👋 Welcome to the 42 new readers who joins us this week and welcome back to everyone else.
Today we’ll be diving into one of our most practical post yet. By the end of it, you hopefully have some things you can go implement today.
So let’s get started.
“Meet as many managers as possible” sounds easy - until you’ve met 500 of them. When time becomes your scarcest resource, intuition alone won’t scale. That’s why I used an A–E system - a letter grade that turns analysis into action.
You’ve seen my “boring” framework on scoring managers 1–5 across performance, strategy, value creation, people, and terms. The A-E list sits on top of that: a single letter that translates analysis into action - who we meet, how often, and where.
Why a letter grade?
It forces prioritization. A single letter makes tradeoffs explicit when the calendar gets tight and decisions need to be made.
It creates consistency across the team. New joiners know exactly how to behave with an A vs. C.
It signals commitment to managers. Showing up in their office 6-9 months after the first meeting isn’t random - it’s the operating system working.
The definitions (and what they mean for your time)
Rule: once we’ve met, we assign A-E within 24 hours, and re-evaluate after every meeting.
A: “Commit to next fund unless there are big surprises”
Clear, repeatable performance with depth (not just an outlier), top decile/quartile through cycles, stable team, clean terms.
Cadence: Meet 1x/year; 2–3x/year within 9 months of a fundraise. Visit onsite at least once per cycle.
How many GPs? In the US mid-market, I can point to ~20 clear A’s. I won’t rate an A without a line-by-line review.