BenchmarkZero

Check mandates across funds for style drift or opportunistic pivots.

Evaluate specificity of target sectors, stages, geographies, and deal sizes.

Request 2-3 IC memos where risk vs return were explicitly debated.

Walk through sourcing funnel data and repeatable origination channels.

Review concentration limits, pacing plans, and position-sizing framework.

In the last 20 IC decisions, how often was the vote unanimous? Ask for redacted minutes showing dissent.

Median time from first meeting to 'no'? Best firms pass in 1-2 weeks.

Review case studies showing concrete operational or strategic value-add.

Evaluate EBITDA growth contribution post-deal.

Review portfolio CEO feedback on integration and management changes.

Analyse exit timing, rationale, and discipline vs market cycles.

Compare entry multiples vs benchmark.

Examine behaviour during GFC, COVID, etc. and resulting portfolio actions.

Measure GP % commitment vs AUM. Is it real cash or financed?

Check if manager commitment is from personal wealth or management fee recycling.

Examine fee disclosures, offsets, and reporting of all charges in the LPA.

Compare fee waterfall vs strategy behaviour.

Review treatment of broken-deal costs, travel, tech, and shared services.

Review carry clawback history and circumstances. Has carry ever been returned to LPs?

Validate allocation logs for co-investment and deal access.

Discuss with multiple investors whether they feel equally treated.

Review co-investment policies and historical allocation.

Have hurdle rates or terms been weakened? Compare across funds.

Assess deployment profile vs vintage peers and market conditions.

Compare lock-ups, notice periods, and redemption terms to asset liquidity.

European vs US waterfall type. How are preferred returns sequenced and what model is used for LP distributions?

How is liquidity used to create investment return? Assess reallocation practices.

Compare reporting lag vs industry standards.

Compare quarterly reports with audited financials.

Measure reporting lag vs stated timelines across quarters.

Assess how decision-useful the reports are.

Monitor updates and LP feedback on clarity.

Compare disclosed vs realised outcomes.

Review communications during past stress periods.

Ask for examples of proactive disclosure of setbacks.

Compare strategy descriptions across past PPMs, decks, and meetings.

Track response times to DD questions.

How often is CIO/PM available vs just IR?

Check GFC/COVID-era experience and lessons learned.

Review bios, years of experience, and track record attribution.

Attribution breakdowns: what share came from departed members?

Track departures vs returns trend over the last 5 years.

Request historical headcount and departures; cross-check via LinkedIn.

Assess tenure, engagement, and compensation for service.

Who has left the partnership and what happened to their carry? Talk to ex-partners.

Ask who would lead and what transition plan exists.

Assess concentration of responsibilities and key-person provisions.

Mix of backgrounds and challenge culture.

Map who has final say and how dissent is handled.

Observe interaction style in meetings.

Review compensation, carry allocation, retention mechanisms.

Deal-level carry = real integration. Salary only = window dressing.

Review SOC reports, internal audit findings, control matrices.

Review infosec, access controls, compliance systems.

Evaluate data rooms, version control, audit trails.

Review valuation policies and sample memos for consistency.

How does the IM tally risk and what benchmarks do they use? Assess quality and consistency of risk benchmarking methodology.

Which systems do they use? How much is still manual?

Infosec policies, penetration testing, certifications.

Ask to see risk dashboards, scenarios, monitoring tools.

Note speed and quality of ad-hoc data requests.

Review BCP and recent tests or incidents.

How does IR manage noise around the fund?

Analyse NAV sector breakdown.

Compare country weights vs risk-ratings.

Check NAV % in largest single holding.

Examine pipeline across seed, early, and late-stage.

Assess thematic durability and market depth.

Review mandate allocation vs realised deployment.

Assess covenants, tenor structure, leverage policy.

How does the manager build and expand on risk guardrails?

Analyse capital call cadence and distribution patterns.

Compare interim valuations vs realised exit values.

Number and quality of custodians used.

Macro stress-scenarios, rate-sensitivity modelling.

Assess regulatory and innovation risk.

Historical time-to-exit in down-cycles.

Compare AUM growth vs deal flow depth.

Measure dry-powder vs sourcing bandwidth.

Track new strategies launched per cycle.

Cash between sale and distribution should earn T-bills. 400+ bps given up if not.

Review FX hedging policy and implementation.

How many trades used to hedge position, quality of trades and depth/complexity of execution.

Review subscription line and NAV facility usage, deferral practices, and repayment discipline.

Review distribution mechanics, timing, and process clarity.