Committee memos, packets, reviews and decisions
Write the investment memo, freeze it into a committee packet, collect independent reviews with recusals, and record the decision with its conditions.
The investment committee works on a deal's Decision tab and on the Committee page in the sidebar. The analyst drafts the memo, the sponsoring partner owns it, a partner freezes it into a packet for the committee, reviewers vote, and a partner records what the committee decided. Delsivo keeps every version, vote and decision with who and when. It never decides or moves a deal on its own.
Who can do what
| Role | Memo | Packets | Reviews | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admin, Partner | Read and edit | Freeze, change dates and reviewers, open every packet | Review the packets they are assigned to | Record and amend |
| Analyst | Read and edit on deals they can open | See each packet's status on the Decision tab, can't open packets | No | No |
| Committee member | No | Open only the packets they review | Their own review | No |
Committee members don't open deal pages. They read the frozen packet, which holds everything they need. See Team and roles.
Write the memo
- Open the deal and choose Decision.
- Click Start the memo, or Start with an AI draft to have suggestions ready when you open it.
- Set the Sponsoring partner (an admin or partner) and Drafted by. When the memo is started, the sponsor is the deal owner if they are a partner, and the drafter is you.
- Fill in The ask at the top of Summary and the ask: Currency, Instrument (SAFE, convertible note or priced round), Lead or follow, Round size, Pre-money valuation, Our cheque, Ownership after the round, Reserves for follow-on and Ownership at exit after dilution. The post-money valuation and the ownership your cheque buys are worked out as you type.
- Write the sections. Use the section list on the left (a menu on a phone) to jump between them:
| Section | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Summary and the ask | The deal in a paragraph, with the round and your cheque |
| Company and product | What they build, for whom, and how it works |
| Team | Founders, founder-market fit, key hires and references |
| Market and why now | Bottom-up size, the buyer, and what changed |
| Traction and metrics | Revenue, growth, customers, retention and pipeline |
| Business model and unit economics | Pricing, gross margin, CAC and payback, burn and runway |
| Competition | Incumbents, startups and substitutes, and the edge |
| Thesis fit | How the deal fits your thesis, with the fit readings |
| Investment case | Why this could return the fund |
| Countercase, key risks and mitigants | The strongest reasons not to invest, and how each risk would be tracked |
| Diligence status and open items | What is verified, disputed and still open, with owners |
| Proposed terms and return scenarios | Entry valuation, ownership after dilution, reserves, outcomes |
| Recommendation | What the sponsor asks the committee to decide |
- Under each section, Cite a source to attach an accepted claim, the fit readings, the interview assessment or an accepted research finding. Only these can be cited. Suggested or dismissed claims and findings, deck text, transcripts and data room files can't.
- Click Save (or press ⌘S, Ctrl+S on Windows). If a teammate saved first, you're asked to refresh so nothing is overwritten. Leaving with unsaved changes asks first.
Draft with AI
Click Draft with AI. A step tracker shows the draft running. When it's ready, each section that has something to say shows a lilac suggestion with its citations. For each one, choose Use this draft, Add below (keeps what you wrote) or Dismiss. Each has Undo, and nothing is kept until you save.
The AI reads only the sources the memo may cite: accepted claims, the fit readings with your team's overrides, the interview assessment with your team's decisions, and accepted research findings. It never sees deck text, transcripts, data room documents or founder contact details. Claim text and web pages are treated as untrusted data, so instructions hidden in them are ignored. Any citation to something outside that list is removed. The AI doesn't recommend a decision: the Recommendation suggestion sets out what the committee would need to decide. If a draft fails, click Try again. Your memo is never changed by a failed run.
Freeze a packet
When the memo is ready, an admin or partner clicks Freeze packet in the Committee packet panel on the Decision tab. Save the memo first: a packet freezes the saved version.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Reviewers | Admins, partners and committee members. Partners and committee members are ticked to start with. |
| IC meeting | The date of the committee meeting. Shown to reviewers. |
| Reviews due | When reviews should be in. You're warned if it falls after the meeting. |
| Voting rule | Majority, Unanimous, or Champion, no veto (at least one Invest with the highest conviction, and nobody votes Pass). |
| Independent review | On by default. Each reviewer submits before seeing anyone else's review. |
An admin can tick Make this voting rule and review setting the fund's default to use them for later packets.
The packet freezes the written sections, the ask, the sponsor and drafter, and the evidence as it stands: accepted claims, fit readings, the interview assessment, accepted research with dated sources, and open questions. It gets a fingerprint, shown at the bottom of the packet as Content matches its fingerprint, so anyone can see it hasn't changed. The packet then waits on each reviewer's Committee page.
