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

1. Clarified request (what "done" means, measurable)
2. Action plan (owner, next step, due date, SLA)
3. Delivered help (intros made, candidates sourced, docs delivered)
4. Close-the-loop note (did it work? outcome measured)
5. 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):

1. Confirm the target account and buyer persona
2. Check your network for warm paths (1st degree > 2nd degree > cold)
3. 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
4. Track: Intro made -> Meeting held -> Outcome (pilot/deal/pass)

Recruiting support:

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

Fundraising support:

1. Review materials (deck, data room)
2. Build target investor list with warm paths
3. Make intros with context (why this investor, why now)
4. 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.