Venture Partner

Frequently Asked Questions

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General

To become a venture partner, you must be interviewed by all of the Loyal VC partners, and sign an advisor agreement, if you have not yet. You will then enter a typically four month trial period where you act as a venture partner and get a chance to see what the role is all about. If both sides are happy, you will then receive a venture partner agreement to sign (note: we are reviewing our contracts to have them start immediately with a trial period to start). If you have further questions, please feel free to refer to this FAQ.

Here are answers to questions that Loyal VC LP (“Loyal VC”) has frequently received relating to its venture partner contract and role. As outlined in this Disclaimer,the answers are provided for general information purposes only. All references to ‘$’ refer to United States dollars.

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You will work with a minimum of 6 companies on recurring monthly phone calls. We recommend that you start there and get comfortable. Over time this should increase to 10-12.

Companies are chosen in mutual consultation with Loyal, based on which companies best fit your background and interests, and which companies are currently available.

You will receive access to your companies’ folders that they use to submit their monthly reports and documents to Loyal VC.

All venture partner materials, and useful links, can be accessed on the venture partner portal. Email cassidy@loyal.vc for the link.

Every venture partner (VP) is expected to contribute to Loyal in multiple ways. While a VP may emphasize one role more, they are expected to contribute in at least 3 ways each month: advise entrepreneurs: be the lead contact within LVA for 10+ companies evaluate investments: take part in each monthly investment and valuation meeting … and either fundraising: source at least one new investor lead each month … or operations: contribute to a capacity building project, or operations in some way

No. Your primary responsibility is to know the company, not manage it. As the lead investor you need to gather the data to allow Loyal to make good investment decisions. You should also support the company, sometimes with your own advice, and more frequently by encouraging them to use the advisor network. If we support well, we build a strong relationship with the entrepreneur. If they succeed they are then more likely to accept follow-on offers from us.

Loyal tries to ensure that every venture partner gets a mix of companies, including some high performers that are likely to receive follow-on funding, and some struggling companies that seem likely to fail if they perform as they have in the past. It is not fair to give some people only ‘winners’ and hence everyone else all the ‘losers’.

Advising

Venture partners take on a closer relationship with Loyal than the average advisor. This role could be a way to fill time between career stages, an ongoing role for someone who wants to contribute significantly, without doing all of the work expected of a full partner, or a learning and proving ground for future full-time work as a full partner, either with Loyal or your own fund.

Unlike advisors, who can pick and choose what to do, venture partners are expected to spend a little time on all three of the key activities involved in running the fund: mentoring, fundraising and operations. They also participate in the investment committee meetings and contribute to the investment decisions.

Review the Advisor FAQ here.

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In principle it does not need to take more than 1-2 hours per month. You should have a half hour call with every company every month. You would then spend additional time following up, often pointing the company to one of the Loyal advisors for more in-depth conversations.

In brief: use the advisors. Remember your primary role is making good investment decisions. While you will have good experience to share, with >1,000 great advisors, 99% of the time there should be someone better than you in the advisor network to help on any issue. Find them, don’t deal with every issue yourself. You should put extra hours on at most 2 companies each month, when they are at a key juncture and/or you truly are the very best to help them.

The three main principles that Loyal uses to guide its interactions are ‘founders know best’, ‘loyalty’ and ‘avoid unnecessary work’. All three are outlined in detail in the Onboarding FAQ for companies. We also advise companies to be transparent, ask for help, make it easy to be helped and be responsible for follow-through. Lastly, we always do double opt-in introductions.

We always make sure that both parties, the advisor and entrepreneur, explicitly agree to be introduced to each other before we make the introduction. Here is an article with more details. Founders should always use the advisor’s ‘Bridge’ link in the advisor portal. This is not only double opt-in, it also means we track the introduction.

We explicitly tell founders (under the ‘founders know best’ principle) that our advice will be wrong around 30% of the time, and that good founders should frequently ignore our advice. We don’t care if a founder listens to us or not. We care if their company does well.

