Templates · Finance, investing & fundraising
Venture investment memo template
Origin: VC partnership practice; Bessemer Venture Partners publishes historical memos (Shopify, LinkedIn, Pinterest).
Sections
- Deal summary
- Thesis
- Market
- Product
- Team
- Traction & metrics
- Competition
- Risks
- Valuation & returns
- Recommendation
How a tough reader scores it
When you score a draft against this format, the Critic evaluates this investment memo. The weights add up to 100; the fixes for the weakest criteria arrive as cards in the editor.
| Criterion | Weight |
|---|---|
| Thesis is specific and falsifiable | 20 |
| Market and traction analysis is data-backed | 15 |
| Team assessment is candid | 10 |
| Competition is realistic | 10 |
| Risks are the real ones, with mitigants | 20 |
| Return scenarios are grounded in comparables | 15 |
| Recommendation follows from the analysis | 10 |
How it works in SecondPen.ai
Open the template and the editor writes the blank once, with a line of guidance under each heading that you delete as you fill it in. Write your abstract and the editor names the format it reads like. Ask for a document with a slash command and it offers to start from the matching format. When the draft is ready, the Critic scores it against the criteria above, the way this format's toughest reader would, and the three highest-leverage fixes become Editor cards.
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