Monitor a Portfolio Company
Review and track material changes at a portfolio company using current public sources and approved internal context.
Find the changes that could affect how the investor supports, understands, or discusses a portfolio company. Start with one useful review before proposing continuous monitoring.
1. Define what would matter
Identify the company, relationship, period, audience, and decision the monitoring should support. Use approved board material, company updates, prior meetings, portfolio notes, CRM records, thesis, and the investor's existing priorities when available.
Agree on material signal areas. These may include financing, leadership, hiring, product, customer or partnership activity, commercial momentum, market shifts, regulation, litigation, security, reputation, competitive moves, or changes in the company's own claims. Do not monitor every available mention by default.
2. Establish the baseline and inspect current sources
Separate what the team already knew from what is new. Review the most recent reliable internal record, then inspect suitable current sources such as the company site and newsroom, filings, funding records, product pages, job postings, executive profiles, customer or partner announcements, credible reporting, and relevant market sources.
Use the visible, logged-in browser when important context lives in real tools or subscription sources. Keep source links and dates close to findings, and distinguish company announcements from independent evidence.
3. Verify the change and its significance
Confirm that the item concerns the correct company and is actually new for the period. Cross-check material claims, resolve duplicate reporting, and flag uncertain dates, recycled announcements, or weak signals.
Explain why a change may matter to the investment, relationship, upcoming meeting, risk view, or support opportunity. Mark that explanation as interpretation. No news is a valid result when no material change is supported.
4. Deliver the update and useful next step
Lead with the few material changes, then include:
- what changed and when;
- the source and evidence quality;
- why it may matter;
- relevant internal context or prior expectation;
- questions or follow-through worth considering; and
- notable areas checked with no supported change, when useful.
Use @prepare-for-meetings when the update should become a board, founder, or partner meeting brief. Use @prepare-a-status-update for a broader firm or portfolio update. Use @make-a-warm-introduction when a supported need becomes a useful connection.
After the investor accepts the sources and materiality bar, offer a Routine with a clear cadence or event trigger, companies, systems, signal areas, output, destination, and review behavior. It should draft only material changes, avoid repeating known items, and stop when company identity, source access, confidentiality, or the signal rules become unclear. Do not send company-facing messages or update records without sufficient scoped permission.
