Chapter 5
After the Check
Most of the internet treats VC like the job ends when the wire hits the founder's bank account. It doesn't. The back half of the associate role is everything that happens with the portfolio: the support, the follow-ons, the reserves. This chapter keeps it light enough that you'll know what people are talking about, without pretending you can do the job yet.
Portfolio Support 101
'Value-add' is probably the most overused phrase in venture, and one of the least defined. The actual work juniors get handed is unglamorous: intros, recruiting help, the occasional strategic nudge, basic responsiveness. We'll cover what real support looks like and which kinds of 'support' are mostly theatre. Founders know the difference even if pitchbooks pretend they don't.
3 resources
Follow-ons, Reserves & Pro-rata Basics
When a portfolio company raises its next round, the fund has a decision to make: put more in, hold steady, or pass. Those calls are shaped by pro-rata rights, reserve strategy, and fund-level portfolio construction. This one keeps it light. What pro-rata is, why firms hold reserves, how the basic math of a follow-on decision works. You won't be making the call yourself yet, but you'll be in the room when someone does.
3 resources
Platform Teams
Portfolio support (module 5.1) starts as something individual investors do. At a certain size, firms turn it into a function: a platform team whose job is helping portfolio companies hire, sell, market and learn from each other. It's also one of the most accessible ways into a venture firm, and one of the least written about. This module covers what platform teams actually run, how they decide what to build first, how they show that any of it matters, and what the job looks like from the inside.
4 resources