How to show your track record in an LP deck, honestly

Show everything, label everything

A track-record slide persuades by being easy to check. The rules I design to:

• Show the whole portfolio, losses included, or say plainly what’s left out and why.
• Keep cash returned and paper value visually distinct, everywhere in the deck.
• Date every number and label where every mark comes from.
• One chart, one message, stated in the headline.
• Make the deck match the data room, number for number.

The numbers and how they’re calculated come from the fund and its administrator. For methodology, the ILPA reporting and performance templates and your counsel are the references, not a designer.

Three ratios, one relationship

• DPI (distributions to paid-in): the cash the fund has actually returned to LPs, relative to what they paid in.
• RVPI (residual value to paid-in): the value the fund still holds, at its current marks, relative to what LPs paid in.
• TVPI (total value to paid-in): the two together. TVPI equals DPI plus RVPI.

That relationship is the whole design brief. TVPI is made of two very different things, cash and an estimate, and the slide’s first job is to keep them from blurring into one number.

A stacked bar, two fills

The clearest chart I know for this is a stacked bar per fund or per vintage: DPI as a solid fill at the bottom, RVPI as an outline or a lighter fill on top, and the TVPI total labelled at the top of the bar. The eye reads the total, then immediately sees how much of it is cash.

Whatever the chart, the convention holds across the deck: one fill means realised, one means unrealised, and they never swap. If cash is solid on the performance slide, it’s solid on the portfolio slide and in the quarterly update too.

Date it, source it, style it differently

An unrealised mark is an estimate, and the slide should look like it knows that. Three things do most of the work:

• An “as of” date on every chart and table, in the same place every time.
• The mark source, like a priced round, a valuation policy or a write-down, next to the value it produced.
• A different visual weight for unrealised values, so they never read as cash.

A cost-versus-current-value chart per company, with the mark source labelled on each, is often the most honest single view of a young portfolio. Projections never sit on the same chart as results.

On the chart, not in a footnote

Every company goes on the chart, including the ones written down to nothing. A strip or dot plot works well: one mark per company along a single axis of multiple on cost, write-offs sitting visibly at zero, winners at the far end. The shape tells the real story of a venture portfolio, a few outliers carrying the rest, and LPs expect to see it.

Leaving the losses out doesn’t hide them. It just tells an LP to go looking, and they will.

Each has one job

Most track-record sections need a chart for the message and a table for the evidence. Logos, if they appear at all, are a separate slide that claims nothing about returns.

Only with the source and the vintage

A benchmark is only meaningful against funds of the same vintage and strategy, from a named source. If it goes on a slide, I’d show it as a band behind the fund’s own figure, with the source, the vintage and the “as of” date right on the chart. Which benchmark to use, and whether to use one at all, is a call for the fund and its advisers. The design job is making sure it can’t be misread.

A checklist before it goes out

• Every number has an “as of” date.
• Realised and unrealised look different, and the same, everywhere.
• Every mark has a labelled source.
• Every investment is shown, or the deck says which aren’t and why.
• Gross and net are labelled wherever either appears.
• Value axes start at zero.
• Metrics appear in the same order on every slide.
• The deck matches the data room exactly.
• A methodology footnote says how the numbers were calculated.
• No projected returns are shown as results.

The numbers stay yours

I design track-record and portfolio charts from the numbers the fund reports, defined and labelled the way it reports them. I don’t change a figure, and I don’t pick which ones to show; that’s the fund’s call with its administrator. What I bring is the system: one fill for cash, one for paper, one place for the date, one footnote style, one metric order, so every chart in the deck reads the same way and an LP only has to learn it once.

The same system carries into the quarterly LP updates and the AGM, which is where it saves the most time. The AGM deck guide covers the annual version, and the Fund I guide covers the case where there are no fund returns yet. For a startup’s numbers, the chart rules are the same: how to show traction and financials.

What is the difference between TVPI and DPI?

DPI measures the cash a fund has actually returned to its LPs relative to what they paid in, while TVPI adds the value of the investments the fund still holds, at their current marks. TVPI equals DPI plus RVPI. In an LP deck the two should be shown so they can’t be confused, because one is cash and the other is partly an estimate.

How should unrealised investments be shown in an LP deck?

Unrealised investments in an LP deck should be styled differently from realised ones, carry an “as of” date, and show the source of each mark, such as a priced round or the fund’s valuation policy. The same visual convention should hold on every slide, so an LP never mistakes a paper value for cash returned.

What is the best chart for a VC fund track record?

A stacked bar that separates DPI from RVPI, with TVPI labelled as the total, is one of the clearest charts for a VC fund track record, because it shows how much of the value is cash. A strip or dot plot of every company’s multiple on cost works well alongside it, because it shows the whole portfolio, write-offs included.

Should an LP deck show failed investments?

An LP deck should show failed investments alongside the rest of the portfolio, on the same chart rather than in a footnote. Venture returns come from a few outliers, LPs expect to see the losses, and a portfolio shown without them reads as selected. Showing every company is also what makes the deck match the data room.

How do you show a track record for an early fund with no exits?

An early fund with no exits shows its track record through the progress of the portfolio: rounds raised since entry, follow-ons taken or declined, and current marks clearly labelled as unrealised, with dates and sources. Cost versus current value per company is often the most honest single view. A fund raising its first fund can show attributed angel or syndicate deals instead.

Can a designer help with a track record slide without changing the numbers?

A designer can help with a track record slide without touching the numbers: the figures and their methodology come from the fund and its administrator, and the design job is making them readable and impossible to misread. Overslide designs fund-performance and portfolio charts from the numbers a fund reports, defined and labelled the way the fund reports them.

When the numbers are right and the slides aren’t

That’s the work. LP decks for venture funds covers how Overslide works with funds, and quarterly LP updates covers the same chart system built as a template the team runs every quarter. Raising a second fund? Fund II: what changes. All the guides are on the guides page.