Venture Capital Model

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This model is open source under the Apache License 2.0. You can use it, modify it, redistribute it, and incorporate it into commercial work subject to the license. Apache 2.0 license

What you'll do with it

Forecast a fund from first close to final distribution. Capital deployment, follow-on reserves, graduation rates, exits, distributions, and management fees, quarterly, over up to 20 years. Every standard performance metric (Gross/Net IRR, Multiple, RVPI, DPI, TVPI) calculated automatically.

Built for emerging managers who need a real model to underwrite the fund strategy, established GPs who want to pressure-test changes, and LPs evaluating fund mechanics from the inside.

Use it to model funds, rolling funds, SPVs, syndicates, or any vehicle deploying venture capital.

One model, three ways to use it

Getting the model gets you all of it. Most people start in the browser and reach for the spreadsheet when they want to take the model apart.

In your browser. The web model opens on the fund-level view: size, fees, carry, portfolio construction and net returns to LPs. Then you switch on what you need in its Settings. Quarterly and annual cash flows bring the Forecast and Statements tabs with them. Cap-table portfolio construction runs graduation rates round by round. The advanced waterfall adds a preferred return, GP catch-up, tiered carry, a clawback, and the choice between whole-fund and deal-by-deal (American) carry. Recycling, fee step-downs and NAV-based fees, LP classes with their own terms and call schedules, and a management company budget are each one more switch. Your funds save to your account, you can send an LP a read-only link or invite an editor, and you can export the model to Excel.

As a spreadsheet. The full Venture Capital Model for Excel and Google Sheets, every cell open. The workbook is where the SPV waterfall and specific-investment portfolio construction live today, and it's the one to hand someone who wants to check the formulas.

From your AI or your code. The web model's engine answers the API and MCP server, so a number an agent computes matches the one on your screen. Compute is a separate $20/year plan.

What it covers

This is the venture capital fund model people mean when they search for one. It covers the whole fund, not one slice of it:

• Fund economics. Fund size, management fees, fund expenses, recycling, carry, and what the portfolio has to return gross for LPs to net their target. How fees, carry and recycling shape a fund.
• Capital calls and cash flow timing. Quarterly capital calls against the deployment pace and fee schedule, so you can see when LPs get called and how much, and quarterly distributions back to them. Capital deployment.
• Portfolio construction. Check sizes, follow-on reserves, graduation rates across up to six rounds, and how many companies the fund can back. Portfolio construction.
• The carry waterfall. European and American waterfalls, SPV waterfalls, multi-tiered carry, preferred return and GP catch-up. Fund waterfall.
• LP reporting. Fund-level financial statements (operations, financial condition, cash flows), quarterly, and the metrics LPs ask for: TVPI, DPI, RVPI, gross and net IRR. Fund statements.
• Management company. A budget for the entity that runs the fund, so fee income and operating costs sit next to the fund forecast. Management company budgeting.

Edit with AI

Every cell open. Inputs in blue, formulas in black, rows documented. Built so you and your AI can extend it without breaking the underlying logic.

1. Context primer. Paste it into Claude or ChatGPT before you make a change.
2. Prompt guide. Ready-made prompts for setup, portfolio construction, scenario analysis, and LP reporting.
3. Hemrock Skill. A drop-in Claude Agent Skill that loads this model's sheet map, prompts, and checks into any Claude Project. Free, with no connector to set up.
4. MCP server. On ChatGPT, Cursor, or another tool? The MCP server feeds the same context to any AI that speaks MCP.
5. Verify before you trust. AI gets fund waterfall logic subtly wrong, so use the sanity-check prompts to catch bad references and confused metrics.

How the spreadsheet is structured

• Get Started. Primary fund inputs: size, term, fee structure, deployment pace.
• Portfolio Construction. Check sizes, follow-on reserves, graduation rates, exit valuations and timing.
• Forecast. Capital deployment, proceeds, cash flows, and fund metrics, all calculated.
• Financials. Statement of operations, financial condition, and cash flows, quarterly.
• Management Company. Budget the expenses of the entity running the fund.
• Key Reports. Charts and metrics for LP and IC discussions.

Background reading: How to Model a Venture Capital Fund · Portfolio construction

Common questions

Why use this when AI can build a fund model?
A fund model is one of the hardest things to get right and one of the easiest for AI to get plausibly wrong. Waterfalls, recycling, GP catch-up, and carry tiers all look fine until the distribution math is off by a turn. This hands AI a structure where that logic already holds, so it customizes inside guardrails instead of inventing them. Build a fund forecast from a blank sheet and the errors don't announce themselves.

Doesn't my fund administrator already model this?
A fund admin reports what has happened: actual calls, distributions, NAV. This is a forward forecast of what the fund could do across deployment, reserves, exits, and waterfall, before it happens. You use it to underwrite the strategy and pressure-test changes, then your admin tracks the actuals against it.

Funds only, or other VC vehicles?
Use it for funds, rolling funds, SPVs, syndicates, or angel structures. The fund-specific waterfall and management fee logic can be turned off or bypassed.

Is the web model a different product?
No. It's the same model, and getting the model gets you the web model and the spreadsheet together. You can try the web model before you get it, with no account, and a free account is all it takes to save your funds.

How is this different from the Fund Economics Tool?
The Fund Economics Tool is a smaller spreadsheet for sketching a fund's shape in a few inputs, and it's still its own free download. The web tool that started out under that name grew into this model's web version. If you used it before, your saved funds are where you left them.

European or American waterfall?
Both. Plus SPV waterfalls. Multi-tiered carry, preferred return, and GP catch-up are all prebuilt.

Excel or Google Sheets?
Both. All formulas open, no macros.

Learn venture capital modeling

Guided walkthroughs of fund economics, portfolio construction, waterfalls, and management company budgeting, free, in the docs. Or attend a live workshop.

Start in the docs →

Documentation

• How to model a venture capital fund · Portfolio construction
• Management company budgeting · Recycling management fees
• Bring your own model