Venture scouts sit at an awkward intersection. They have access to early-stage deal flow that most fund partners never see, but they also need to communicate that flow in a format that busy investors can evaluate quickly. The deal memo is the primary tool for doing that.
This guide covers what a deal memo is, what goes in one, and how scouts typically submit and share them with their fund, including the practical question of access control when you are sending sensitive company information through a third-party channel.
What is a deal memo, and what does it do?
A deal memo is a short document (usually one to two pages) that summarises a startup and the investment case for it. According to VC Lab, the purpose is to give an investor enough information to decide whether the opportunity is worth a deeper look. It is a qualification document, not a full investment analysis.
Scouts write deal memos after identifying a promising company and doing preliminary research. The memo goes to the fund partners, who use it to decide whether to invite the founder for a meeting, request additional materials, or pass. If the fund is interested, the scout may then conduct further due diligence before the investment committee makes a final decision.
The format rewards concision. A deal memo that runs to ten pages is almost always doing something a two-page memo should be doing and doing it badly.
What goes in a venture scout deal memo
Most scout programmes have their own preferred format, and you should follow it if your fund provides one. Where they do not, the following sections represent what most investment teams expect to see.
Deal Memo Section Reference
A note on length
One to two pages is the right target. If your fund asks for a longer memo as part of their process, follow their format. But when writing for a first submission, brevity is usually the more effective choice. A partner who finishes a two-page memo in five minutes and wants to know more is in a better position than one who stops halfway through a ten-page document.
How scouts submit deal memos to their fund
Submission processes vary across programmes. Some funds use internal portals or shared workspaces. Others ask scouts to email a PDF or fill out a structured form. A smaller number have built dedicated scout tools.
Across most programmes, the general flow looks similar. The scout identifies a company, does enough preliminary research to form a view, writes the memo, and sends it to a named partner or a shared investment inbox. The fund will then decide whether to advance to a partner meeting with the founder or pass. If they want to proceed, the scout is often involved in the next stage of diligence.
Some programmes allow scouts to make a small first check, typically between five thousand and a hundred thousand dollars, under the fund's umbrella, before the full investment process begins. In those cases, the memo serves double duty: it documents the scout's rationale for the initial check and gives partners the context to decide whether to follow on.
What happens after you submit
In most programmes, you will receive a response within one to two weeks. A pass is more common than a proceed – that is the nature of early-stage investing at volume. When a fund declines, the most useful thing you can do is ask for a brief reason. Not every fund will provide one, but understanding whether the pass was thesis-driven, team-driven, or market-driven helps you calibrate future submissions.
When a fund does want to proceed, expect to be looped in on the process rather than handed off. Scouts who sourced a deal often have context on the founder and the company that partners do not have yet. That context is valuable in the early conversations.
How to share the memo securely
A deal memo often contains information that a founder shared with you in confidence: unannounced product plans, early revenue figures, customer names, or terms they are considering for the round. The founder trusted you with that information so that you could advocate for them. Sharing it through an unsecured channel or forwarding it beyond its intended audience creates real problems.
The practical standard in most scout programmes is to share directly with the named partner or investment inbox and to make clear in your submission whether any part of the memo contains information the founder has marked as confidential. If you are sharing through email, use a PDF rather than an editable document. If you are sharing through a link, use a platform that lets you control who can access it and whether it can be downloaded or forwarded.
Platforms like Pitchwise let you share documents through a trackable link with access controls — you can see who viewed the memo, restrict downloading, and revoke access if the deal does not proceed. For scouts who submit to multiple funds or work across several programmes simultaneously, that level of control matters.
For scouts who want to gauge a partner's interest before sharing a full memo, Pitchwise also supports teasers – a short, controlled preview of the opportunity that gives a fund enough context to decide whether they want to see more. You share the teaser first; the partner signals interest, and only then do you send the full document with the sensitive detail. That staged approach means less confidential information changes hands speculatively, which matters when you are working with founders who are protective of what gets shared before a fund commits to looking seriously.
What makes a deal memo stand out
The memos that get follow-on attention from partners tend to share a few characteristics. They are written by someone who clearly spent time with the founder rather than summarising a pitch deck. They present risks honestly rather than burying them. And they include a specific investment thesis on why it is worth backing at this stage and the valuation.
Conviction is the most underweighted element in most scout memos. Partners read a lot of deal summaries that describe interesting companies without making a case for why the fund should act now. The memo is your opportunity to be specific about why this deal is worth their time and to demonstrate that you have done enough work to have a real opinion.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a deal memo and a full investment memo?
A deal memo is a short, qualifying document that a scout writes to present an opportunity to the fund. A full investment memo is a longer, more detailed document produced after due diligence, used by the investment committee to make a final decision. Scouts write deal memos. Analysts and associates at the fund typically write the full investment memo once the deal has been approved to proceed.
Do venture scouts get paid for deal memos?
Scout compensation varies across programmes. Most scouts receive a percentage of the carry-on investments that originate from their deal flow, rather than a fee per memo submitted. According to David Teten's research on scout compensation, carry-based arrangements are the standard structure, with the specific percentage depending on the fund. Some programmes also provide a small annual stipend or a budget for travel expenses.
How many deals do scouts typically submit?
There is no standard number, and it varies considerably across programmes and depending on how active a scout is. What matters more than volume is quality. Funds that receive ten well-researched memos per quarter from a scout get more value than those that submit fifty shallow summaries. Most experienced scouts develop a personal threshold before they write a memo: if they would not be comfortable backing the company themselves, they do not submit it.
Can a scout share a deal memo with more than one fund?
This depends on the terms of your scout agreement. Some funds have exclusivity clauses that require you to submit deals to them first or exclusively. Others allow non-exclusive sourcing. Read your agreement carefully before sharing the same memo with multiple funds. If a founder introduced you to a deal, they may also have opinions about which funds they want to be introduced to, so it is worth asking before broadening the circle.
What should I do if a fund passes on my memo?
Ask for a brief reason if the fund is open to providing one. Note the feedback alongside the deal in your records, and keep an eye on the company over the following months. Some of the most valuable follow-on intel you can give a fund comes from checking back in with founders six months after a pass. If the company hits a milestone that addresses the fund's concern, that is worth a short note.
Share and track your deal memos with Pitchwise
Venture scouts who share deal memos by email have no way to know whether they were read, forwarded, or downloaded. Pitchwise lets you share documents through a controlled link; you can see who opened the memo and when, set it to expire after a defined period, and prevent downloading or forwarding. That level of control protects both you and the founders who trusted you with their information. Get started: app.pitchwise.se
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