Competitive Round Allocation Template
Three documents and three sheets that turn a value-add claim into a founder-checkable one, with named evidence instead of a general pitch.
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Founder-facing Value Proposition
[Fund] — Value Proposition for [Company]
Every capability below traces to a specific instance in the Prior Portfolio Support Evidence sheet. A capability with no instance behind it does not appear here.
What we've actually delivered
| Capability | Instances | Companies |
|---|---|---|
| — | — | — |
| — | — | — |
| — | — | — |
One example per capability
Company, date, what happened, and the result, specific enough for a reference call to confirm independently.
What we are not claiming
Any capability with zero or one recorded instance is left off this page rather than described in general terms.
Kestrel Ventures' standard pitch claims six capabilities: enterprise BD introductions, engineering hiring support, follow-on fundraise introductions, PR support, technical advisory, and international expansion help. Checked against three years of actual portfolio records across twelve companies, two of those six have zero recorded instances and a third has exactly one, undocumented. A third of the fund's standard pitch describes something that, on its own record, has never happened or happened once with no result. The Founder-facing Value Proposition for a live round only uses what survives that check.
In the same round, three funds asked for a combined $9 million against $6 million the syndicate actually had open, 1.5 times oversubscribed. Kestrel and one other fund each named a portfolio founder willing to confirm one specific instance; both got their full ask. The third fund's value-add section named no specific instance to check, and received none of the $6 million despite asking for a third of total demand. The same discipline behind a pipeline register applies here: a claim with no record is not evidence yet.
A survey of 885 venture capitalists finds VCs report spending an average of 18 hours a week working with portfolio companies, out of a 55-hour week. That is what a value-add claim is actually competing against once a founder tries to check it. A separate analysis of competitive rounds finds that a founder tests the type of engagement through reference conversations, not general claims, whichever way the reference was found. By the time a fund reaches this stage the deal has already cleared screening; what decides allocation is a separate, later question.
What is in the pack
Prior Portfolio Support Evidence
One row per instance of help actually delivered, by company, capability and date, so a claimed capability with no row behind it becomes visible instead of assumed
Founder-facing Value Proposition
Built only from capabilities the evidence sheet supports, each with one specific, named instance rather than a general description of what the fund usually does
Reference Offer
Two or three portfolio founders named against the specific instance they can confirm, reachable directly rather than routed back through the fund first
Allocation Request
One number and a stated minimum, tied to the round's actual open allocation rather than a range that reads as not having decided
Syndicate Register
Every known fund competing for the same allocation, its ask, whether it has offered a checkable reference, and what it actually received
A claim needs a name
The standing rule: a capability with zero or one undocumented instance does not go on this round's Value Proposition, however confident the fund is that it is true
How it works
- 1
Send your portfolio support history
Update threads, support requests, email or Slack history, board notes, or a partner's own recollection if nothing was written down, covering the trailing two to three years.
- 2
Audit the claims against the record
Every capability on the fund's standard pitch gets checked for actual instances. A capability with zero or one undocumented instance is flagged, not softened.
- 3
Write the Value Proposition and Reference Offer
Built only from what survived the audit, each capability with one specific, named instance and a portfolio founder who has confirmed they will take a call about it.
- 4
Track the live round
The Allocation Request states one number. The Syndicate Register and Commitment Tracker keep the rest of the round, and what has actually wired, visible as it moves.
Frequently asked questions
Why drop a capability with only one recorded instance?
Because one undocumented instance is not a pattern, and a founder checking it finds a fund that overclaimed. In the worked example, two of Kestrel's six standard claims had zero instances across twelve companies and three years; a third had exactly one. All three get dropped from this round's pitch specifically, not deleted from the fund's story forever.
What if we don't have three years of clean records?
Most funds don't, and the evidence sheet is built from whatever exists: update threads, emails, Slack history, or a partner's own memory of specific instances. A thin record is itself useful information; it tells you which capabilities to actually start delivering before the next competitive round, rather than continuing to claim them without evidence.
Does this decide how much allocation to ask for?
No. The Allocation Request states a number based on the fund's own standard check size and the round's stated open allocation, not a formula this pack computes. What the evidence sheet and Reference Offer affect is whether a founder trusts that number enough to grant it, once every fund at the table has made roughly the same size ask.
Does offering a reference replace whatever checking the founder does on their own?
No, and it isn't meant to. A founder who finds a different portfolio company independently and asks about the same capability should get the same answer as the offered reference gives. If a claim only holds up when this fund arranges and pre-briefs the call, it wasn't ready to offer.
Does a source's history with this fund affect anything here?
It can inform which portfolio founders to ask for a reference, but this pack does not rank where a deal came from. That is a separate discipline in tracking referral sources; this space starts once a fund is already competing for allocation in a specific round.
What does Edit with AI actually do?
It installs this pack as your own private space, then builds the Prior Portfolio Support Evidence sheet from whatever record you send. It flags which of your standard pitch's claims the record actually supports, drafts the Value Proposition from only those, and helps structure the Reference Offer and Allocation Request for your live round.
What format are the downloaded files?
The Value Proposition, Reference Offer and Allocation Request download as Word documents; the three sheets download as CSV. Word opens in Word, Pages or Google Docs, and the CSVs open in Excel, Numbers or Sheets with the columns intact.
Find out how many of your standard pitch's claims your own record actually supports
Send your portfolio support history. The first pass checks every claimed capability against it and flags which ones are ready to name a founder against.
Build my value proposition