# Telling the founder your decision

> Send founders a kind, final decision message from your fund's template when you pass, invest or say not now. A partner or admin approves every message first.

Source: https://delsivo.com/help/pipeline-and-committee/founder-decision-messages · Updated 2026-11-07

## Key takeaways

- A founder hears your decision only from a decision message a person approved. Delsivo never writes to a founder on its own.
- The message starts from your fund's template for Pass, Not now or We'd like to invest. It names no reasons, scores or notes unless someone writes them in.
- Analysts write the message and a partner or admin approves it. A partner or admin who writes it sends it at once, which is their approval.
- Once sent, it goes by email to every founder of the company on your portal and stays in their Updates. Their status changes only then: Not now for a Not now message, Decision made with the outcome for the others.
- Passing a deal also stops its open interview invitations and the requests still waiting on the founder.

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](/help/portal-and-branding/founder-status-settings).
- 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](/help/team-and-settings/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.