No. Contractually, Loyal commits to provide monthly support to the company for a minimum of two years. We intend to keep supporting them thereafter as well, though perhaps on a less frequent schedule. We want to live up to our ‘Loyal’ branding.

As a venture partner you are welcome to ask to swap off a founder for whatever reason. If this happens occasionally, it is totally normal. If it happens frequently, we may attribute the difficulty in matching to you, rather than the founders.

First, Loyal has a contractual obligation to support all companies monthly for two years. It is important for Loyal’s reputation to deliver on all contracts. Secondly, Loyal believes very strongly in not predicting the future. A company that is obviously struggling today may suddenly stumble on a massively profitable pivot. Without staying in touch, you will not know.

During your trial period companies must have two calls: one with you, and one with a Loyal partner (since Loyal isn’t certain if you will stay). If and when you move to a confirmed venture partner role there will be only one monthly call, yours.

Yes, during your trial period you will speak with your companies every month. When you move to a confirmed venture partner role you speak with your companies two months in three. In the third month (March, June, September and December) you will be assigned different companies to speak with, so you can contribute to more investment committee discussions.

You will need to jump into the meat of the call quickly. It is good to address issues in the order of priority to the business right now. Depending on the company’s situation this could be: funding, usage behavior, sales pipeline, product development or team. These chats should take 20 minutes, so you will almost never have time to cover all topics. That is fine. Calls are held in the context of a multi-month relationship. The last 10 minutes of the call should always start with the question ‘how can we best help you this month’. Then see what help they need, and work on finding a way to introduce them to the right person to help them with that issue.

In general, you should already know what the company has done before the call from the report and recent notes. Loyal is also less interested in the long-term plans of the company: at the early stages the long term is frequently unpredictable. It is good to ask about milestones within the next 1-3 months, just to hear what they are - without discussion needed. You can then see in future months if the company actually delivers on their promises, which is an important funding consideration. The bulk of the call should be focused on the immediate issues today.

Your first, onboarding, call should be around one hour long. Your regular calls thereafter should be around 30 minutes long. This is only possible if the company sends a written update before the call, and if you provide limited advice in each call and then refer the company to other advisors - or book an additional call - for follow-up.

Loyal believes that no one advisor/venture partner can and should be an expert in everything. Statistically, given our pool of >1,000 advisors, on any question you should be the best possible advisor <1% of the time. Unless it is an area where you are a world-leading expert, give your advice, and then volunteer to connect the person with the best expert from the advisor network.

Review the company’s monthly report and other shared materials before the call, so that you can move straight into discussing ‘what to do’ rather than asking ‘what happened’. If you do not have the report before the call, you may wish to ask the entrepreneur to reschedule the call until they have a report. You should also review your notes from the previous calls.

Let the Loyal team know of a gap in coverage in the advisor network, so they will work their networks to find a good expert to advise on the missing area.

Founders are expected to self-serve and manage their own advisors. You may find that some entrepreneurs tend not to ask for help, and need to be continually reminded to use advisors.

Sign in on loyal.vc and select ‘Advisor Network’ under the ‘Portal’ menu, then search for the type of person you want. If you have questions contact Spencer, who manages the network.

Loyal is always looking to add good advisors to the network. Feel free to share the Advisor FAQ with potential advisor candidates. If they are interested in the role after reading the FAQ, then point them to https://www.loyal.vc/network/join-us. Note that you can also introduce the company to the advisor before they are in the network: if so, make sure the company knows that no confidentiality agreements are in place.

Pilots/ Sourcing

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The deal sourcing process is outlined in the Entrepreneur FAQ. Loyal only invests in top FI grads recommended by their local leaders, in businesses with a full-time INSEAD alumnus founder, and in ‘golden key’ deals. Please refer any business led by an INSEAD grad to Loyal.

Picking your own deal is a privilege reserved for investors into the fund. If you invest at least $100K you get a ‘golden key’ to give one company automatic access into Loyal. To get a key you will have to invest, or find someone else who invests and delegates their key to you.

Loyal targets >40% FI grads, for accessibility, and >40% INSEAD alumni.

