Every early stage investor strives to have a full pipeline of startups in which to invest. But how do they manage all the dates and details of each prospect and ensure nothing slips through the cracks while determining if a deal is right for them? Organization tools, of course! Here’s our summary guide for what to look for in a professional deal flow management system, specifically for venture funds, angel groups, family offices, and other early stage investment organizations seeking to streamline their pipeline management process.
Key Features & Benefits of Deal Flow Management Software
- Customize Deal Flow Processes - Your deal flow solution should offer a high degree of customization and be adaptable to fit your investing thesis and any pre-established process you may already have in place.
- Collaborate on Deal Flow Tasks - Your pipeline management solution should enable you to assign administrative privileges or view-only access to your deal team so they can get involved in the deal flow process. Many eyes, ears and perspectives are beneficial, while additional hands help to lighten the load!
- Track Deal Flow Sources - Managing the “who and where” of your deal flow sourcing is important so you can continue to keep those sources and lines of communication open and clear to bring in new leads.
- Process Deal Flow Leads - Your deal flow software should offer multiple ways of entering new leads, including manual entry as well as through an online application form completed by entrepreneurs. Using a common application form ensures consistent information is collected for each prospect, enabling a more systematic approach to review all your opportunities.
- Manage Deal Flow Prospects and Details - Once prospects are entered into your deal flow platform, you should be able to track the pipeline stage of each opportunity. You and your deal team should be able to add and view notes, contacts, documents, pitch dates, next steps, and other relevant information.
- Evaluate Deal Flow Pipeline - With all your deal information consolidated in one place, it should be easy to look at each opportunity individually, by stage, as well as holistically across the whole pipeline. From new opportunities to those pitching, in investment committee or due diligence, you’ll want to record notes and additional information that factor into your decision process.
- Monitor Invested Companies and Passed Opportunities - As investment prospects move through your pipeline funnel, you’ll filter out companies for a variety of reasons. It may be due to valuation, not meeting your investment criteria, issues discovered during due diligence, or any number of other factors. You may opt to put companies on your watchlist to monitor and revisit after they’ve achieved established milestones. And once you make an investment, you should be able to track it along with the rest of your portfolio. Be sure your deal flow solution can handle all of these scenarios.
- Analyze Deal Flow for Insights - Your deal flow management system should turn your data into insights and enable you to conduct analysis with actionable outcomes. It should generate metrics for you to help recruit new investors and partner with other deal flow sources and entrepreneurs with similar criteria.
- Summarize Deal Flow Activity - Your deal flow platform should offer a snapshot dashboard summary for a quick overview of your current pipeline of investment opportunities and outcomes, along with key information to help you keep opportunities efficiently moving through your pipeline.
Be sure to read our full article about the 9 Key Elements of Deal Flow Management Software to learn more about the specific components to look for in a deal flow solution and why. And, check out our deal flow product announcement highlighting the key benefits of Seraf's fully-customizable deal flow solution.
Contact us so we can help you determine if Seraf is the best deal flow and portfolio management software for your specific needs.
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