly Pipeline Reviews

Block 30 minutes every Friday to review your pipeline:

• How many new deals came in this week?
• What's stuck in a stage for too long?
• Are there deals you should be passing on faster?
• What's the conversion rate at each stage?

Share a weekly pipeline summary with your partners. It keeps them informed and shows you're on top of things.

CRM Hygiene Matters

Whether you use Affinity, Attio, or a spreadsheet, the system only works if the data is clean. Make it a habit to update deal status, add notes after every call, and tag deals by sector, stage, and source. Your future self—and your colleagues—will thank you.

Measure What Matters

Track these metrics monthly:

• Top of funnel: Total deals seen
• Conversion rates: Screen → Meeting → Deep Dive → IC → Closed
• Time in stage: How long deals sit at each step
• Source quality: Which channels produce the most IC-ready deals
• Win rate: When you go to term sheet, how often do you win the deal

These numbers tell you where your process is breaking down and where to invest your energy.

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