Loyal targets a minimum of 30% of CEOs being women, and 30% men.

Yes. Loyal wants to ensure all types of entrepreneurs are given a fair chance to be evaluated in a pilot. There is no excuse not to set diversity targets or quotas for pilots. This can help avoid possible systematic bias, e.g., against people who pitch less confidently, yet perform better. Loyal does not set targets post-pilot, although they do track and question outcomes.

Loyal attempts to roughly match global nominal GDP, except for being underweight China (due to investor restrictions) and overweight Canada (due to history/a stronger network). The specific targets are 25% each for the US, Europe and Asia, 10% for Canada, and 15% combined for Africa, Latin America and Oceania.

Loyal is always trying to get the best possible companies, so Loyal will still take, e.g., male CEOs when the fund is overweight men. They will simply later target, e.g., 50:50 ratios of male to female founders until the fund is back in balance.

Yes, if those new sources are willing to prove themselves out through a pilot period. Note that Loyal does not currently need new sources. Potential new partners are encouraged to become limited partners in the fund, and use their golden key(s) to prove their deal quality. Once proven out, Loyal will happily source consistently, without new funding, from proven partners.

Post-Pilot Investing

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Loyal uses a 1 to 5 ‘no/yes’ scoring system, that allows you to both decide ‘no’ or ‘yes’ (which you must do) as well as express the strength of your opinion:

5: strong yes: the deal is great and we should do it; I would invest my money if I could

4: weak yes: the deal is OK; if others feel this is a strong yes you could convince me [no 3s: you must make a ‘yes/no’ decision]

2: weak no: the deal is not ready yet, or has too many risks; maybe later if it performs

1: strong no: I would be stunned if we invested in this; I would try to veto it

You contribute advice. You are welcome to join the allocations meeting to contribute further. Note that only advising helps you keep limited liability if you invest in Loyal, as we hope you will.

Yes. You make money in venture by buying low and selling high, not by buying high. A company’s true value is a probability-adjusted range of outcomes. A deal which looks very weak at a $20M valuation may look great at a $1M valuation.

Before each monthly portfolio review meeting you should score all of your companies on the investments spreadsheet. You should come prepared for a very brief update on all companies, and a detailed discussion of (only) those companies you feel are at or close to investment.

In the quarterly valuation meeting we discuss every company in detail, whether they are doing well or poorly, since we need to value them. As part of the conversation, it is crucial that you ask the company about and bring valuation information, such as the terms of the most recent financing, and any contemplated financings and terms. Note that valuing every company takes time, so these meetings take longer.

Loyal scores/ranks all companies in their portfolio on a monthly basis, in the investment committee meeting. There is a separate allocations meeting where we take the top few companies, discuss them in detail vs. the fund’s cash position, and pick the final investments.

Loyal tries to make a decision on whether or not they want to invest in a company independently, without considering the opinions of other investors. When we decide to invest, we will sometimes be the first investor in a round, and will lead; other times we will follow. Note that the $200K cheque from Loyal has catalyzed rounds of >$2M.

Because decisions are made on a relative rank basis, Loyal generally can’t make a decision without comparing all companies at the investment review meeting. The only exception would be if the company was already ranked highly at the last meeting and is on the cusp for investment. Tell the managing partners, so they know. And assume it won’t matter to Loyal.

You answer that you can’t make any promises, and explain that the decision is made by ranking all companies against each other, and you don’t know where they will rank. If you feel the company is doing well, you can say that in your opinion ‘the company ranks in the top third and will be seriously considered’. Otherwise, don’t comment.

Answer that funding decisions are made on a ranking process each month, and you don’t know where the company will rank any month. Then point out things that you think the company can do to improve their odds of funding from any investor, including Loyal VC.

Try taking the humbling viewpoint that you can’t predict the future. As a good example, AirBnB initially looked hopeless to many people and took 15 months to raise seed funding (‘who would let a stranger, who could be an axe murder, sleep in their spare bedroom’). Point out what you think the flaws are that the company needs to address - and tell them what they need to demonstrate to prove you wrong. Be open minded that they will.

