Behind the Scenes of our first Annual Meeting
We share a how-to guide and top tips for organizing yours
Last month we had the best time bringing our community together to share, learn, and celebrate at our first Annual General Meeting (AGM). We could not wait to host our event, to do so in person, and to feel the good vibes of the community we’ve built.
We welcomed 60 attendees to our AGM, including 30 existing LPs, 10 portfolio company founders, some prospective LPs, and our team, several advisors and ecosystem partners.
Some of our ecosystem friends have yet to host their first AGM, so we will share a mix of recap and a ‘how to’ guide of what worked for us.
The Theme
This year’s AGM theme was “Thriving Through Values.” When we reflected on our journey over the last three years, what consistently emerged was all the ways in which our values have helped us build a thriving venture firm. So our theme “Thriving Through Values” helped us shape the feel and the agenda of the meeting.
The opening fireside chat with Laura Greenberg-Sanchez of Verde Associates exemplified this theme. Laura is our executive coach. So you might think - why open your annual meeting with a talk from your professional therapist?
Laura is so much more than that.
For context, our team is supercharged by our values – we approach venture capital through a prism of financial opportunity, impact, and people development. To that end, we have committed to invest 1% of our fund to coach portfolio founders in executive leadership, management skills, and culture building.
Two years ago we co-created a program with Laura’s team called SuperChargeIII. The program equips founders with leadership, management, and culture-building skills, which all are foundational to ground strong businesses. It builds on our experiences growing early stage companies and investing in over 100 of them. We’ve run two cohorts of the program and the third cohort will kick off early next year.
During our fireside chat we talked with Laura about how leaning into leadership and self awareness will make us successful as a fund and firm. She emphasized research that shows that top quartile teams not only have the right business strategy and are operating in the right market at the right time, but that team performance is equally weighted to these other factors.
Laura typically works with private equity firms, and she said that the Supply Change approach is different and inspiring for venture capital. In Laura’s words, “what Supply Change is doing is giving their portfolio a vaccine for team health, to be set up for success and to set the firm up for outsized, top quartile returns.”
Opening with such a substantial conversation - before getting into the main deck - really set the tone for the rest of the meeting.
The Agenda
When we were putting the agenda together for our AGM we went through a ‘think, feel, do’ exercise which helped us craft content that was meaningful to our LPs and others in attendance. As two partners we split the agenda evenly, leaning into our strengths and focusing on areas that highlighted the role we play within the firm. Earlier in the day we had hosted our LPAC for a hybrid in-person + virtual meeting where we previewed the AGM topics and deep dove into specific areas of brainstorming.
Our AGM agenda (pictured below) covered fund progress & outlook, fund performance, and showcased portfolio founders. We shared portfolio level performance data and anonymized data around portfolio company health. This was important; because the audience included both portfolio companies and prospective LPs, we shared relevant markups but we did not share further portfolio-specific details around performance. Attendees also interacted with founders and got to try company product.
Performance: Since we are early in Fund I’s lifecycle, our financial metrics are premature. Thus we painted a broad picture of execution as early indicators for performance. We opened this section by comparing our original allocation plan against execution over the last 2+ years of investing capital. Think check size, stage, ownership, sector, etc. We noted any deltas and shared what LPs can expect moving forward. Other metrics included capital deployed across stages, first check to follow on ratio, ownership over time and by stage, and ratio of investments in tech over CPG. We compared our performance against industry benchmarks and then shared a more nuanced view that included company capitalization health. We shared insights into our LP base and fundraising timeline, our co-investment network, general VC industry and emerging manager market landscape. We also honed in on how we review deals and then support companies post investment.
Thesis in Action: This is where we talked about our specific approach to finding the best deals and investing. Here we shared a broad market overview for early-stage investing and we talked about food tech specific investing. We talked about how our thesis surfaces opportunities across the supply chain, and how timing is key to underwriting prospective deals. On this point we spent some time on the Gartner hype cycle and shared where we think opportunities in food tech are ripe for disruption and investment on a venture-scale investment timeline.
We also shared how our operational expertise and our Fortune 500 networks help us attract and win deals. And, how our expert advisors assist us in evaluating deals and how they also lean in to support our portfolio post-investment.
Portfolio Overview and Deep Dive: At the time of our AGM we had closed on 17 investments. We shared various cross-sections of statistics on deal flow and we dove into how we team with founders to help them define, track, and report their operational, business, and impact KPIs. We also shared a snapshot of our 17 portfolio companies and how they ladder up to our strategic investment themes.
Four CEOs (from PartnerSlate, Kadeya, Robigo, and Helios) gave ~7 minute presentations on their business. We offered a travel stipend to each CEO. For all companies we highlighted relevant attendees they might enjoy meeting during the social hour.
Portfolio Product Showcase: Ten of 17 portfolio founders attended the meeting in person, and a total of 13 were ‘present’ if we also include product sampling. We showcased products for onsite consumption and for attendees to take-home from 99 Counties, agua bonita, AYO Foods, Kadeya, Minus and Partake Foods.
