If you're an investor, you have three stakeholders:

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• The entrepreneur who could provide your next 10x return

• Executive leadership of your portfolio companies, and

• LPs who are looking to allocate capital to your asset class

 

How do you use content to increase your chances of attracting the best of each? 

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On this page:

1. What outcomes does WriteBoard work for?

2. What's our approach?

3. Articulation of an Investment Thesis

4. What content forms do we write and why?

   • Long-form articles​

   • Newsletters

   • Educational email courses

5. A sample content calendar

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What outcomes does WriteBoard work for?

• Drive better dealflow – both in quantity and certainly in quality.

• Build credibility and increase your visibility amongst a wider LP community.

• Serendipitous discovery strategic partnerships for your portfolio companies.

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What's our approach?  

We ask a few fundamental questions, giving due respect to any confidentiality agreements you may have:

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• Do you have former entrepreneurs as LPs? If yes, a large part of financing value addition for portfolio companies will be the wealth of operational experience and financial expertise they will receive from you. How can you use content to highlight this? 

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• Who are the General Partners, and what is the unique value each one of you brings? Do you come with significant transaction and financial engineering experience that will help your portfolio companies access to complex financing and prepare them for an eventual exit? Or do you have significant international experience that will help your portfolio companies access international markets? How could you use content to build an inbound dealflow of relevant companies? 

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• Who amongst your current portfolio companies would be willing to vouch for you and provide examples of the value your investment has brought to their growth? How well have you held up to guide them in times of crises? 

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Working with your investment team, WriteBoard then crafts a content strategy to draw the right founders whose intellectual property, values, and ideas to build a company resonate with those of your firm.

 

Articulation of an Investment Thesis

Typically, such content would be along the lines of an investment thesis:  

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• What does a particular industry sector mean to your investment team? Whether it’s cloud enablement or B2B SaaS companies, what are your views on the sector? What are the factors affecting the sector, and what should founders that approach your firm look for?

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• Who are the leaders in these sectors now? Why, according to you, have the leaders in the sector reached their position of dominance? What was their playbook, and how can founders learn from those success stories? More importantly, which companies didn’t quite make it, and why did they fail?

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• Why is this a good time for this sector? What are the inflexion points driving interest? What are the tailwinds favouring a sector of your interest? Why do you think founders with the right company can ride these waves and grow rapidly relative to similar players in the sector?

 

What content forms do we write and why?

Having worked out an investment thesis, we propose a content publishing calendar. Most of our work has been on two content formats: 

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• Long-form articles

  • ​Builds credibility: Deeply researched, in-depth articles that provide valuable insights can help build your firm's credibility. This is helpful in attracting quality founders and entrepreneurs who are looking for knowledgeable partners.

  • Establishes Thought Leadership: Long-form articles would allow your firm to delve deep into topics that matter in the industry, whether it's about emerging trends, investment strategies, or technological advancements. By doing so, you establish yourself as a thought leader. 

  • Drives Social Sharing and Network Effects: Good content is shareable content. When an article is insightful, it's more likely to be shared within industry circles, increasing your firm's visibility. This network effect can be a potent tool for brand amplification, recruitment, and attracting the right founders. 

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• Newsletters

  • Consistent Engagement: Newsletters provide a consistent touchpoint with a firm's audience, whether it be entrepreneurs, fellow investors, or other industry stakeholders. Regular updates help keep the firm top-of-mind and strengthen relationships.

  • Personal Branding: Newsletters offer an avenue to build a personal brand. Partners can share personal stories, lessons learned, and other anecdotes that humanise the firm and foster stronger relationships.

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• Educational Email Courses: You probably have a thriving email list. Unfortunately, most email opt-ins are less than 10%. Incorporating an educational email course can be a strategic move to not only educate and engage your audience but also to boost the overall effectiveness of your email marketing efforts. 

  • ​Value-Driven Content: By providing an educational course, you're offering subscribers tangible value in each email. This value-driven approach fosters anticipation and interest, leading subscribers to look forward to and actively open subsequent newsletters, expecting similarly beneficial content.

  • Establishing a Habit: When subscribers receive and engage with a regular series of educational emails, they develop a habit of opening your communications. This habitual engagement can carry over to your newsletters, as subscribers become accustomed to receiving and opening valuable content from you.

  • Segmentation and Personalization: The insights gained from subscriber interactions with the course (such as which topics are most popular) can be used to segment your audience and personalise future newsletters. Tailored content based on their interests and engagement history is more likely to be opened and read.

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A sample content calendar

This is a sample WriteBoard content calendar for a venture capital firm specialising in late-stage technology-backed ventures:

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• Challenges and Opportunities in Scaling Food Processing Startups: Discuss the barriers that growth-stage companies in this sector face and how they can overcome them.

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• A Post-Pandemic Look at Data Security in Remote Work: Examine how the shift to remote work has altered data security challenges and solutions.

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• IPO vs. Trade Sale: Navigating the Exit Landscape for B2B SaaS: This topic offers insights into the pros and cons of different exit strategies for B2B SaaS companies.

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• The Psychology of Gaming - Implications for User Engagement: Look at how understanding player psychology can offer a competitive edge.

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Because of the high-touch nature of our client engagement, we are unable to work with more than five to six clients at any time. As you can see, every piece is well-researched and fits the overall business objective of the investment firm.