No. Once Loyal makes a decision to invest in a company we want to invest immediately. If the company is between rounds, we try to persuade them to take our money as a bridge round.

No, unless Loyal believes that this company is the best possible investment they have available. Loyal believes strongly in ignoring ‘sunk cost’. The question is where the best ROI on the new cash will come from. Past investments have nothing to do with this.

This is why it is important that you never make (implied) promises that Loyal will invest. We always say that companies should never count on money from any investor, including Loyal, until the money is actually in their bank account.

At times when the fund is fully capitalized, Loyal does the full amount. When Loyal does not have the cash, Loyal will often invest $100K/$300K immediately, and will ask the company for the option to put in the balance over the coming three months. It is important that the company understands that Loyal having an option does not mean the follow-on money is guaranteed.

If the company is not ranked in the top couple of companies for this month, then Loyal may miss out. That is a consequence of the strict rules we have set for ourselves. In practice we find that companies will often let us in after a round has closed. And if not, too bad for us.

Good entrepreneurs will use all sorts of emotional manipulation to attempt to get Loyal to invest. Loyal’s process is designed to make these tactics less effective, and to force Loyal to make the best possible investment decision, however convincing the entrepreneur is or is not.

Yes. We believe that companies will attract and retain people and investors more easily if the company does business in ethical ways. Keep this in mind as one of the factors to consider when making your rating.

Fundraising

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Today, Loyal’s biggest challenge is fundraising; other areas seem to be working well. As a team member we hope you will contribute to Loyal’s biggest need. You can still focus most on the activities you prefer. If you want to spend 100% of your time only on the activities you prefer, you should remain an advisor.

The primary role of venture partners is to act as an introducer. Investors will still want to speak with the managing partners of the fund before investing. In some cases you may know the investor well enough to effectively close the deal. That is not expected. In most cases you can share ‘an opportunity you believe in’ (most convincingly if you have invested in the fund yourself), and make an introduction if an LP shows interest.

Yes. Become a venture partner because you want to be involved more deeply in Loyal, not for any fundraising benefit. (Note that Loyal GPs lose out on the fundraising bonuses you can receive as an advisor or venture partner.)

Yes, venture partners are compensated for fundraising, as outlined in the Advisor FAQ.

The main documents we share with potential LPs are our fact sheet, presentation and annual report. Thereafter we invite them to attend one of our investor sessions.

Besides the above, venture partners should also have read and know the contents of the summary of the legal terms and the investor FAQs. And do attend an investor session or two.

Loyal VC LP, the core fund, is a limited partnership. People who invest in the fund become limited partners (LPs), which gives them limited liability, so long as they don’t make investment decisions. The final decisions are made by the general partner (GP), Loyal VC GP Inc, which is owned and operated by Kamal and Michael.

No, we don’t believe so (of course the proper answer for this type of question is always ‘you should consult your own legal counsel’). As a venture partner you work for Loyal Venture Advisors Inc, the advisory company, which provides advice to the GP on what to invest in. The final decision is taken by the GP, so they take the legal liability, not you.

The official minimum investment amount is $100K. Loyal also believes strongly in the principle of accessibility for non-wealthy entrepreneurs, and we extend that principle to moderately wealthy (but still accredited) LPs, who may have only $1M in investable assets. We take as little as $25K in first cheques from such investors, so long as they also act as advisors.

Loyal already has good success with individuals. They can make decisions quickly. They are open to Loyal’s innovations: many appreciate the ability to trade out early, and Loyal’s approach seems like common sense. And it takes one hundred $50K cheques to raise $5M. Since Loyal is not permitted to market ‘to the public’ we have no efficient way to source individuals in bulk.

To date, Loyal has over 200 LPs, including 6+ family offices and 6+ venture capital GPs. The vast majority are individual investors. Around two thirds are alumni or staff of INSEAD.

Loyal has tested thought leadership pieces, such as these HBR and Institutional Investor articles. We also do monthly open talks. To date these are low efficiency conversion channels.

