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Investment Memo Templates

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Structured templates for screening memos, seed memos, and Series A write-ups

  1. 1
    Executive Summary: Company, stage, raise amount, and your investment recommendation in 2-3 sentences.
  2. 2
    The Insight: What non-consensus belief about this market drives the investment? Why is this contrarian view correct?
  3. 3
    Founding Team: Relevant domain expertise, founder-market fit, prior working relationships, and key hires made to date.
  4. 4
    Problem & Market: Define the pain point, who experiences it, and how large the opportunity is (bottom-up TAM).
  5. 5
    Product & Early Signals: What exists today? Early customer reactions, waitlist size, design partner commitments, or prototype feedback.
  6. 6
    Go-to-Market Hypothesis: How will the first 100 customers be acquired? What channels and motions will the team test?
  7. 7
    Competitive Landscape: Who else is pursuing this? What is the company's unfair advantage or right-to-win?
  8. 8
    Deal Terms & Fund Fit: Proposed valuation, check size, ownership target, and how this fits the fund's stage/sector focus.
  9. 9
    Key Risks: The 2-3 existential risks and why you believe they are acceptable.
  10. 10
    Decision & Next Steps: Your recommendation and any conditions (co-investor requirements, milestone targets).
  1. 1
    Executive Summary: Company, metrics snapshot, raise amount, lead/co-invest, and recommendation.
  2. 2
    Business Overview: What the company does, for whom, and how they make money. Include key product screenshots or demos.
  3. 3
    Market Opportunity: Independent TAM sizing (top-down and bottom-up). Why is the timing right? What secular trend supports this?
  4. 4
    Traction & Metrics: ARR/MRR growth, retention (logo and net revenue), unit economics (CAC, LTV, payback), and engagement data.
  5. 5
    Founding Team & Organization: Team backgrounds, key hires, organizational structure, and culture signals.
  6. 6
    Product & Technology: Product differentiation, technical architecture, defensibility, and product roadmap priorities.
  7. 7
    Go-to-Market: Current sales motion, pipeline analysis, channel mix, and expansion strategy (new segments, geographies, products).
  8. 8
    Competitive Analysis: Feature comparison matrix, positioning map, and sustainable differentiation assessment.
  9. 9
    Financial Model: Revenue projections, expense plan, burn analysis, and path to next milestone. Bull/base/bear scenarios.
  10. 10
    Deal Terms: Valuation justification (comps, return analysis), board dynamics, and key investor rights.
  11. 11
    Risks & Mitigants: Detailed risk assessment with specific mitigating factors for each.
  12. 12
    References: Summary of customer reference calls, expert network conversations, and competitive checks.
  1. 1
    One-Liner: What does the company do in one sentence?
  2. 2
    Stage & Raise: How much are they raising, at what valuation, and what stage?
  3. 3
    Team: Quick assessment. Are these the right founders for this problem? Evidence of founder-market fit?
  4. 4
    Market: Is this market large enough to produce a fund-returning outcome?
  5. 5
    Traction: What is the strongest evidence of product-market fit today?
  6. 6
    Why Now: What has changed (technology, regulation, behavior) that makes this the right moment?
  7. 7
    Competition: Who else is doing this and why might this team win?
  8. 8
    Fund Fit: Does this align with our thesis, stage, and check size? Any portfolio conflicts?
  9. 9
    Initial Take: Pass, revisit later, or proceed to full diligence? Why?
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