Key takeaways
- Affiliation with the university is a hard rule; when a deck doesn't show it, it becomes a question on the application (Pilot).
- Student analysts work in the Analyst role; alumni experts join as guest experts with access that expires (first release).
- Rubric versions, pass reasons and audit history carry the fund's memory across years of changing reviewers.
- Many applicants are students. The fund is the controller of their data and sets retention.
Planned feature: not in Delsivo yet, and details may change before it ships.
What university venture fund software has to handle
University and alumni funds back companies with a tie to one institution: founded by students, alumni or staff, or built on its research. That tie is an eligibility rule other funds don't have, and decks rarely state it clearly.
Their reviewers are often volunteers. Student analysts serve a year or two, alumni experts give an evening a month, and faculty sit on an advisory board that changes over time. Access has to start and stop cleanly, and the fund's memory can't live in one student's inbox.
And the fund answers to the institution as well as its investors, so it needs to show how decisions were made long after the people who made them have graduated.
Affiliation as an eligibility rule
| What the application shows | Result | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| A founder lists a degree and year from the university | Met, citing the application answer | Counts toward eligibility |
| The deck mentions the university without detail | Unknown | A question asks which founder, which programme and which year |
| No founder has a tie to the university | Mismatch | A person reviews it, for example a licence of the university's research |
Delsivo doesn't connect to alumni or student records. Affiliation is what the founder states, checked by your team where it matters.
Student and alumni reviewers with scoped access
- Student analysts get the Analyst role and see the deals they are given or permitted to see (Pilot).
- A fund manager or faculty lead holds the Partner role and approves decisions and every message to founders (Pilot).
- Alumni experts join as guest experts who see only what is shared, until access expires (first release).
- When a student's year ends, remove their role. Their past work stays on each deal with their name, so nothing is lost.
- Multi-factor sign-in is required for partners and fund admins.
Keeping the fund's memory from year to year
Each year's team inherits the record of the last: every rubric version, every fit report run, every pass with its reason and every claim with its source. A founder who applied as a student and returns as an alumnus with a new company is suggested as a possible match by founder identity, and the earlier record is there for the new reviewers.
Advisory boards and investment committees can see why deals advanced without asking students who have left. A full committee workflow with frozen packets and independent reviews is planned for a later release.
Limits for university funds
- No connection to university systems, student records or alumni databases.
- Founders apply with a PDF deck; very early student teams without one may need a different route.
- One hosting region at launch, chosen with design partners. If your institution requires a specific region, ask before a pilot.
- Single sign-on with a university identity provider is part of the enterprise plans for a later release.