Loyal’s core expertise is combining individually high risk assets into a low-risk fund, through good portfolio allocation. Loyal’s track record is a proven investment grade financial asset that can be done from core investment money. This is hard for investors to believe.

Angel groups can be a good source of investors, if the group allows you to speak to individual investors, or share their materials informally within the group. To date, no angel group has felt that Loyal’s funds are suitable for presentation in a meeting, since that is reserved for startups. However our talk on ‘Secrets of Angel Investing’ has done well at multiple groups.

Loyal would like to start to raise $1M amounts, which implies targeting very high net worth individuals and small family and multi-family offices. Loyal would also like to have multi-year $5-25M allocations, which can come from large family offices and institutions.

In family offices there are two groups: the principals of the family, and their investment teams. While the principals are open to innovation, they are hard to approach, since they hired a team to free up time. When we get them, they are great. The investment team see reputational risk in recommending unproven products, resist innovation, and care much less about performance.

Multi-family offices are investment management firms that offer individuals and families with $50M or so in assets ‘better than bank’ service, yet more expertise than hiring their own small team. As supposed experts in every asset class, multi-family offices are very happy to hear about Loyal for their own education, and highly concerned about reputational risk in innovation.

Yes. With the proliferation of venture funds (literally thousands of them), a number of consulting companies have arisen to advise family offices and institutions on which venture funds to pick. These include generalists like Mercer, and specialists like Greenspring. Again, they have strong ‘ass covering’ incentives.

Loyal has $33M in assets under management (AUM) today, and is raising $70M in 2024/25, to take the fund to $100M in size. The fund expects to grow over time to $500M+.

In principle, institutions, such as university endowment or pension funds, are an excellent match with Loyal’s ambitious growth plans and evergreen principles. Generally, institutions like to build relationships with funds over a twelve month or longer period. They do also prefer a traditional fixed term fund, not because it is better for them, but because they understand it, hence find it less risky.

Corporates are a good size fit with Loyal right now. They also have a complex sales cycle and individually unique circumstances: final approval will come from the company’s CFO; who is actually responsible is often unclear. Corporates also find it easier to invest in funds that have a clear theme that matches their strategic priorities. While Loyal does have, e.g., as many fintech investments in its portfolio as a specialist fintech fund would have, this message is unclear. Corporates may appreciate that there are no capital calls, so their commitments do not need to extend beyond the current management team or decision makers.

Administration

Venture partners are expected to work one day (around 8 hours) per week with Loyal.

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The bulk of the administrative work only happens when you become a confirmed venture partner. You then become responsible for each of the following: company tracking and reporting: offering calls, holding calls, collecting reports; monthly investment meetings: rating, valuing (quarterly), and discussing companies; other Loyal meetings: are optional to attend.

Every month, by the last calendar day of the month, the lead partner must tell Loyal if calls were held and data sent in by the company. Fill in this sheet, using comments if you can’t edit: did you offer a call to the CEO (doing this causes our shares in them to vest); did you hold a call with the CEO (doing this gets them a monthly payment); did you receive a report from the company (doing this gets them a monthly payment).

Yes. Loyal has a legal obligation, in our initial investment contract, to offer at least 20 monthly calls to every company, whether they are doing well or poorly. If you don’t have much new to talk about, then simply make the call shorter.

Our contract only obliges us to offer. And Loyal’s investment returns come from building a relationship with the founder over time, so that the founder is loyal if they suddenly turn around (as Airbnb did). If you have problems relating to a founder, consider switching off the business.

You will receive emails introducing you each month. Contact Spencer with questions.

You talk to the companies you are lead on two out of every three months. Every March, June, September, and December is a ‘swap month’ where you will speak with different companies, so you start to be exposed to the whole portfolio and can better contribute to investment decisions.

This spreadsheet is a legal record of Loyal delivering its obligations, so access to sheets for prior months is limited. You should be able to edit the current month’s sheet.

