Portfolio support ops

When to use

Use this skill when:

A portfolio company asks for help (hiring, customers, partners, strategy)
You're prepping for a board meeting or quarterly check-in
You want to systematize support so it compounds over time

Inputs you should request (only if missing)

The specific request (what outcome, by when)
Company stage and immediate priorities
Target ICP / customer list (if request is GTM)
Hiring priorities and role specs (if request is recruiting)
Any constraints (confidentiality, competitor conflicts)

Outputs you must produce

Clarified request (what "done" means, measurable)
Action plan (owner, next step, due date, SLA)
Delivered help (intros made, candidates sourced, docs delivered)
Close-the-loop note (did it work? outcome measured)
Updated help menu (company priorities refreshed)

Hard rule: Every request gets a resolution within SLA and an outcome measurement.

Templates:

assets/help-menu.md
assets/request-intake.md
assets/intro-template.md
assets/board-prep.md

SLA by request type

| Type | Priority | Response SLA | Resolution SLA | Outcome measurement | |---|---|---|---|---| | Fundraising support | P0 | 4 hours | 48 hours | Meetings scheduled, term sheets received | | Key hire closing | P0 | 4 hours | 1 week | Offer accepted Y/N | | Customer escalation | P0 | 4 hours | 48 hours | Issue resolved Y/N | | Customer intro | P1 | 24 hours | 1 week | Intro made, meeting held, outcome | | Recruiting pipeline | P1 | 24 hours | 2 weeks | Candidates submitted, interviews, hires | | Partner intro | P1 | 24 hours | 1 week | Intro made, partnership status | | Strategy/advisory | P2 | 48 hours | 1 week | Deliverable shipped, feedback received | | Market intel | P2 | 48 hours | 1 week | Report delivered, usefulness rated |

Procedure

1) Build a "help menu" per company (refresh quarterly)

Every portfolio company gets a living doc with:

# [Company] Help Menu
Last updated: YYYY-MM-DD

## Current priorities (this quarter)
1. [Priority 1]
2. [Priority 2]
3. [Priority 3]

## Hiring needs
| Role | Ideal profile | Urgency | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| | | P0/P1/P2 | Open/Filled |

## Customer targets
| Account | Buyer persona | Why they need this | Intro path |
|---|---|---|---|

## Partnership targets
| Partner | Type | Value to company | Status |
|---|---|---|---|

## Key metrics (baseline)
| Metric | Current | Target | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|

## Board meeting schedule
- Next board: [date]
- Materials due: [date]

## Support log (last 5)
| Date | Request | Outcome | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|

2) Intake requests with structured format

For every request, capture:

| Field | Value | |---|---| | Company | | | Requester | | | Request type | Hiring / Customer / Partner / Strategy / Fundraising / Other | | Goal (one sentence) | | | "Done" looks like | | | Deadline | | | Priority | P0 / P1 / P2 | | Owner | | | SLA | Response: X hours, Resolution: X days | | Next step | | | Constraints | |

3) Execute value actions with tracking

Customer intros (highest leverage):

Confirm the target account and buyer persona
Check your network for warm paths (1st degree > 2nd degree > cold)
Send structured intro request to connector:
- Why the match is relevant now
- What the ask is (15-min chat, design partner, pilot, etc.)
- Suggested time window
Track: Intro made -> Meeting held -> Outcome (pilot/deal/pass)

Recruiting support:

Confirm role scorecard (must-have vs nice-to-have)
Source 10-20 candidate targets (companies + titles)
Identify warm paths (your network, portfolio network)
Track pipeline weekly:
- Candidates identified
- Outreach sent
- Responded
- Screened
- Interviewed
- Offers
- Accepted

Fundraising support:

Review materials (deck, data room)
Build target investor list with warm paths
Make intros with context (why this investor, why now)
Track: Intros made -> Meetings -> Follow-ups -> Term sheets

4) Close the loop with outcome measurement

After every request resolution, document:

| Field | Value | |---|---| | Request ID | | | Resolution date | | | Within SLA? | Yes / No | | Outcome | Success / Partial / Failed | | Impact | High / Medium / Low | | Evidence | | | Founder feedback | | | Learnings | |

Impact definitions:

High: Directly contributed to revenue, hire, or funding
Medium: Advanced a priority, saved founder time
Low: Helpful but not critical path

5) Board meeting support

Before the meeting (1 week out):

Review the deck
Pull 5 questions that matter (not softballs)
Prepare a 1-page competitive/market update
Identify 1-2 ways you can help this quarter

After the meeting (within 48 hours):

Capture action items with owners and dates
Send follow-up with your commitments
Update help menu based on new priorities

6) Quarterly review per company

Every quarter, review:

Requests handled: count by type
SLA performance: % within SLA
Outcomes: % success rate
Impact: High/Medium/Low distribution
NPS: Would founder recommend your support?

Measuring support effectiveness

Track at the fund level:

| Metric | Target | How to measure | |---|---|---| | Response SLA hit rate | >90% | % requests responded within SLA | | Resolution SLA hit rate | >80% | % requests resolved within SLA | | Outcome success rate | >70% | % requests with Success outcome | | High-impact rate | >30% | % requests rated High impact | | Founder NPS | >50 | Quarterly survey | | Intros -> meetings | >60% | % intros that result in meeting | | Candidates -> interviews | >20% | % sourced candidates interviewed |

Salesforce logging (recommended)

Track portfolio support in Salesforce via Activities on the Account:

Log each support request as a Task (open until resolved)
Log each action (intro, candidate submission) as an Activity
Tag by type: hiring / customer / partner / strategy / fundraising
Record outcome and impact in Activity notes
Link to Contacts for intros made

If you need API workflows, use salesforce-crm-ops.

References

Mark Suster has useful public writing on boards and how they function in practice.

Edge cases

If the ask is vague: ask "What does success look like next week?" before proceeding.
If you can't help quickly: provide an alternative (another operator, another firm, or a small experiment) within SLA.
If the founder doesn't close the loop: proactively check in at resolution SLA deadline.