Last time I made an introduction on how to choose your techstack as a VC. This week I want to continue with our journey on choosing our tech stack at Metis Ventures. Over the past few years, we have developed and refined a comprehensive tech stack that streamlines processes, enhances decision-making, and helps us stay ahead in an ever-changing venture capital landscape. But this journey wasn’t just about finding tools—it was about building a system that integrates seamlessly across all aspects of our operations.

Our approach involved analyzing each process in depth, benchmarking against industry peers, and meeting with over 100 providers to assess potential solutions. Below, we’ll take you through this journey, the lessons we’ve learned along the way, and the key tools that power Metis Ventures today.

Our Journey: From Process Analysis to Tool Selection

To create a tech stack that truly works for us, we started by dissecting each part of our venture capital process—from deal sourcing to portfolio management. We looked at every step individually to see where technology could make the most impact. Treating each process as a silo allowed us to evaluate our needs accurately and identify where improvements were necessary.

Once we had a clear understanding of our internal needs, we benchmarked our tech readiness against other VC firms. This gave us a sense of how we compared to peers and where we could improve. Armed with this information, we began searching for tools. Over the last two years, we’ve held more than 100 meetings with different providers, exploring a wide range of solutions for every aspect of our workflow.Each tool was scored based on five critical criteria:

1.Impact on the Process: Does the tool improve or streamline the process it’s designed for? We evaluated how much each tool could reduce friction and enhance operational efficiency.
2.Usability: Is the tool easy for team members to adopt, or does it make the process unnecessarily complicated? If a tool is difficult to use, it can slow down operations rather than improve them.
3.Regionality: Some tools claim to provide valuable data, but if they don’t cater to the right region, they won’t serve your needs effectively. This was a major factor in selecting tools that align with our operational regions.
4.Integrations: Tools need to integrate smoothly with existing systems. Poor integrations create manual data entry work, which defeats the purpose of automation.
5.Price: Does the price reflect the value the tool brings? We prioritized tools that delivered a high return on investment (ROI) without unnecessary costs.

Our Tech Stack: The Tools That Power Metis Ventures

We now have a modern, integrated tech stack that optimizes every aspect of our firm’s operations. Here’s a breakdown of the key tools we use:

1. Sourcing and Scouting

•MetisX Software (In-House Sourcing Tool): MetisX is our proprietary software that powers our startup discovery efforts. With access to over 250,000 startups, it centralizes all scouting activities and provides insights into key regions. MetisX allows us to filter startups by region, industry, and growth stage, helping us identify high-potential opportunities.

•Jotform (Inbound Applications): We use Jotform to process incoming startup applications. This tool captures detailed application data and automatically integrates it into our CRM for streamlined review. The ability to customize application forms makes it easy for us to prioritize the information that matters most.

2. Communication and Collaboration

•Slack (Instant Messaging): Slack is our go-to for real-time communication across the team. With dedicated channels for different projects and portfolio companies, Slack ensures that conversations are organized and easily searchable. The platform allows for quick decision-making and seamless internal collaboration.

•Calendly (Meeting Organization): Calendly is key to organizing our meetings efficiently. By syncing with our calendars, it eliminates the back-and-forth of scheduling and ensures meetings with stakeholders are scheduled promptly. It’s particularly useful for coordinating across time zones.

•Spiky AI (Automated Meeting Notes): Spiky AI automatically generates transcripts and meeting notes. This helps us capture key insights without the burden of manual note-taking, allowing team members to focus on more strategic tasks during meetings.

3. Operations and Task Management

•ClickUp (Task Management): We use ClickUp to manage tasks, deadlines, and ongoing projects. Its comprehensive features provide visibility across all departments and allow team members to assign responsibilities, track progress, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

•Docusign (Legal Documentation): Docusign speeds up the legal documentation process by enabling secure digital signatures. This reduces delays in signing contracts and agreements and ensures that all legal documents are handled in compliance with relevant regulations.

4. Portfolio Management and Reporting

•Visible & Investory (Portfolio Reporting): We track the performance of our portfolio companies in real-time using Visible and Investory. These platforms give us detailed insights into financial health, key performance indicators (KPIs), and overall progress. With automated reporting features, we can quickly assess which companies may need additional support.

•Airtable (Portfolio Sharing): Airtable helps us share portfolio data across the team and with investors. Its collaborative features make it easy to access and update critical information, ensuring that everyone is on the same page.

5. Marketing and Communication

•Mailchimp (Mass Mailing): Mailchimp handles our mass communications, such as investor updates, newsletters, and event announcements. It also provides analytics on open rates and engagement, helping us optimize our messaging strategy.

•Evercopy (Marketing Suite): Evercopy supports our marketing efforts by managing content creation. This tool is essential for maintaining consistent messaging and brand identity.

6. Data Storage and CRM

•Pipedrive (CRM): Pipedrive is the backbone of our customer relationship management, tracking all interactions with startups, co-investors, and other stakeholders. It helps us manage deal flow and pipeline, ensuring that all touchpoints are organized and easily accessible.

•Google Drive (Data Storage): All important documents are stored securely on Google Drive. Its cloud-based system allows team members to access resources anytime, anywhere, while maintaining strict data security standards.

Lessons Learned: What We Gained Along the Way

Throughout our journey of building a modern tech stack, we learned several key lessons:

•Regionality Matters: Especially for tools that provide data, regionality is critical. We spent days demoing products that didn’t have sufficient data or coverage for our regions, including some CRM tools. Ensuring a tool aligns with your regional needs is a must.

•Complicated Tools Aren’t Used: While it’s easy for tech leads to focus on powerful features, if a tool is too complex, it won’t be adopted by the team. It's vital to gather feedback from everyone, ensuring ease of use for all team members.

•Integrations Are Key: Easy integrations are essential to avoid manual data entry. If tools don’t integrate well, you’ll either have to rely on manual processes or use tools like Zapier for workflow automation—adding complexity.

•Expensive Doesn’t Mean Better: We learned that the highest-priced tools aren’t always the best for our needs. A tool’s value must be justified by its impact, usability, and ROI, not just its cost.

•End-to-End Solutions Aren’t Always Necessary: While some providers promise end-to-end solutions, these systems can be rigid. Sometimes, using specialized tools for different processes offers greater flexibility and control.

•Reporting Capabilities Are Critical: If a tool doesn’t provide strong reporting features, it’s difficult to make data-driven decisions. We prioritize tools that offer comprehensive reporting to ensure we’re always making informed choices.

•Process Impact is Essential: If a tool doesn’t make a meaningful impact on a specific process, it can become a burden. This is why we evaluated each tool on how much it actually streamlined operations before fully integrating it.

Next Steps: Continuing to Evolve Our Tech Stack

Even though we’ve built a robust tech stack, our journey is far from over. Here are our next steps:

1.Building More In-House Solutions: We’re continuing to further develop our proprietary tool MetisX and add more integrations and capabilities to it in order to address gaps in the market and create solutions tailored to our specific needs.
2.Maintaining Provider Relationships: We stay in close contact with our tool providers, offering feedback and requesting updates to ensure the tools evolve alongside our processes.
3.Ongoing Evaluation: Technology never stands still, and neither do we. We’re always evaluating new tools and trends to see how we can further optimize our operations and improve data-driven decision-making.

Building the ideal tech stack for a venture capital firm requires more than just picking tools off a shelf. It demands a deep understanding of internal processes, ongoing evaluation, and a willingness to adapt. At Metis Ventures, we’ve built a modern, integrated tech stack that allows us to work smarter, not harder—supporting startups and driving growth.

Stay tuned for more insights as we continue to optimize and refine our technological infrastructure.