Background

An emerging venture capital firm that was established during a time when remote working was becoming more of the norm was looking for a better way to organize files and successfully fundraise across a distributed team in the United States. This firm turned to Dropbox and DocSend to allow them to work most effectively from anywhere and raise their fund I initial investment.

The Challenge

Prior to Dropbox and DocSend, the Director of Investor Relations at the emerging fund shared that his firm needed a more secure way to share sensitive financial documents with potential limited partners (LPs) in order to raise their fund I initial investments.

The Solution

The Director of Investor of Relations at the company uses Dropbox’s file sync platform and DocSend’s secure document sharing solution to seamlessly store essential firm operating files and securely share and optimize their outreach to potential LPs and investors.

Dropbox stores all collaborative internal firm materials

As the organization began when most emerging firms needed to adapt to a remote working environment, the team brought on Dropbox from the start to be the source of truth for all files and information related to internal operations. “We create most of our files on Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, and Excel and we are relieved to know they are always backed up on Dropbox,” the director shared.

No matter where someone on the team is located, all important files including investment strategies, underlying portfolio fund research, risk-return analysis documents, and risk management procedures are up-to-date and protected. The team can easily make revisions and final edits in Dropbox and get notified when someone updates a document. “The shared folder and group folder structures in Dropbox give us more control over sensitive financial information,” the director shared.

The team is largely distributed across the United States, so having a centralized source of information is critical for remote collaboration. In addition to full-time staff members and fund fellows, the Director of Investor Relations works with an external marketing team that creates customized PDFs and marketing collateral. “We’re able to revise different iterations of one-pagers and investment decks that our marketing team creates for us. We can comment back and forth to get the look and design right,” the director shared. Once the document is finalized, the director can upload it to DocSend right from his Dropbox account.

DocSend protects sensitive financial documents shared with potential LPs

The Director of Investor Relations is responsible for identifying a broad group of potential investors and raising capital for the firm’s first fund. When he first uploads materials into DocSend, the director can set advanced security over confidential financial documents. He can create a unique passcode, require email verification, and set expiration dates, so that only a targeted list of potential investors are accessing his files. “I want our financial information to be broadly distributed among potential investors; however, I also want to control access, so it doesn’t end up in the hands of other funds who might be looking to replicate what we are doing,” he shared.

Several overview decks and financial documents require signed NDAs before potential investors can access them. The director can simply upload the firm’s standard NDA into DocSend and drag and drop designated signable fields directly into his document. Whenever a file requires this extra layer of security, he can simply require an NDA in one-click. Potential LPs can breeze through the NDA signature process with DocSend’s intuitive solution, built into the document viewing workflow.

Closing an emerging venture capital fund using DocSend’s virtual data room

Once the Director of Investor Relations has uploaded his files into DocSend, he creates a virtual data room to share all critical investment information in a single link. “I simply embed the DocSend data room link into my email to our investors. Potential LPs and investors can then access reference documents and financial documents, without needing to download software,” the director shared. Potential investors can easily view due diligence questionnaires, fact sheets, and legal documents, all within their browsers on any device. Additionally, he can personalize his virtual data room with a custom banner image and logo, which provides a clean viewing experience for viewers.

For other documents that require more protection, the director can add an NDA in one-click, as well as password protection or email verification. Instead of manually attaching files to an email, which could be easily downloaded and shared with third-parties, the director can easily safeguard sensitive financial information in DocSend’s virtual data room.

DocSend’s analytics provide insights into LP interest

Once potential LPs and investors access his virtual data room, the Director of Investor Relations is notified via email, so he knows exactly who has reviewed which of his files. The director can see page-by-page analytics, which “gives a deeper understanding of where potential LPs and investors are focusing their attention within a particular document, which has allowed us to improve relationships with specific investors,” he shared. DocSend’s analytics can help shape conversations with potential LPs and investors, helping him have more meaningful interactions.

The director’s efforts creating an impactful investor experience have ultimately paid off, as the emerging firm recently closed their fund I initial investments. “We had a handful of LPs signing off after they accessed our data room in DocSend. Our data room was easy for me to create and seamless for LPs to view,” he shared.