Before the Pitch, After the Check
Inside the quiet, essential role of Platform in venture capital.
Hey there, Cristina here! 👋
Welcome back to my corner of the internet, where I try to make venture capital a little less confusing and a little bit more fun (at least for me :p).
This week's post was inspired by period cramps, sluggishness, and the desire to write something simple because I don't have the mental space for flashy ideas right now, so I thought: why not write about something I know deeply, something that's become second nature after seven years in this space.
Welcome to the Platform side of venture capital.
When people think of Venture Capital, they usually think about the money because that’s the part everyone sees, from funding rounds to valuations to exits. Money, it’s measurable and loud. It makes headlines and it tells a story.
But money is just the starting point in VC. Once a check is written, what comes next? That’s where platform comes in, platform is the layer of support, strategy, and care that sits between “good luck” and “let’s build something real.”
So, What is Platform?
Platform work in venture capital is the systematic support infrastructure that helps portfolio companies navigate the messy, practical realities of building businesses.
So, when people hear “platform” at a VC fund, they often think perks: mentors, resources, office hours, a newsletter, maybe an intro or two.
But, at its core, platform work is about leverage.
It’s about the compounding value of relationships, timely help, and deep understanding of what founders actually need.
And that need takes many forms. Platform work stretches across functions, roles and instincts, adapting to whatever the business (or the person) is facing that day.
Platform can look like talent acquisition: finding the right executives and operators when companies need them most. It can look like business development: connecting portfolio companies with potential customers, partners, and strategic relationships. It can look like financial planning: helping founders understand their metrics, model their growth, and prepare for future fundraising rounds.
Platform teams facilitate peer learning between portfolio companies, create resources around common challenges like scaling operations, building company culture, or navigating regulatory requirements. They maintain networks of specialists (lawyers, accountants, consultants, former operators) who can jump in when specific expertise is needed.
The work happens in Slack messages at 7 AM or 9 PM, in WhatsApp texts, in catch-ups after long days, in the careful curation of networks that most people never see. There are no TechCrunch headlines about the platform operator who helped a portfolio company find their Chief of Staff, or the platform team member who walked a founder through their first board presentation.
This is the reality of platform work: it's deeply practical, intensely human, and almost invisible from the outside. The work might involve spending two hours helping a founder understand fundraising strategies or connecting two portfolio companies struggling with the same supply chain issue. Nothing sexy, but these conversations often save months of headaches.
Companies that get this kind of support consistently outperform those that don't. Not because platform teams have magic solutions, but because they understand something fundamental about building companies, most problems aren't unique, and most solutions already exist somewhere in the network.
But Is It Even Important?
The venture capital landscape has changed dramatically over the past year. There are more funds, more capital, and more competition for the best deals. In this environment, the old playbook of writing checks and offering high-level strategic advice isn't enough anymore. Founders have options, and they're choosing investors who can actually make their lives easier, not just their bank accounts bigger.
The funds that are winning aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest names or the deepest pockets. They're the ones whose portfolio companies actually want to work with them again. They're the ones whose founders refer other founders, not because they have to, but because they genuinely believe the experience will be valuable.
When portfolio companies are hiring candidates their fund helped them find, or navigating challenges with frameworks the platform team developed, that creates a reputation you can't buy. This reputation isn't built through marketing or PR. It’s not one big moment, it’s dozens of small ones: a Slack ping here, a catch up call, an intro there, the kind of stuff no one sees but makes all the difference. It's built by people who understand that venture capital is ultimately a service business, and the quality of that service determines everything else.
Also, the numbers do not lie. Platform isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore, it’s essential.
Today, 52% of VC firms have platform roles, double from a few years ago.
A study by Sapphire Partners found that firms with formal platform teams reported higher founder satisfaction, stronger follow-on rates, and better access to co-investors.
First Round Capital published analyses showing that startups that used platform resources performed 63% better than those that didn’t.
A study by the VC Platform Global Community showcased that firms with Significant Platform produce 1,100 basis point improvements in Net IRR and 0.5x TVPI compared to firms with No Platform in the last decade.
How Funds Should Think About Platform
If I were building a fund today, platform would be part of the strategy from day one. Helping portfolio companies succeed is the only thing that drives returns and even small improvements like hiring faster, solving problems earlier, building stronger networks, compound fast.
Also, not every “platform” team is really set up to deliver that. Hiring someone and calling it platform isn’t enough. You need to know what your portfolio actually needs and you need people who can show up with the right skills, the right instincts, and the trust to do the work well.
That also means giving them access. Platform teams should be looped into deal flow, they should understand the portfolio beyond a Notion doc, they need feedback, context, and the space to experiment because that’s how support gets smarter over time.
The best funds I’ve seen treat platform as a real investment, not a cost center. These funds bring platform into investment decisions and give them budget, ownership, and the ability to shape how the fund operates.
These funds also measure success based on actual portfolio outcomes:
Are founders supported? Are problems getting solved? Are relationships being built that last?
If the answer is yes, platform isn’t just supporting the fund, it’s helping define what kind of fund you are.
What This Really Means
The shift happening in venture right now isn’t about trends, it’s about how value actually gets created. For too long, the industry assumed money and strategic advice were enough. But as competition intensifies, that's insufficient.
Winning funds understand their job is increasing the probability of success for every portfolio company. They know that increasing the odds of success means getting into the messy middle, where things break, where people get stuck, where it’s not clear what to do next.
That’s where platform comes in. The work of people who listen, who connect dots others don’t see, who help founders solve the same problem someone else faced three months ago.
In a world obsessed with bold bets and big disruptions, sometimes the most powerful changes happen quietly, one solved problem at a time.
Let me know if you like this piece in the comments and next week, I’ll be back with something a little different, maybe a more artistic take on venture capital, or maybe a piece connecting period cramps and capital allocation (because why not?).
Either way, I’ll be here, same place, same intention.
Thanks for reading.
About the author
Thanks for reading to the end! I’m Cristina — a feminist, community builder, problem solver, and people connector focused on driving investments and innovation where gender and climate meet.
If you’re interested in Nature Tech, Spirit Tech, Gender, Climate, or the intersection of these areas, let’s connect on LinkedIn.