Venture work rarely lives in one system. Market research, founder conversations, pipeline notes, data rooms, portfolio updates, and the firm's own investment history can all shape the next decision.

Strawberry works across those sources in the browser alongside the investor. It can inspect current company information and logged-in tools, connect them with the firm's thesis and prior decisions, and keep that context available as the work moves from sourcing to meetings, diligence, memos, and portfolio support.

What Strawberry can help you do

Not sure where to begin? Your companion can look at the investment work you have open and suggest a useful skill to try first.

/getting-started-with-venture-capital-in-strawberry

Use the investment work and context already in front of you to choose a useful first Venture Capital skill.

View skill

Build the investment view

A startup map should explain how a market is taking shape, not merely return a list of companies. Strawberry can follow current company pages, funding announcements, investor portfolios, accelerator cohorts, logged-in databases, hiring, and news while keeping source dates beside the findings.

That makes it easier to compare what investors say they focus on with where they have actually invested, spot clusters and white space, and connect the landscape back to the firm's thesis and pass history.

Map a startup ecosystem

Understand the startups, investors, activity, and relationships shaping an emerging market.

/map-startup-ecosystem

Map the startup ecosystem in this market.

Map the broader market

Go beyond startups when category boundaries, value chains, experts, or established companies matter.

/map-a-market

Map this market for me.

Find and manage opportunities

Deal sourcing has a natural progression, but each step answers a different question. Which companies fit the thesis? Which deserve more time? Where has the process stalled? Strawberry can carry the evidence forward without blurring those decisions together.

  1. Source against the firm's thesis

    Start with a varied, evidence-backed set that can be corrected before the search expands.

    /source-investment-opportunities

    Find companies that match my thesis.

    View skill

  2. Research the companies that stand out

    Build a concise view of the company, thesis fit, tensions, recent changes, and unanswered questions.

    /research-an-investment-opportunity

    Research this investment opportunity.

    View skill

  3. Review where the pipeline needs attention

    Compare the CRM with recent meetings, messages, and diligence to find stale records, missing next steps, and decisions that have stalled.

    /review-investment-pipeline

    Review my investment pipeline.

    View skill

The next move may depend on a credible relationship path or an accurate CRM record. Strawberry can inspect the evidence for the connection, prepare the appropriate ask, and propose the exact record changes without treating either as part of the research by default.

Make a warm introduction

Verify the relationship path and prepare a considerate intermediary ask or double opt-in.

/make-a-warm-introduction

Find me a warm intro to this person.

Keep the investment CRM current

Prepare and verify changes using the firm's real objects, stages, and source-of-truth rules.

/keep-crm-updated

Update my CRM from this week's activity.

Evaluate the investment

Founder calls, expert conversations, diligence, and the investment memo should build on the same company record. Strawberry can prepare from the calendar and relationship history, preserve what was actually learned, and keep the supporting sources close as the firm tests the case.

  1. Prepare for the conversation

    Bring together the company history, people, open questions, and recent evidence for a founder, partner, or expert meeting.

    /prepare-for-meetings

    Prepare me for my next meeting.

    View skill

  2. Capture what changed

    Turn a reliable record into evidence, commitments, questions, and the follow-through that needs review.

    /debrief-a-meeting

    Debrief my last meeting.

    View skill

  3. Test the important questions

    Use appropriately deep diligence to investigate the claims and risks that could change the decision.

    /conduct-investment-due-diligence

    Run diligence on this investment.

    View skill

  4. Write the investment memo

    Bring the case, counterevidence, risks, and open questions into a source-linked decision record.

    /write-an-investment-memo

    Write an investment memo for this company.

    View skill

The companion can help the firm inspect the evidence and articulate its reasoning. The investment recommendation and decision still belong to the investors responsible for them.

Support portfolio companies

Portfolio monitoring becomes useful when the firm agrees on what would actually matter. A financing, leadership change, product launch, customer signal, regulatory issue, or market shift may deserve attention; repeated coverage of the same announcement usually does not.

Strawberry can compare current signals with the last reliable company view, then carry meaningful changes into a board brief, portfolio update, open commitment, or useful introduction. Start with one review. A Routine makes sense only after the sources and signal rules hold up.

See what changed

Check current company and market signals against a reliable baseline and explain what may matter.

/monitor-a-portfolio-company

What changed at this portfolio company?

Prepare the portfolio update

Turn the reviewed company or portfolio picture into a concise update for the right audience.

/prepare-a-status-update

Write a status update on my current work.

Close the important open loops

Find commitments, ownership gaps, and conflicting status across the places the work happened.

/close-open-loops

Show me what's slipping through the cracks.

Teach the companion how the firm invests

The firm's edge lives in how it interprets its thesis, which sources it trusts, why it passes, which questions it asks, and how it builds conviction. As the team corrects real work, the companion can remember those choices so the next search, company brief, or memo starts closer to the firm's way of working.

  • Share an approved result when someone only needs the artifact.
  • Save a firm skill when the team should reuse the same sources, judgment, and review points.
  • Use a shared companion when several workflows need the same ongoing context.
  • Create a Routine after the trigger, sources, destination, and stop conditions are clear.
Run your whole company from one place

See how fundraising, customer growth, hiring, and company visibility fit together from the founder's side.

