The platform team's job is to make the fund's story provable. During a fundraise, it keeps portfolio news flowing to prospective LPs, assembles the value-add evidence for the data room, prepares founder references and runs LP events with founders. Partners own the pitch and the relationships. Platform makes every claim easy to check.
A raise has a way of swallowing the platform team whole. A partner asks for help with the deck, then the data room, then an LP dinner, and three months later nobody on the team has had a real conversation with a founder. That's a problem twice over. Founders notice, and LPs call founders during diligence.
So the question isn't whether platform should help with the raise. It should. The question is which parts of the raise need platform specifically, and which parts just need someone.
Start six months before the first LP meeting
The most useful fundraise work happens before the raise officially starts. LPs who've been hearing good, specific news about the portfolio for months show up to the first meeting already warm.
Platform is in the best position to supply that news, because it's closest to the companies. Each month, pick a few real moments: a big customer win, a strong hire, a follow-on round led by a respected firm. Then match them to what each prospective LP cares about. A climate-focused family office hears about the climate companies. An LP who likes technical founders hears about the research spinout.
Keep these as drafts for partners to send, in their own voice, from their own inbox. A short note from a partner gets read. A newsletter from a no-reply address mostly doesn't.
Use the same six months to get the platform evidence in order: the value-add record, a few case studies and a reference bench. How LPs evaluate a firm's platform value covers what that evidence should look like. If this is your first fund, raising fund one covers the wider timeline.
Who owns what during the raise
Write the split down early, so platform doesn't become the default owner of every loose end. A simple RACI table works: R is responsible for doing it, A is accountable for the result and C is consulted.
| Task | Partners | Platform | Ops or IR |
|---|---|---|---|
| LP relationships and pitch meetings | A, R | C | |
| LP pipeline and follow-ups | A | R | |
| Portfolio section of the data room | A | R | C |
| Value-add evidence and case studies | A | R | |
| Founder references | A | R | |
| LP events with founders | A | R | C |
| DDQ answers on platform and portfolio | A | R | C |
| Track record and fund financials | A | R | |
| Deck design and formatting | A | R, or an outside designer |
Your split will differ, especially if the platform lead also runs IR at a small firm. What matters is that every task has one owner, and that the platform tasks are the ones where portfolio knowledge actually matters.
The portfolio section of the data room
LPs spend real time on the portfolio. Make it easy for them to see what's happening at each company, and to trust what they read.
For each company, write a short one-pager:
- What the company does, in one sentence.
- Stage, round history and the fund's ownership.
- Current status, with two or three recent metrics, each with a date and a source.
- What the platform team did for the company, if it was meaningful.
- A founder quote, if you have permission to use it.
Consistency matters most here. The numbers in the data room have to match the numbers existing LPs already saw in their quarterly reports, and they have to match what founders say on a reference call. A revenue figure that differs between two documents makes an LP wonder what else is off. If every number traces back to a board deck or an update, you can answer that question in seconds instead of days.
When this section takes weeks, it's usually because the data lives in 15 places. Fix that before the raise, not during it. With current data in one place, the one-pagers start from a draft instead of a scavenger hunt.
LP events that show the portfolio
LPs want to meet founders in person. A small dinner with three or four founders and a handful of prospective LPs does more than any slide. LPs hear about the business directly, and founders talk about the firm in their own words.
A few rules keep this from turning into a burden on founders:
- Ask sparingly. No founder should attend more than one or two LP events during a raise.
- Make it worth their time. Seat founders next to guests who could help them, such as potential customers or later-stage investors.
- Keep it small. Twelve people around one table beats a hundred at a reception.
- Follow up. Send each LP a short note afterward, with any news about the founders they met.
Keep the portfolio work running
A raise can take a year or more. Platform can't go dark for that long. Block time each week that the fundraise can't touch, and keep the signal-based work going: when a founder posts new roles or buries an ask in an update, someone still needs to notice and act on it.
Tell partners this up front. Something like: "I'll own references, the portfolio section of the data room and LP events. Tuesdays and Thursdays stay with founders." Most partners will agree once they connect the dots, since the founders LPs call are the same ones platform is still helping (and those founders will remember who showed up).
Which fundraise tasks are worth the platform team's time?
The ones only platform can do well: portfolio evidence, founder references, portfolio content for LPs and LP events with founders. Formatting decks, chasing signatures and scheduling are better handled by ops, an assistant or software. Protect some portfolio time too, since founders still need help during a raise.
A quick test for any request that lands on you during the raise: does this need someone who knows the portfolio? If yes, it's probably yours. If not, push back gently and suggest who should own it.
Requests that often land on platform and shouldn't:
- Formatting and redesigning the deck.
- Scheduling LP meetings and chasing calendars.
- Chasing subscription documents and signatures.
- Building track record tables from the fund's financials.
These all matter. They just don't need portfolio knowledge, and every hour spent on them is an hour a founder doesn't get.
How do you prepare portfolio references for LP diligence?
Pick founders across vintages, stages and outcomes, including at least one company that struggled. Ask permission early, brief each founder on who will call and why, and track how often each one is used. Never script them. LPs trust references that sound specific and unrehearsed.
LPs ask founders different questions than prospective founders do. Expect things like: How often does the partner actually show up? How did the firm behave when things went badly? Would you take their money again? Did the platform team help with anything specific? Your references should be ready to answer those honestly.
Build a bench of eight to ten founders:
- Different fund vintages, so LPs hear about the firm over time.
- Different stages and outcomes, including a company that struggled or shut down.
- A mix of founders who used the platform heavily and lightly.
Before each call, send a short note:
Hi [name], an LP considering our next fund would love 20 minutes with you in the next week or two. They'll probably ask how we've worked with you, good and bad. Please be candid, that's exactly why we asked you. Totally fine to say no if this is a busy stretch.
Log each call, and give a founder a break after two or three during a single raise. Afterward, thank them and tell them how the raise is going. A founder who gave a reference for your next fund should hear about the close from you, not from a press release.