INDEPENDENT INVESTMENT COMMITTEE

Would you write this cheque if you did not already know the founder—or own the company?

Before a new investment or pro-rata follow-on, VIV independently tests the founder, financials, customers, market, valuation, terms, downside and exit logic. You receive a written Proceed, Proceed If, Negotiate, Watch or Pass view — while the family keeps the decision.

Discuss an IC mandate Evaluate a cheque

WHAT THE WORK PRODUCES

IC Verdict

SAMPLE FORMAT

DECISIONProceed / Proceed if / Negotiate / Watch / Pass.

EVIDENCEVerified facts separated from claims and unresolved unknowns.

CONDITIONSPrice, terms, milestones and evidence required before capital moves.

EVERY IC NOTE ENDS WITH A CALL

No vague recommendation.

PROCEED

PROCEED IF…

NEGOTIATE

WATCH

PASS

For follow-ons, VIV asks the uncomfortable question: if the family did not already own the company, would it invest this amount today?

“If we did not already own this company, would we invest this amount today?”

WHAT WE CHALLENGE

Founder & team

Background, references, execution record, key-person dependency and gaps.

Commercial reality

Financials, customers, retention, concentration, pipeline and unit economics.

Market & competition

Category structure, substitutes, pricing power and defensibility.

Valuation & terms

Price, dilution, rights, downside protection and realistic exit economics.

Portfolio fit

Concentration, overlap, reserves, liquidity and strategic relevance.

Downside & unknowns

What must be true, what can break, and what evidence is still missing.

FIVE WRITTEN CALLS

ProceedEvidence and terms support action.

Proceed if…Named conditions must be met.

NegotiateCompany may work; price or terms do not.

WatchRevisit at a named milestone.

PassDo not invest, with reasons recorded.

PRIVATE · CONTEXTUAL · NO MASS DISTRIBUTION

Request an independent IC review

Tell us enough to understand the problem. We use the information to route the conversation to the relevant VIV service; it is not a public deal submission.

Independent Investment Committee: from problem to decision.

Challenge a new or follow-on cheque before relationship momentum becomes the decision.

STEP 01

Frame the exact decision, cheque and required return

STEP 02

Verify founder, financial, customer and market claims

STEP 03

Stress downside, dilution, valuation and exit cases

STEP 04

Identify negotiable conditions and milestones

STEP 05

Issue Proceed / Proceed-if / Negotiate / Watch / Pass

What the client receives

Evidence-backed decision record
Explicit unknowns and dependencies
Named actions, owners and decision gates
Service-specific output rather than a generic report

How success is measured

critical claims verified
conditions negotiated
decision turnaround
follow-on decisions changed
thesis milestones tracked

Interactive audit engine

The engine asks only the facts needed for this service, identifies missing evidence, gives a first-pass diagnostic and routes the user into the relevant VIV workflow. It is not a generic lead form.

Why this service gets stronger with every completed mandate.

Decision memory: thesis versus actual outcome

Each investment decision retains the original thesis, valuation logic, key risks and conditions; subsequent outcomes can then be compared with what the committee actually believed at the time.

Independent reference graph

Reference sources are mapped by relationship, recency, independence and evidentiary value, making it easier to reach the right customers, former employees, suppliers, investors and industry participants for the next decision.

Price discipline across comparable private decisions

Comparable valuation, financing and liquidity evidence helps the committee challenge price and terms consistently instead of allowing each deal to reset the family’s valuation discipline.

Two situations where Independent Investment Committee becomes useful.

USE CASE 01

New direct investment

A family is considering a sizeable cheque into a founder-led company introduced through its network. VIV independently tests the founder narrative, financial evidence, customer quality, valuation, terms, downside and exit logic before capital moves.

USE CASE 02

Existing-company follow-on

A portfolio company requests bridge capital. VIV asks the counterfactual question: if the family did not already own it, would it invest today? The answer is translated into proceed, proceed-if, negotiate, watch or pass.

CASE STUDY · ANONYMIZED

A follow-on decision under time pressure

A family was asked to participate in a time-sensitive follow-on round in an existing holding. The prior relationship and earlier investment created pressure to support the company. VIV rebuilt the current thesis from operating evidence, challenged the valuation and use of funds, and separated ownership bias from the merits of the new cheque. The resulting decision conditions focused the family on milestones, downside protection and the amount of capital actually justified by the evidence.

Client-identifying details and commercially sensitive information are withheld for confidentiality.