Before the meeting (typically the first Monday of each month):

Monthly review meetings:
Please use the investments spreadsheet to rate your companies ahead of our monthly calls. Each Venture Partner has their own tab pre-filled with their company names, input your scores from the 1 – 5 scale under the appropriate month before each meeting. We use a rating system of 1 – 5 to help evaluate our investment decisions.

1: non-promising company, or one that is really struggling/challenged;

2: making progress but a lot still needed before their next follow-on investment;

4: very promising, could invest, may need a bit more time/development;

5: strongly recommend investment/would invest your own money now; Note that there is no ‘3’ in this scoring system: you must take a view one way or the other.

Please reference the investments sheet during the call to follow along.

Quarterly valuation meetings (March, June, September, December):
Valuation meetings are held on a quarterly basis, prior to each meeting we ask that you prepare the following:

- Rate your companies using Loyal’s 1-5 scale (refer to “Monthly Review Meetings” above or the Venture Partner FAQ)

- Obtain information on recent financing activity (valuation, amount raised, terms), and determine your view of the company's current valuation

Please use the investments spreadsheet to input this information prior to each meeting and reference the it during the call to follow along.

Company data reporting:
The company has the option to either use Loyal's template reporting survey to report their data, or they can send you their own custom report. If the company uses Loyal's version, you can also provide them with the list of questions so they do not need to click through the survey to plan their answers.

Monthly meetings:
- Fundraising review meeting on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at 11:00am to 12:00pm EST

- Internal projects review meeting on the 3rd Tuesday of every month at 12:00pm to 1:00pm EST

- Monthly portfolio review meeting, or a quarterly valuation meeting (March, June, September, December).

Contract & Compensation

Venture partners receive three kinds of compensation, in addition to advisor compensation:
- Cash: a monthly stipend, currently US$500 in cash, and US$500 in either cash or options, and set to aggregate to 20% of the partner salary, with a $2,500/month cap
- Carry: access to ‘lead’ 5% carry pool, as well as advisor carry for advisor (non-lead) time
- Equity: options in Loyal Venture Advisors Inc.

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To become a VP, you must follow this process, expected to take a minimum of four months:

- pass an intake interview with each Loyal partner

- read all Loyal materials, and provide comments/suggestions

- sit in on 2 initial mentoring calls with each Loyal partner, and debrief afterwards

- hold 3 successive monthly mentoring calls with at least 5 assigned companies

- participate in three monthly investment meetings including one valuation meeting

- have monthly meetings/progress discussions with each Loyal partner

- either arrange 5 potential LP introductions resulting in at least $100K invested in Loyal, or spearhead one operational improvement project.

At the end of the process you and Loyal will mutually discuss if it makes sense to add you to the firm as a venture partner. (Note: we are investigating changing this structure to a contract, then trial period, rather than vice versa.)

The two big differences are you get a fixed monthly payment of 20% of the monthly rate of GPs, and you get a share of a special 5% of carry set aside for VPs. A good advisor could still earn more compensation than an average VP through, e.g., fundraising bonuses.

Note as of early 2024, to manage cash, Loyal is offering VPs the possibility to get added options for a reduced cash compensation. To ensure favorable tax treatment for VPs, Loyal has moved to a $500 monthly payment plus a monthly bonus with a target level of $500 which you can take in all cash, options at a preferred rate, or a mix of the two. The intent is for the combined package to continue to be 20% of the GP rate.

Loyal will give you a new contract to sign.

To be a venture partner, you must work at least 8 hours per week with Loyal, at times of your choosing, other than a couple of fixed monthly meetings.

VPs are asked to email invoices to accounting@loyal.vc. Invoices are paid mid-month. Loyal covers only Loyal’s fees on bank wires, not intermediary banks or your bank’s. For US accounts use the US-ACH system to reduce fees. Aggregating invoices also reduces bank fees. Note: as of early 2024 you will receive an email at the start of each month from Loyal outlining your bonus amount for last month in cash (per your requested cash/options split). Please issue your invoice promptly for the cash amount so that we can pay it later in the month.

