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How to write an IC memo that reconciles.

Worked guides for emerging GPs, angels, syndicate leads, and accelerator IC staff. Each one takes a question you'd actually type into a search box — "how do I size a market bottom-up," "what does dilution do to my ownership," "how many deals should a $25M fund make" — and answers it with the exact arithmetic the kit's engine uses, run on a real example. No fluff, no gated PDF to read them.

Newer to venture? Start with the vocabulary.

Before the technical guides, here's the plain-English version of the terms they assume. An IC memo is the write-up an investor circulates before putting money into a startup. A check is the amount you invest; a round is a fundraise the company runs. Dilution is your ownership shrinking as later rounds issue new shares. A liquidation preference is the right of certain investors to be paid back first when the company sells. TAM/SOM are market-size estimates (total possible vs. the slice you can realistically win). If those are new, read MOIC vs IRR and dilution + liquidation preference first — they build each idea from zero on one worked example — then the rest will read easily.

Memo structure

The 8-section IC memo, section by section

What each section has to accomplish, the questions an IC actually asks, and the single mistake that guts each one — the exact scaffold the kit's template is built on.

Screening

Stage-weighted deal screening, explained

Why a pre-seed can't be scored on traction it doesn't have, how the five-dimension weights shift from pre-seed to Series A, and how a fatal red flag caps the call. With the real weight table.

Cap table

Dilution + liquidation preference: the number copied memos get wrong

The waterfall worked step by step — entry ownership, two rounds of dilution, a senior preference stack — and why a "great multiple" can evaporate at a modest exit. Inline calculator included.

Construction

Portfolio construction math for small funds

Average check, ownership per check, position as a share of the fund, and the exit a single position needs to return the whole fund. Run your own fund through the inline model.

Returns

MOIC vs IRR — and why gross MOIC lies

How the two relate (IRR = MOIC^(1/years) − 1), why a headline multiple without a holding period or a preference stack is meaningless, and the arithmetic to convert between them.

Decision

How to write a PASS memo (and why you should)

A reasoned decline is a fund's most underrated artifact. What belongs in a PASS, how to make it re-openable, and how the scorecard's fatal-flag logic gives you the spine of one.

Read one, then score your own deal.

The stage-weighted scorecard and the return-model estimate are live and free on the landing page — no email to see your number. When you want the full template and three worked memos, the kit is a one-time download.