Research deep enough to bet on

Explore the broader research workflows behind market maps, company work, and sourced decision artifacts.

Run an AI-native ops team

Connect meetings, introductions, updates, and open-loop follow-through across the firm.

Try this starter pack in Strawberry

/getting-started-with-venture-capital-in-strawberry

Get Started with Venture Capital in Strawberry

Help the user see how their companion can support the whole investment process, then complete one useful piece of work. Do not require a full firm setup or force every investor through the same funnel.

Paint the investing system

Explain briefly that Strawberry can work across visible browser tabs, logged-in research tools, email, calendar, meetings, CRM records, data rooms, files, approved apps, and the public web. It can keep sources beside claims, remember how the firm interprets its thesis, and continue from research into meeting briefs, diligence, memos, introductions, or reviewed record changes.

Show four connected parts of venture work:

  • Develop the investment view: understand markets, startup ecosystems, and how relevant investors are deploying capital.
  • Build and manage deal flow: source companies, research and qualify opportunities, use the network thoughtfully, and keep the pipeline useful.
  • Evaluate and decide: prepare for founder conversations, test the important questions, and build a traceable memo or decision record.
  • Support and monitor the portfolio: notice material company changes, make useful connections, and carry current context into firm and portfolio work.

The central deal-flow path often runs source → research and qualify → meet → diligence → memo and decision, but users may enter anywhere. Keep the system visible without treating it as a required sequence.

Find a useful first win

Start with the live investment work in front of the user. If they are unsure, use approved thesis, pipeline, calendar, tabs, files, memory, and connected context to suggest a small set of relevant options and explain why they fit. Useful starting moments include:

  • researching one company before deciding whether to spend more time on it;
  • mapping a market or startup ecosystem around an investment question;
  • sourcing a calibrated set of companies against the firm's thesis;
  • preparing for an upcoming founder or partner meeting;
  • reviewing active opportunities and deciding what needs attention; or
  • checking what has materially changed at a portfolio company.

Suggest another app only when it would materially improve the chosen result. Continue from visible tabs, files, or details the user provides when those are enough.

Develop the investment view

  • Map a startup ecosystem: read strawberry/venture-capital/map-startup-ecosystem for the companies, investors, accelerators, relationships, and investment activity shaping a startup market.
  • Map a broader market: read strawberry/research-analysis/map-a-market when the decision depends on category boundaries, value chains, experts, associations, or established companies beyond the startup ecosystem.

Build and manage deal flow

  • Source thesis-matched companies: read strawberry/venture-capital/source-investment-opportunities. Begin with a varied sample so the investor can correct the interpretation before the search expands.
  • Research one opportunity: read strawberry/venture-capital/research-an-investment-opportunity for a source-linked company view, preliminary thesis fit, contradictions, and the questions worth resolving next.
  • Review the active pipeline: read strawberry/venture-capital/review-investment-pipeline to identify priorities, stale assumptions, missing evidence, and useful next actions.
  • Find a network path and prepare an introduction: read strawberry/operations/make-a-warm-introduction. Never imply a current relationship without evidence or send before the people, context, and destination are approved.
  • Apply approved CRM changes: read strawberry/sales/keep-crm-updated. Follow the investment team's actual objects, stages, fields, and source-of-truth rules rather than importing sales semantics.

Evaluate and decide

  • Prepare for a founder, partner, or expert conversation: read strawberry/operations/prepare-for-meetings.
  • Turn a completed conversation into evidence and follow-through: read strawberry/operations/debrief-a-meeting.
  • Test the material underwriting questions: read strawberry/venture-capital/conduct-investment-due-diligence.
  • Build the investment case and decision record: read strawberry/venture-capital/write-an-investment-memo.

Keep company claims, independent evidence, calculations, internal context, interpretation, and unresolved questions distinct. Preliminary fit is not proof of investment quality, and the companion does not autonomously approve, reject, or communicate an investment decision.

Support and monitor the portfolio

  • Review material company changes: read strawberry/venture-capital/monitor-a-portfolio-company for current news, financing, leadership, hiring, product, customer, regulatory, and market signals that match the accepted monitoring bar.
  • Prepare a firm or portfolio update: read strawberry/operations/prepare-a-status-update.
  • Find commitments or ownership gaps: read strawberry/operations/close-open-loops.
  • Make a useful connection: read strawberry/operations/make-a-warm-introduction and preserve private relationship context until sharing is approved.

Improve the process through real work

Use feedback on actual results to learn the firm's thesis interpretation, trusted sources, qualification bar, memo structure, writing style, materiality rules, and review preferences. Save a custom or team skill only after those choices prove durable.

Suggest a Routine only when the trigger and signal rules are clear—for example, a weekly pipeline review or a portfolio monitor that checks agreed sources and drafts a digest when a material change appears. Define the systems, output, destination, approval behavior, and stop conditions. Do not automate introductions, investment decisions, data-room access, CRM writes, or external messages without sufficient scoped permission.

The guide has done its job when the user understands the larger system, completes one useful piece of investment work, and can see the most relevant next step.