Loyal’s current policy on how carry is allocated between VPs can be seen here.

The GP’s salary is not capped, while the VP’s is 20% of the GP’s capped at $2.5K/month. The GP has access to more carry, as outlined in the carry splitting policy. Lastly, the GP will have access to more equity. The exact amount has not yet been determined.

No. You must work with Loyal for at least 6 months as a venture partner before becoming a full partner. Loyal VC is an evergreen fund: it is good for both sides to get a chance to work closely together and get to know each other before making a multi-year commitment.

You will be compensated for all of the above work per the standard advisor contract. Specifically, the mentoring, investor introductions, and operational improvement projects will all be compensated under the standard advisor contract (typically delayed, contingent payments).

Here is Loyal’s current policy on carry splitting. Note that besides the 5.0% allocated directly to venture partners, venture partners may also receive a portion of the 20.0% reserved for advisors for excess advisor hours worked outside the allocated venture partner tasks.

Doing Business with Portfolio Companies

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Yes. As a courtesy, VPs are asked to first invest (minimum $25,000 for VPs), and become limited partners in, Loyal VC LP. You can then invest personally in Loyal deals, under the same conditions as any other LP, e.g., your money cannot displace Loyal’s.
Yes, you can, if you choose. If you do sit on a board, Loyal expects the company to compensate you directly for this role. If you are the lead on the company you will be asked to stop acting as the lead. Your role as a board member would be a non-Loyal activity.
Loyal believes board members must protect the interests of all stakeholders, not just Loyal. As such, Loyal believes the company should compensate you directly, often through options, so you are not conflicted on your obligations to stakeholders. Loyal will not pay you to sit on a board.
Loyal may offer it to you as an opportunity. You are free to say yes or no, and if you say yes you are expected to be the company’s director, not Loyal’s representative.
Once you have a paid contract or a direct holding in the company’s equity, you are conflicted as the Loyal representative. Loyal will replace you with a lead who does not have the same conflict.
Perhaps. Financially, you are comparing the compensation from the board position against the compensation you would get from being the Loyal lead with the company. If Loyal owns <5% of the company, and you are offered 0.2% of the equity, you are probably further ahead being on the board. You should also consider the best interests of the company, and your personal preferences.
Yes. The clause in the advisor contract asking you to share an ‘equitable percentage’ of the compensation you receive applies here. You are the sole judge of what you feel is equitable.
Yes. Like any advisor you are expected to do a minimum of 20 hours of free work with each company first. Once you have exceeded that, you can do a direct deal with any company, where you are not the lead (giving up the lead role if necessary). If you do a deal directly with the company, any time you spend with them is considered non-Loyal side work by you.
Disclaimer

The foregoing is a summary discussion of certain frequently asked questions relating to LVA’s advisory program and Advisor Agreement. This summary is provided for general informational purposes only, and may be subject to change. The information provided does not purport to address all matters relevant to Loyal, the advisory relationship or the LVA Advisor Agreement in its entirety, nor does it purport to constitute a sufficient basis for advisors to determine whether to enter into any agreement with LVA.

Furthermore, this summary is qualified in its entirety by the terms of the Advisor Agreement, does not provide any representations or warranties related to such agreements, is not legally binding and is not a substitute for a review of the full terms of the Advisor Agreement. While this summary is offered in good faith and in the hope that it may be of use to potential advisors, it is not guaranteed to be correct, up to date or suitable for any individual’s or company’s purpose. LVA and Loyal VC accept no liability in respect of this information or its use, and by using this summary you agree to hold LVA, Loyal VC and their affiliates free of any liability related to this summary.

Each company or individual is solely and independently responsible for investigating the facts relevant to its circumstances, including all matters addressed in this summary, and for determining what other sources of information to consult. Each company or individual is strongly urged to review the Advisor Agreement in detail, consult with their legal, financial, tax and other advisors, and ask any additional questions they may have of LVA prior to signing any agreements. In the event of any conflict or discrepancy between this summary and the terms of the Advisor Agreement, the terms of the Advisor Agreement shall prevail.