To move the meeting, change the due date or add and remove reviewers, open the packet and click Dates and reviewers. The frozen content doesn't change. A reviewer who has submitted can't be removed.
Amendments
Once someone edits and saves the memo, the panel says the memo changed since the packet was frozen, and the button becomes Freeze amendment. The amendment is a new version. The earlier packet is marked Amended and keeps its reviews, and reviewers move to the new version. Version links at the top of a packet let you read each one.
Review a packet
The Committee page lists Awaiting your review (with the IC meeting and due date), Open packets and Recent decisions. Committee members see only the packets they review.
Open a packet to read the frozen Memo and the Evidence tab. Then, under Your review:
- Choose your Vote: Invest, Pass, Need more information or Abstain.
- Set your Conviction from 1 (Low) to 5 (Champion).
- Add Comments.
- Click Save draft to come back later (only you can see a draft), or Submit review. Submitted reviews are final.
If you have a conflict of interest, turn on I have a conflict of interest and click Submit and recuse. Your review is recorded without a vote and doesn't count in the tally.
A conflict declared on the deal's Decision tab works the same way: until an admin or partner clears it, you can't vote on the deal's packets, and a vote you already cast counts as recused. See Conflicts of interest and recusal.
With independent review on, you see the other reviews only after you submit. The Reviews panel shows who has submitted, and once you can see the votes, what the voting rule says so far: The votes support investing, The votes don't support investing or Waiting for reviews. The rule guides the decision; a partner records it.
Record the decision
An admin or partner opens the packet and clicks Record the decision:
| Decision | What you add |
|---|---|
| Invest | Go ahead to a term sheet |
| Invest with conditions | Each condition with an Owner and a Due date (Add a condition for more) |
| Pass | The rationale, kept internal |
| Revisit later | Revisit on a date, Or when something happens (for example, they reach 1M ARR), or both |
Every decision needs a Rationale, an Accountable owner and the date it was Decided on. The record keeps who decided, when, what, why and the vote tally. Founders never see the rationale, the votes or the memo.
To change a decision, click Amend the decision. The earlier record stays in the history under the new one.
Next steps after a decision
Recording a decision doesn't move the deal, create tasks or contact the founder. The Next steps panel on the packet and on the Decision tab offers each step as a separate click:
- Move the deal to Terms after an invest decision, Pass the deal after a pass, or Move the deal to Revisit later after revisit later. You confirm first, and the move has Undo. Passing asks Why you're passing, the same reasons as everywhere else, so Reports can count committee passes by reason too.
- Add a term sheet task, due in a week, for the decision's owner.
- Add the conditions as tasks, one per condition for its owner and due date. See My tasks.
- The Founder message panel beside Next steps drafts the decision message from your fund's template, with the kind the decision suggests (Pass, Not now or We'd like to invest). A partner or admin approves it before it is sent, and it never includes the committee's reasons. See Telling the founder your decision.
Revisit later
After a Revisit later decision the panel shows when to look again, for example "Revisit on 1 Mar 2027, or when: they reach 1M ARR. The deal stays where it is until you move it." Nothing happens on its own. Click Move the deal to Revisit later and confirm: the deal moves to Revisit later with the decision's date and trigger copied onto it, so it appears in Deals → Revisit and its owner is reminded on the date. The move is recorded in the deal's history as "Committee decision: revisit later." and can be undone from the message that appears. Nothing is sent to the founder.
Only an admin or partner who can see the packet and change the deal can make the move. To change the date or trigger afterwards, use the Revisit button on the deal. See Passing on a deal and revisiting it later.
Once the deal is in Terms, its Closing tab tracks the term sheet, confirmatory diligence and closing checklist, with the committee's conditions already on it. See Closing a deal, from term sheet to portfolio.
Frequently asked questions
Can an analyst freeze a packet or record a decision?
No. Freezing, assigning reviewers and recording decisions need an admin or partner. Analysts write the memo and see each packet's status on the Decision tab.
What happens to reviews when I freeze an amendment?
They stay on the earlier packet, which is marked Amended. Reviewers review the new version from scratch, so each review matches the exact memo it was given.
Why can't a committee member open the deal?
Committee members read only the packets they review, frozen at the moment the partner sent them. That keeps everyone on the same version and keeps the rest of the deal, and your other deals, private.
Does the AI draft decide anything?
No. It writes suggestions from accepted evidence for a person to use or dismiss. It never votes, records a decision or moves a deal.
Something unclear or missing? Tell us