SVB LIFT

SVB LIFT* is an invite-only platform for Family Offices and Institutional LPs to access curated venture investment opportunities and get introduced to top-tier fund managers.

*The platform has since been rebranded as SVB Nexus.

Overview

LIFT started as a data room (imagine a barebones Box or DropBox) where Limited Partners (LPs) could see information on Emerging Managers and their funds. It had no interactive capabilities and lots of manual work on SVB's side to manage introductions. This was an effort to evolve that experience into a digital, self-service platform.

I owned the discovery research, lo-fi designs for MVP, and all designs/pitch deck for the long-term vision. I collaborated with contracted designers and solutions architects on the high-fidelity MVP flows.

Opportunity

1) How might we connect more private investors to venture capital (VC) fund managers via a digital platform, with the minimal viable product (MVP) focused on automated introductions?

2) How could LIFT evolve 3-5 years out by leveraging data and insights collected in MVP and continuing to nurture investor relationships in a thoughtful, scalable way?

LPs and GPs and founders, oh my…

(Who’s who in this ecosystem?)

Limited Partners (LPs) are investors who contribute capital to VC funds.

We focused on Family Offices as the MVP audience. Eventually, we’d expand to include pension funds, sovereigns, high-net-worth individuals, etc.

General Partners (GPs) are the managing partners of VC funds, responsible for investment decisions made on behalf of the LPs. They’re also operating partners helping founders and their portfolio companies grow and succeed.

MVP focused on Emerging Managers raising their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd funds. The vision included Established Managers.

Ultimately, LIFT’s goal is to strengthen SVB’s relationships with LPs, the “silent partners” funneling a lot of money into the startup ecosystem.

What is LIFT?

MVP

Today’s LIFT is a digital platform streamlining LP-GP introductions and deal flow. The LPs are allocators interested in - but perhaps new to - venture, and Emerging Managers - managers raising their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd VC fund.

Vision

The future LIFT is a robust private capital marketplace, that can connect ALL investors (not just LPs), with a variety of alternative investment opportunities, beyond just venture.

Research

We reviewed white papers on Family Offices and VC and spoke with internal relationship managers from SVB Capital. We also interviewed LPs and Emerging Managers (EMs) to understand the needs and wants of existing and prospective clients.

Insights

  1. LPs evaluate EMs on qualitative characteristics that are nuanced, subjective, and hard to capture on paper.

  2. LPs struggle to manage opportunity saturation, and EMs get frustrated by time-intensive communication with uninterested LPs.

  3. Curation is only as successful as LPs' trust in the criteria.

  4. While privacy is paramount, when LPs feel in control, they are willing to trade privacy for the benefit they gain from information sharing.

  5. Venture investing is a business built on relationships and references, but 'personal touch' is hard to scale.

Design Principles

  1. Help illuminate EM differentiators beyond numbers.

  2. Give LPs and EMs ways to signal where they are in their investment journey and related interaction preferences and expectations.

  3. Be transparent about criteria when it comes to selecting, filtering, and proposing EMs to LPs.

  4. Give LPs control over what information they share.

  5. Lean into relationships where they add unique value, automate where they do not.

Exploratory - “What could we make?”

Path to MVP

Initial ‘napkin sketch’ showing the biggest value prop to LPs: the ability to quickly screen pre-qualified funds using filters and digestible snapshots of key info.

Lo-fi wireframe with feedback from stakeholders. This informed easy iterations, like adding a search capability. I flagged complex changes or outstanding questions as focus areas for concept testing with LPs (see below).

Concept testing - “Are we making the right thing?”

Example wireframe used as stimulus during concept testing with LPs. The colored sections highlighted areas we wanted to dig into. How did LPs interpret “Recommended for me”? What criteria would they expect to go into this? I purposely kept these mostly grayscale with a handwritten typeface to convey that this was an unfinished concept, and the goal was to build it together. The focus here was on functionality, rather than polished usability.

Usability testing - “Did we make it right?”

I collaborated with contracted designers and solutions architects to move from our initial wireframes and research learnings to a high-fidelity prototype. I pushed to use SVB’s existing design system to 1) keep the experience branded as an SVB product (even though it would function as a semi-independent platform) and 2) to speed up development by leveraging existing components and documentation. I provided iterative feedback on the evolving flows and accompanying user testing research guides.

Meanwhile, I was looking ahead to answer the longer-term question:

How could LIFT evolve 3-5 years out by leveraging data and insights collected in MVP and continuing to nurture investor relationships in a thoughtful, scalable way? 

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Bringing a Vision to Life

In the future, we envision LIFT to be the investment hub and capital connector for alternative investments. Below are a couple of examples of concept directions - sketches of what this could look like in practice.

What if an allocator (LP) could start her search with the themes or industries she cares about, and narrow down by primary and secondary strategy, minimum and maximum check size? 

What if we could help a newer investor see his portfolio allocation, recommendations based on his risk profile, and peer benchmarks to help him compare?

Reflection

TAKEAWAYS

  • Don’t underestimate development time, and plan to buffer. The biggest surprises involved infrastructure roadblocks to get to a production-ready environment.

  • Establish a shared vocabulary for “MVP” and “Vision”. I advanced my understanding of the nuanced tension between launching an MVP (product owner’s priority) and developing a forward-looking, “landscape-shifting” business (Innovation team’s charter). The approach and deliverables for each objective require a distinct focus. Moving forward, I am better equipped to navigate between the two and have more vocabulary to articulate the distinction.

IMPACT

  • The MVP soft-launched in February 2023 with 7 GPs and 30 LPs. You can check out the landing page here (since rebranded as SVB Nexus).

  • Within the first few weeks of launch, about half of the LPs had created a digital profile and filled out their preferences, with 1 automated introduction facilitated.

“The demos and concepts were well defined, only making small tweaks to things like language.”

-SVB LIFT Build Team

Next case study: Salesforce Ignite