The catering chef was gracious in incorporating portfolio company product directly in the happy hour menu. We served agua bonita cocktails, AYO hand pies, and Partake desserts. And for the first time ever AquaCultured Foods showcased their fish-free seafood in poke bowls!
Venue & Logistics
We hosted our event on November 7th. Chicago location was chosen for geographic adjacency to large LPs, LPAC members, and a critical mass of portfolio companies. We socialized the date with our LPAC and a few large investors and locked it in.
We considered an in-person + virtual experience but ultimately opted for a fully in-person experience. We spoke to some of our LPs before the meeting to ask what they were looking for in an in-person AGM and they emphasized interaction with our portfolio founders, which we made sure to build in.
The meeting was held at Loft Lucia in Chicago’s West Loop. We hired an event planner, a photographer/videographer, and we contracted A/V support. Our EA and our associate also few in to support the event. Logistical support is highly recommended for an AGM - it was key to ensuring the event ran smoothly and that we could focus on making connections and driving the content home during the event. We budgeted about $25k-35k for the event and we looked for ways to save money on a few DIY efforts.
Once the event was behind us, we hosted a shorter virtual Annual Meeting at the request of some current and prospective LPs who could not attend in person.
The good stuff - our swag
When it comes to swag we are fans of utility, sustainability, and convenience. Many attendees were traveling so we opted for something they could easily carry with them. It was table stakes to find a product that was in line with our values and our vibe.
We landed on June’s Bags, which are long-lasting and stylish. Founder Janean Mann partners with an all-female sewing co-op in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico to create her bags and to help these women financially support their families. Janean donates a portion of all sales to the Global Fund for Women to empower and protect women from gender-based violence. Her fabrics are made from recycled fabrics and she’s made intentional choices with sourcing, manufacturing, packaging, and shipping to reduce their supply chain distance and carbon footprint. (Check her out here!).
Attendees could grab their June’s and ‘pack their own bags’ with a choice of products from our founders.
Creating good vibes
It’s all in the details. Isn’t everything though? Here are a few details that helped this event feel like us.
Musica – our team members have put together rockin’ playlists. Here’s one of them.
Signage – our designer Punk & Dandy created vertical pull up banners for the presentation area.
Loft Lucia presentation area A personal touch - Shayna’s daughter Isa drew this very special logo which welcomed guests during registration.
Shayna’s daughter Isa’s art on display “Instagrammable” moments – a “Food x Culture x Tech” neon sign served as the happy hour backdrop. We took many great photos here, including this special MIT group shot.
MIT well represented! Accent pillows – We used these in the happy hour area and they added a branded touch to the open loft space!
Custom pillows for a branding touch We served water in reusable glass bottles from Kadeya’s closed loop hydration system. It was great to see these in action.
Portfolio company Kadeya water bottles hydrated attendees in a sustainable way (no plastic!)
What could’ve been better
A stage -- The presentation area could’ve used a stage for more visibility throughout the audience.
Name tags – We got our wires crossed around name tags and missed them. We wish we’d had them so that folks could better recognize and address each other.
Less physical transitions & mixed seating – We had three main congregation areas – two were adjacent on the same floor, and happy hour was upstairs. We found that many folks preferred being seated at a table or standing behind one during the main AGM content and we didn’t have enough of those. When we moved everyone upstairs for the happy hour we lost some attendees in the transition.
Audio recording – We recorded founder pitches to repurpose later, but we had not scoped out videographer audio in our scope of work. The audio we captured isn’t video-quality and thus we cannot use it.
Enjoy more photos from the event here.
In summary, here are are top Annual Meeting tips:
Balance the guest list – Carefully curate the guest list so that you have the highest number of current LPs that can attend your meeting. Then layer on founders, and lastly prospective LPs or ecosystem partners. Get acquainted with the registration list prior to the event so that you know who is coming and don’t have to scratch your head to put a face to the name if this is the first time you’re interacting with a particular guest beyond the Zoom screen.
Keep the agenda short & tight – Do a ‘think, feel, do’ before your meeting to make sure you are crafting an agenda with a purpose. Be thoughtful about content. Develop a script to use with your presentation and don’t underestimate the power of slide design (thank you to Transact for the amazing designer recommendation). Practice Practice Practice ahead of time for succinct content, slide transitions and timing.
Highlight a mix of investments - Think of what would be interesting for attendees. What investments truly highlight your investment thesis, demonstrate your ability to win deals and provide post-investment value-add, and what portfolio companies might have timely requests that your network can support.
Align with your values - From swag to sweets, we did our best to align the products and menu with our values. No plastic bottles were consumed on site, all cutlery, plates, and linens were reusable, and our swag was values-aligned. We held the event at a WOC-owned venue and prioritized female and POC vendors when possible.
Hype it up - Build the energy before the meeting by sharing an agenda with attendees so that they know what to expect. We used lu.ma for registration and communication with attendees. After the meeting share photos, your slides, and a call to action.
Take the help - Hire the event planner, have check-in staff, a photographer, and A/V support. All this help is key to ensuring the event runs smoothly and that you can focus on making connections and driving the content home so that you can have fun and shine.
With LOVE, us
Love your insights and congrats on a great AGM!