The System: Signal + Access + Execution = Higher DPI Outcomes

This system is built around three deliberately integrated components. Each addresses a distinct breakdown in how human capital decisions are typically made and executed at the fund level.

Individually, each component adds value.

Deployed together, they function as a fund-level human capital operating system designed to reduce execution risk, increase portfolio velocity, and improve DPI outcomes.

This is not a tool.

It is not a recruiting service.

It is a managed, market-facing system designed to operate in the gap between diligence and execution, where most breakdowns actually begin.

Signal

Earlier visibility into people-related execution risk.

Signal is designed to surface the human-capital risks that most often shape post-funding outcomes but are frequently missed during diligence.

Using a fund-directed, third-party approach, Signal creates earlier clarity around leadership readiness, hiring sequencing logic, and where execution strain is likely to emerge as a company scales. This includes distinguishing true growth hires from unresolved structural gaps that will compound post-funding.

The output is not a hiring recommendation or a recruiting plan.

It is decision-grade insight for the fund on:

• Leadership alignment and readiness

• Near-term execution risk tied to people decisions

• Hiring priorities and sequencing logic

• The company’s ability to attract and land senior talent post-funding

Signal allows funds to see people-related risk earlier, when optionality still exists and intervention is materially cheaper.

Access

Proactive, market-facing exposure to top-decile operators before urgency exists.

Access exists to solve timing alignment.

Rather than encountering the talent market for the first time once a role becomes urgent, this component creates early, low-pressure exposure to experienced operators aligned with your investment themes.

Access operates as a curated, opt-in network of senior operators who have scaled companies through similar stages and are open to exploratory conversations. Relationships form before roles are defined, timelines are forced, or decisions become reactive.

This expands portfolio optionality by:

• Creating warm access to relevant operators ahead of need

• Allowing founders to build conviction without pressure

• Reducing reliance on public job postings and cold outreach

• Preserving momentum when execution demands accelerate

Access is deliberately ongoing and market-facing, ensuring portfolio companies are never starting from zero when hiring pressure eventually appears.

Execution

Reducing cost, friction, and delay when external support becomes unavoidable.

At some point, many portfolio companies will require external hiring support. When that happens, execution often slows due to vendor shopping, pricing uncertainty, onboarding delays, and misaligned incentives.

Execution exists to make that inevitability less painful.

This component establishes fund-level standards and economics in advance, creating a pre-cleared path for external hiring support when it is truly required. Expectations, pricing structures, and process discipline are defined upstream, allowing searches to launch quickly and with greater certainty of outcome.

The result is:

• Less time lost evaluating vendors

• Reduced pricing friction and unnecessary overspend

• Faster launch once decisions are made

• Improved transparency, speed, and quality

Execution is not about doing more searches. It is about removing friction when execution support is unavoidable.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Imagine you are deep in diligence with a company approaching a new round. The fundamentals are strong. The product works. Early traction is real.

But familiar questions start to surface.

• Is the leadership team truly ready for the next phase?

• Are anticipated hires being pulled forward for the right reasons?

• Are there people-related risks that will only become visible after capital is deployed?

Rather than letting those questions linger, Signal can be deployed during pre-funding diligence. The result is earlier decision quality, not just earlier information.

A small number of structured, third-party conversations with the CEO and key leaders surface leadership readiness, hiring logic, and execution risk tied to people decisions. The output gives earlier clarity on whether underlying issues should be addressed before capital moves and where additional support may be required post-funding.

At the same time, Access is already operating quietly across the portfolio.

Because the system is ongoing and market-facing, portfolio companies are not encountering the talent market for the first time under pressure. Relevant operators are already visible. Early relationships already exist. Optionality is preserved.

And when execution support eventually becomes unavoidable, Execution provides a disciplined, pre-cleared path forward. Less scrambling. Less delay. Less friction. Better outcomes.

For founders, this feels like relief. For investors, it compounds.