Passing on a deal and revisiting it later
Pass with a reason category, alone or in bulk, and park deals in Revisit later with a date or trigger. The owner is reminded on the date.
Most deals are a quick pass, and a quick, kind pass protects your fund's reputation with founders. Some passes are "not yet": the company is too early, or you'd look again at a milestone. Delsivo lets you note that when you pass, and reminds the owner when it's time.
Pass on a deal
- Open the deal and choose Passed in the stage menu at the top. From the deals list, open the side sheet and click Pass (or press P). On the board, drag the card to Passed.
- Choose Why you're passing. See the reasons below. When the deal's fit report shows a hard-rule mismatch, the matching reason is already chosen and marked (from the fit report); change it if the real reason is another one.
- Add a Note if it helps the team. It's optional, except for Other. The note stays in the deal's Activity and the founder never sees it.
- Optionally, under Revisit later, pick a date in Revisit on, write a trigger in Or when (for example "They reach 1M ARR"), or both.
- Under Write to the founder, check the decision message drafted from your fund's template, or switch it off to write it later. See Telling the founder your decision.
- Click Pass and send message (partners and admins), Pass and ask for approval (analysts), or Pass deal when the message is off.
The reason, the note and the revisit are saved together with the pass: if the pass doesn't go through (for example, a teammate changed the deal a moment ago), none of them is saved.
The founder keeps seeing In review until a decision message is sent; then their status is Decision made, or Not now for a Not now message. The same holds for Revisit later: the founder sees Not now only once you send that message from the Decision tab. Nobody writes to the founder without a person approving it. The board's pass dialog has the reason, the note and the revisit; write the founder message afterwards from the deal's Decision tab.
The pass reasons
| Reason | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Outside the thesis: stage | Earlier or later than the rounds the fund leads or joins |
| Outside the thesis: sector | A sector or customer type the thesis doesn't cover |
| Outside the thesis: geography | Incorporated or operating outside the fund's regions |
| Outside the thesis: cheque size | The round, or the cheque it needs, is outside the fund's range |
| Team | Founder-market fit, gaps in the team, or how the founders work together |
| Market | Too small, shrinking, or no clear reason it opens up now |
| Traction | Not enough proof yet: revenue, usage, retention or pipeline |
| Valuation | The price or the terms don't work for the fund |
| Timing, too early | Interesting, but too early for the fund. Often worth a revisit date |
| Competitive conflict | Competes with a portfolio company, or another conflict |
| Other | Anything else. Say why in the note |
The "outside the thesis" reasons follow your thesis rubric: a deal that misses your stage rule suggests Outside the thesis: stage, a missed round size rule Outside the thesis: cheque size, and so on. When the team overrode a rule on the Fit tab, the override counts. Team, market, traction, valuation and timing are judgement calls, so Delsivo never picks them for you.
Passes from before reasons had categories keep their note and show as Not categorised in Reports.
Pass on many deals at once
In Deals, tick the deals and click Pass in the toolbar. In Pass on N deals?:
- Choose one reason for all of them. When some of them miss a hard rule, Use each deal's thesis mismatch gives each of those its own reason, and the rest get the one you chose.
- Add an optional note and revisit. They're the same for every deal.
- Under Write to each founder, pick Pass or Not now, and an optional Come back when. Each company gets its own message, drafted from your template with its founders' names. Partners and admins send them with the pass. An analyst's messages wait for a partner's approval on each deal's Decision tab. A deal with no founder on your portal is passed without a message.
Each deal is passed on its own, together with its message and revisit. A deal you can't change, a closed deal, or one a teammate changed a moment ago is skipped, and the message after the pass names it and says why. Passing many deals has no Undo, because it stops interviews and requests and may send messages.
Passing also cancels interview invitations the founder hasn't started and revokes requests still waiting on them, with their reminders, in the same step. A call already running finishes. No new invitation or request can go out until the deal is reopened.
Move a deal to Revisit later
Revisit later parks a deal you haven't passed on but aren't working now. Moving a deal there, from the stage menu, the board or a bulk Move, asks When to look again: a date, a trigger, or both. One of them is needed, so no parked deal is forgotten. They're saved with the move. A deal that already has a revisit (for example a passed deal you park) keeps it, and you can change it in the same dialog.
Add or change a revisit later
On a passed deal (or one in Revisit later), the header shows a Revisit button: Set a revisit when there's none, or the date and trigger when there is. Click it to change them, or Remove revisit to clear it. A message with Undo confirms the change.
Admins, Partners and the Analyst who owns the deal can change a revisit. Changes are recorded in the activity log.
After a committee decision to revisit later
When the investment committee decides Revisit later, the decision records a date, a trigger or both, and the deal stays where it is. On the packet's Next steps panel, Move the deal to Revisit later moves it to Revisit later with that date and trigger, after you confirm. See Committee memos and votes.
The Revisit list
Click Revisit at the top of Deals. Passed deals with a revisit are grouped in tabs:
| Tab | What's in it |
|---|---|
| Due now | The revisit date has come |
| Upcoming | A date is set and hasn't come yet, soonest first |
| Waiting on a trigger | A trigger and no date. A trigger can't fire by itself: check these when you hear news about the company |
| No date or trigger | Deals in Revisit later without either (shown only when there are some) |
Each row shows when the deal was passed, the reason and the note (internal), the revisit, and the owner. Click Change to edit the revisit or Open deal to reopen it. Analysts see the deals they own.
Pass reasons in Reports
Reports → Decisions has Pass reasons: the deals passed in the period by reason, with each reason's share, and Came back, how many of them were reopened into the pipeline afterwards. Use it to see why the fund says no, and whether "too early" passes return. A deal passed twice counts once, under its latest reason. The deals export in Reports → Export has a Pass category column next to Pass reason. Analysts see the deals they own.
The reminder
On the revisit date (in your fund's time zone), the deal's owner gets one reminder, in the app and by email, linking to the Revisit list. If the deal has no owner, the fund's Partners and Admins get it. The reminder names the company only; the pass reason stays inside Delsivo. If you set a new date, the owner is reminded again on that date.
Each person can switch the revisit reminder off for email or the app in Settings → Notifications.
Reopen a deal
When you're ready, open the deal and move it back into the pipeline, for example to Screening. The move asks for a reason, which explains the reopening in the deal's history. A pass message that wasn't sent yet is discarded. Interviews and requests cancelled by the pass stay cancelled; send new ones if you need them. Delsivo never reopens a deal or contacts the founder on its own.
Frequently asked questions
Does the founder know we plan to revisit?
No. The revisit is internal. If you want the founder to know, choose Not now in the decision message and fill in Come back when.
What's the difference between Passed and Revisit later?
Passed is a decision. Revisit later parks a deal you haven't passed on but aren't working now, for example after a committee decides to come back later. A pass can carry a revisit date or trigger; a deal in Revisit later always has one.
Does the founder see the pass reason?
No. The reason, the note and any revisit stay with your team. The decision message names no reasons unless a person writes them in.
Can a committee decision set the revisit?
A committee "revisit later" decision records its date or trigger on the decision itself, in the deal's Decision tab. Add it on the deal with the Revisit button to have it in the Revisit list and get the reminder.
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