Key takeaways
- Separate hard rules from preferences; only hard rules should cause a pass.
- Write beliefs you could be wrong about, with what would change your mind.
- Say what a missing fact means: a question, not a rejection.
- Version and date the thesis every time it changes.
Investment thesis template to copy
Section 8 is short but matters: it stops a screen from rejecting good companies because a deck left something out.
INVESTMENT THESIS Fund: [name] Version: [number] Date: [date] Approved by: [partners] 1. IN ONE SENTENCE We back [stage] companies building [what] for [which customers] in [where], because we believe [the change you are betting on]. 2. HARD RULES (a deal outside these is a pass unless an exception below applies) Stage: [e.g. pre-seed and seed only] Geography: [where the company or its founders are based] Cheque size: [first cheque range] with [reserve policy for follow-ons] Ownership target: [range, if you have one] Instrument: [SAFE / priced / either] Legal limits from our fund documents: [sectors or structures we cannot invest in] 3. PREFERENCES (how much each counts: high / medium / low) [Customer type, e.g. sells to businesses] Weight: [ ] [Business model, e.g. recurring revenue] Weight: [ ] [Evidence, e.g. at least one paying customer] Weight: [ ] [Team, e.g. a founder who has worked in the industry] Weight: [ ] [Other] Weight: [ ] 4. WHAT WE BELIEVE (each written so evidence could prove it wrong) Belief 1: [ ] What would change our mind: [ ] Belief 2: [ ] What would change our mind: [ ] Belief 3: [ ] What would change our mind: [ ] 5. EXCLUSIONS We do not invest in: [sectors, models or practices you rule out] 6. EXCEPTIONS We will consider a deal outside a hard rule when: [the specific condition, and who must agree] 7. QUESTIONS WE ALWAYS ASK Before a first meeting: [ ] Before diligence: [ ] 8. WHAT A MISSING ANSWER MEANS If the deck doesn't tell us a fact a rule needs, we mark it Unknown and ask the founder. Unknown is not a reason to pass. 9. CHANGE LOG [date]: [what changed and why]
When to write or rewrite it
- Before raising a new fund, so the thesis matches what you tell limited partners.
- Before opening an inbound form, so the form asks for what the thesis needs.
- When partners notice they keep making exceptions: the thesis may have drifted.
- When a new team member starts screening and needs to apply it the way partners do.
How to fill it in well
A fictional fund, Harbourline Pre-Seed, first wrote "we back great founders in fintech". After using the template, its one-sentence version read: "We back pre-seed companies building payment and reconciliation software for small European manufacturers, because we believe their banks will not build it." Every word in the second version can be checked against a deck; none in the first can.
Keep preferences few. Five weighted preferences are easier to apply consistently than fifteen.
What to leave out
- Criteria about founders' age, gender, schools or former employers. They are proxies, not evidence.
- Vague words such as "exceptional" or "world-class" that two partners would read differently.
- Rules you won't actually enforce. If you always bend one, make it a preference.
Using the thesis with or without Delsivo
The template stands alone, and the free thesis builder turns the same structure into Markdown or JSON. Delsivo's thesis screening, planned for the Pilot release, is designed to store a thesis as versioned hard rules, weighted preferences, exceptions and questions, and to return Met, Mismatch or Unknown per criterion with its source. People make the decisions.