Intro
This SOP is meant for the individual responsible for managing the deal flow of Weave. There is a video to support the information below. I recommend putting the video in 1.5x speed and slow down when needed.
More written information below.
Our deal flow has six core stages
- New Submissions — all companies coming into the pipeline start here. Either submitted by the founder through our application on our website or submitted by a General Partner (GP) via this form.
- Initial Review — companies that we find interesting and want to learn more about. These are companies we want to have an initial call with (if you’re reading this then that initial call is probably with you and the founder).
- Short-listed — companies that we are interested in beyond a first call. At this point, all GPs should likely have met with the founder.
- In Due Diligence — companies we are really interested in. At this point, one Weave team member will take on the role of deal lead, preparing a due diligence memo and working closely with the founder. Once the DD memo is complete, the deal lead give a pitch about the company to the other General Partners and the three of them will vote on whether the company should be added to Weave’s portfolio or not.
- Invested — pretty self explanatory. These are companies in our portfolio.
- Rejected — companies we are no longer interested in. A company at any stage can skip past the other stages and move directly into rejected.
Sub Stages:
- Interested, key an eye on — companies that we don’t want to forget about. They could be move to this stage for reasons such as being too early (pre-revenue) or maybe not currently fundraising.
- Time sensitive — if something about a company is urgent it will temporarily be placed in this stage. Then move it back to its respective stage when it is no longer urgent.
Managing the deal flow.
The general just of managing deal flow: company comes into the deal flow (AKA pipeline) through a founder or GP submission. The individual responsible for managing deal flow (likely you if you’re reading this) gives weekly presentations to the rest of the team of new submissions that came in during the week. During this presentation you will make note of the discussion being had on the call with the team, writing down which companies are interesting enough to have a first call with, reject or key an eye on. Regardless of their pipeline stage, send the founder an email updating them (but be careful…see the warning below).
Weekly presentation
As mentioned above, each week you will present to the team any new submissions that entered the pipeline. In addition you’ll want to discuss founders that you or a GP met with and decide next steps. Use this Canva template for to create the deck used in weekly presentations. For each new submission: include the basic information as seen below.
Different email templates
Submit application
If a company emails us about their raise, ask them to submit an application on our founder hub.
Reject application:
Change stage of company to Stage 6: Rejected.
Accept application and set up call:
Change stage of company to Stage 2: Initial Review.
Companies that we met with and are no longer interested:
This are companies that were at least as far as Stage 2: Initial Review of our pipeline.
Companies that we met with and want to meet again:
This are companies that were at least as far as Stage 2: Initial Review of our pipeline.
