{"id":1544,"date":"2019-08-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/blog\/tear-sheet-example\/"},"modified":"2021-03-05T06:57:14","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T06:57:14","slug":"tear-sheet-example","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/blog\/tear-sheet-example\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a tear sheet? (Free tear sheet example)"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

In the VC world, a tear sheet, also known as a \u201cfact sheet,\u201d is a one-page update about a portfolio company. The name comes from an old practice where stockbrokers at the S&P would tear a sheet out of their summary books<\/a> to give to investors as a stock recommendation. Today, you create a tear sheet about each of your portfolio companies and send them to your LPs quarterly or monthly to help them understand how the investment is performing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

How to make a tear sheet<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

There\u2019s no need to get creative when putting together a tear sheet. LPs usually just want basic information that\u2019ll help them run scenarios and figure out what the top deals are. The easiest way to get started is to build yours from an example or use a tear sheet template. To help, we\u2019ve created an example you can download.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Keep in mind that you don\u2019t need every field we\u2019ve included. In fact, you may want to pare down the information in the beginning and add more over time. This tear sheet example was designed to give you a sense of what LPs expect to see in a tear sheet. It includes an overview of the company<\/strong>, board information<\/strong>, cost<\/strong> and value<\/strong>, financials<\/strong> (revenue, cash burn, etc.), and your own commentary<\/strong>.

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Download an example tear sheet<\/h3>\r\n

[marketo-form form_id=”5371″]<\/p>\r\n

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(Carta customers: While Carta doesn\u2019t currently generate tear sheets, we do help you find the data to complete your tear sheet. Let us know if this is a feature you\u2019d like to see.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Tear sheet advice from Lightspeed Venture Partners<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We talked to Catherine Chen, VP of Finance at Lightspeed Venture Partners<\/a> to get her advice for putting together a tear sheet.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Catherine\u2019s biggest advice is to make sure your tear sheets are scalable.<\/strong> Remember: you\u2019ll be creating one about each of your portfolio companies every month or quarter, which can be time-consuming. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to have to manually enter everything,\u201d she explains. \u201cCan you generate these tear sheets by pulling data from somewhere?\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Accordingly, Catherine recommends starting small<\/strong>. Begin by offering the basic data you think your LPs want to see. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to start with open floodgates that give them too much information upfront,\u201d she warns. \u201cWhen you try to take information away, people will definitely say something.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Finally, iterate as you gather feedback<\/strong> from your LPs. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to add later on than it is to delete.\u201d So start with a basic tear sheet, and build up over time.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

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DISCLOSURE: This communication is on behalf of eShares Inc., d\/b\/a Carta Inc. (“Carta”). This communication is not to be construed as legal, financial or tax advice and is for informational purposes only. This communication is not intended as a recommendation, offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security. Carta does not assume any liability for reliance on the information provided herein.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tear sheet helps LPs understand how their investment is performing. Download our tear sheet example to get started today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":2079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,66],"tags":[110,5,111],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}