Telling the founder your decision

Passing well protects your fund's reputation with founders. Delsivo drafts a kind, final message from your fund's own template, a person approves it, and it reaches the founders by email and in Updates on your portal. Until a message is sent, the founder keeps seeing In review.

Write the message when you pass#

1. Open the deal and choose Passed in the stage menu.
2. Write the internal Reason. It never reaches the founder.
3. Under Write to the founder (on by default when a founder of the company is on your portal):
   • Pick Pass (kind and final) or Not now (you'd like to hear from them again).
   • Optionally fill in Come back when, for example "you have a year of revenue data". It adds one line: "We would be glad to hear from you again when ...".
   • Read the Subject and Message. Edit anything you like. Use the template again brings back the template's words.
4. Click the button:
   • Pass and send message (partners and admins): the message goes out with the pass.
   • Pass and ask for approval (analysts, and partners without approvals): the message waits for a partner or admin.
   • Pass deal, when you switch Write to the founder off. Write the message later from the Decision tab.

On the board, the pass dialog asks for the reason only. Write the message afterwards from the deal's Decision tab.

Approve and send#

A message waiting for approval shows on the deal's Decision tab under Founder message, and as a banner on every tab of the deal. Partners and admins who approve outbound messages are told in the app (and by email if they chose it, event Decision messages to approve).

1. Open the deal's Decision tab.
2. Read the message. Click Edit to change the kind, subject or text.
3. Click Approve and send, then confirm. Or click Discard; nothing is sent.

A sent message can't be recalled. The Founder message panel lists what was sent, when, to how many founders and who approved it.

After a committee decision#

On the Decision tab, the Founder message panel suggests the kind from the committee's decision: Pass after a pass, Not now after revisit later, We'd like to invest after invest. A pass or not now message can only be sent once the deal is in Passed (or Revisit later for not now), so pass the deal first with Pass the deal in Next steps. An investment message can be sent from Committee or Terms.

What the founder gets#

• One email to each founder of the company on your portal, in your portal's brand, with the subject and text exactly as approved and a link to Updates. Teammates a founder invited to answer part of a request don't get it.
• The same message in Updates on your portal, newest first.
• Their status changes: Not now for a Not now message, Decision made for a pass or an investment, with the outcome on their status card ("The team decided not to invest." or "The team would like to invest."). Updated shows the date it was sent.
• Replies to the email go to your fund's contact address, if you set one in Settings → Founder status. See What founders see about their application.
• Their deck-fact corrections turn read only, and Upload a new deck version and Withdraw application go away from their workspace.

What passing stops#

When a deal moves to Passed or Closed, in the same step:

• Interview invitations that haven't started are cancelled. The founder's link stops working and reminders stop. A call already running finishes.
• Requests waiting on the founder (Sent, In progress, Changes requested) are revoked, with their reminders. Answers already sent to you stay. Draft requests stay for your team.
• No new interview invitation or request can be sent until someone reopens the deal.

If you reopen a passed deal, an unsent pass message is discarded.

Your fund's templates#

Admins set the words in Settings → Workflow → Decision messages: one template each for Pass, Not now and We'd like to invest, with a preview. Templates can use {founders} (first names), {company}, {fund} and {come_back_line}. Changing a template affects new drafts only.

Frequently asked questions#

Does the founder see our pass reason?#

No. The reason is internal. The message contains only the template's words and anything a person writes into it.

Who can send a decision message?#

Admins, and Partners whose approvals are on. Analysts and Partners without approvals write messages for them to approve. See Titles and approvals.

The company has no founder on our portal. What happens?#

There is no one to write to in Delsivo, so the message panel says so. Tell the founder yourself.

Can we pass without sending anything?#

Yes. Switch Write to the founder off. The founder keeps seeing In review until a message is sent, and the deal shows a reminder banner.