Retain the reason behind every investment decision.
Recover previous diligence, introductions and the conditions for reconsidering a case.
Establish the initial investment case.
The management note provides the proposed cheque, reported revenue and recurring revenue share. Compare these inputs with the family’s investment criteria.
Record why the opportunity was declined
Distinguish a pass on valuation from a mandate exception, concentration concern or evidence gap. Retain the source and decision date, together with any conditions for reconsideration. These distinctions help a future analyst assess whether the investment case has changed.
Include the relevant relationships
An introducer may connect an opportunity to an existing holding, co-investor or earlier committee discussion. Retain the source supporting that relationship and make its relevance explicit. Familiarity provides context for diligence; it does not establish the quality of the investment.
Make the record usable at handover
Retain the decision, supporting documents, unresolved questions and review owner in the investment record. A new team member should be able to reconstruct the case from those materials and understand the next action without relying on an informal recollection of the meeting.