Your process, your stages
CRM tools force a generic sales pipeline that doesn't match VC deal flow. You end up with stages like "Qualified Lead" and "Proposal Sent" when what you need is "IC Review" and "Term Sheet." Your investment process is unique — your pipeline should reflect that.
Start your free trialYou signed up for a CRM hoping it would organize your deal pipeline. Instead, you got a tool built for B2B sales reps. The pipeline has stages like "Discovery," "Demo," and "Negotiation" — concepts that have no parallel in venture capital. You renamed them, but the underlying logic still doesn't fit.
Your investment process has nuances that generic tools can't capture. Maybe you have a "Partner Champion" stage where a deal needs an internal sponsor before advancing. Maybe you run a separate technical DD track in parallel with financial DD. Maybe your solo GP process skips the IC stage entirely because you are the IC.
When the tool doesn't match the process, people stop using the tool. Deals get tracked in heads, notebooks, and email threads instead of the pipeline. And when you can't see your pipeline clearly, you can't measure conversion rates, identify bottlenecks, or make data-informed decisions about where to focus your sourcing efforts.
Name your stages whatever makes sense for your process. "Coffee Chat," "Deep Dive," "Partner Meeting," "IC Vote," "Term Sheet" — your labels, your language. Rename anytime without losing historical data or disrupting active deals.
Rearrange your pipeline stages by dragging them into the right order. Add a new stage between existing ones, or remove stages you don't need. The pipeline layout updates instantly across the kanban board, list views, and reporting dashboards.
Define what information is required at each stage. A sourced deal only needs a name and sector. A deal entering DD requires a one-pager and financial model. A deal at term sheet needs valuation, check size, and lead investor. Required fields enforce process rigor without slowing you down early.
Assign colors to each stage for instant visual recognition on the kanban board. Green for active evaluation, yellow for awaiting founder response, red for deals at risk of timing out. Color your pipeline to match your visual thinking style.
Break complex stages into sub-steps without cluttering the main pipeline view. Due diligence might have sub-stages for financial review, technical assessment, reference checks, and legal review — each trackable independently while rolling up into one pipeline stage.
Set guardrails for how deals move through your pipeline. Require a completed deal memo before IC review. Require two partner approvals before term sheet. Rules prevent deals from advancing without proper evaluation and create accountability in the investment process.
A healthcare fund needs "Regulatory Review" and "KOL Diligence" stages that a fintech fund doesn't. Create pipelines tailored to your sector with required fields that capture the domain-specific data points your IC cares about.
When you're the entire investment team, you don't need 8 stages and multi-partner approvals. Strip the pipeline down to Sourced, Evaluating, DD, Decision, and Closed. Simple, fast, and honest about how solo GPs actually work.
Build stage transitions that require partner consensus. A deal can't move to IC Review without a champion partner. Term sheet requires majority approval. The pipeline becomes an accountability system that prevents any single partner from overcommitting the fund.
Archstone ships with a standard VC pipeline: Sourced, First Meeting, Deep Dive, Due Diligence, IC Review, Term Sheet, Closed, and Passed. These work for most funds out of the box, but every stage can be renamed, reordered, or removed. You can also add new stages at any point in the flow.
Yes. Create separate pipelines for different strategies — one for direct investments, another for SPV co-investments, a third for follow-on rounds. Each pipeline has its own stage configuration, required fields, and reporting. Deals move independently through their respective pipelines.
Archstone preserves historical data when you modify stages. If you rename 'Deep Dive' to 'Technical Review,' all past deals retain their history. If you add a new stage, existing deals don't need to pass through it. Reporting automatically adapts to your current stage configuration while maintaining accurate historical conversion rates.
Yes. Define required fields, approvals, or conditions for moving deals between stages. For example, require a completed scorecard before a deal can move to IC Review, or require partner sign-off before advancing to Term Sheet. Rules prevent deals from slipping through your process without proper evaluation.
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