Portfolio Monitoring: Using Signals to Track Your Investments

Most VCs monitor their portfolio companies through board meetings, monthly reports, and occasional check-in calls. This is necessary but insufficient. Board meetings happen quarterly. Monthly reports are often late and incomplete. By the time a problem surfaces through these channels, it is usually well-established.

Why Signal-Based Portfolio Monitoring Matters

The same signals that identify breakout companies can identify portfolio company health — or distress. A portfolio company whose hiring velocity has stalled, whose Glassdoor reviews have turned negative, or whose web traffic has plateaued is sending signals that may not appear in the next board deck.

What to Monitor

Positive Signals (Acceleration)

• Hiring velocity increasing (company is growing)
• Press coverage accelerating (visibility growing)
• Web traffic climbing (demand increasing)
• New product launches (execution velocity)
• Customer case studies published (sales momentum)
• Senior talent joining from notable companies (talent magnetism)

Negative Signals (Deceleration)

• Hiring freeze or layoff signals (LinkedIn headcount dropping)
• Key executive departures (VP-level departures, especially multiple)
• Glassdoor review sentiment declining
• Web traffic plateauing or declining
• No product launches for extended period
• Competitor momentum accelerating while portfolio company stagnates

Competitive Signals

• Competitor funding rounds (competitive landscape shifting)
• Competitor hiring in same roles (direct competition for talent)
• Competitor press coverage exceeding portfolio company
• Market consolidation activity (M&A in the space)

How to Use Portfolio Signals

Proactive support. When signals indicate a portfolio company is struggling — declining hiring velocity, negative reviews, executive turnover — you can reach out proactively to offer help. Often, founders are reluctant to raise issues in board meetings. Signals give you a reason to have the conversation.

Follow-on timing. Signal acceleration in a portfolio company is a data point for follow-on investment timing. When hiring, traction, and press signals all accelerate simultaneously, the company is entering a growth phase where additional capital can be most productive.

Peer comparison. Comparing signal profiles across portfolio companies and their competitors gives you a real-time view of competitive dynamics that quarterly board updates cannot match.

Implementation

Ted's Enterprise plan includes portfolio monitoring. You add your portfolio companies and their key competitors, and Ted tracks the same signal categories — hiring, funding, traction, press, and product — on a continuous basis.

Monthly portfolio signal reports summarize the key changes: which companies are accelerating, which are decelerating, and which competitive dynamics are shifting. This supplements your existing board-level information with real-time signal data.

The goal is not to replace board meetings and founder relationships. It is to ensure that you never walk into a board meeting surprised.