Limited partners
What should an LP ask about follow-on reserves at a venture fund of funds?
a venture fund of funds: Ask how reserves are sized, allocated, and revisited as evidence changes.
Ask how reserves are sized, allocated, and revisited as evidence changes. A reserve policy can describe discipline without guaranteeing access to later rounds. Clarify how the manager compares supporting existing holdings with making new investments.
Start with the decision
Review the decision criteria, capital model, and examples of follow-on and pass decisions. Test simultaneous demands and adverse scenarios. Ask how conflicts or allocation across related vehicles are handled under the applicable policies.
The illustrative scenario
This is an educational workbook. The company or fund and all numerical inputs below are fictional. They are not ADIN results, customer claims, market benchmarks, or a forecast.
The fictional vehicle commits capital to several underlying venture funds. Its LP receives exposure through another layer of manager selection, reporting, fees, and cash flows. Several underlying funds may invest in the same companies.
A count of fund commitments is not a count of independent company exposures. Separate the vehicle's economics from the economics, liquidity, and concentration of underlying holdings.
Reconcile the portfolio plan with its capital budget
This fictional model starts with $100,000,000.00 of commitments and sets aside $12,000,000.00 for modeled lifecycle costs and $28,000,000.00 for follow-ons. That leaves $60,000,000.00 for initial checks. A target of 15 investments at $4,000,000.00 requires $60,000,000.00 before any other unmodeled uses.
The cost amount is a hypothetical budget, not a quoted fee or an industry norm. Actual fees, expense allocation, offsets, fund term, investment authority, and distributions depend on the governing arrangements. A balanced budget does not establish that the manager can obtain the allocations, ownership, or results assumed in the strategy.
Compare total exposure and costs across both layers. Keep the vehicle's distributions distinct from paper values reported by underlying managers. Reduce the final close or increase the initial check and identify what changes first: company count, reserves, operating resources, or the strategy itself. For this article's question, use the resulting constraint to request the specific evidence or document provision rather than treating the spreadsheet as the decision.
| Item | Illustration |
|---|---|
| Fictional fund commitments | $100,000,000.00 |
| Modeled lifecycle costs | $12,000,000.00 |
| Modeled follow-on reserves | $28,000,000.00 |
| Available for initial checks in this model | $60,000,000.00 |
| Target initial investments / check size | 15 / $4,000,000.00 |
| Initial-investment capital required | $60,000,000.00 |
Use this worksheet
Answer the questions with a source, date, owner, and next action. Mark an unknown as unknown. Use public or permissioned information and involve a qualified specialist when a question requires expertise beyond the team’s competence.
- What qualifies for a follow-on?
- Who makes the decision?
- What access is assumed?
- How are competing demands ranked?
- What happens when reserves are insufficient?
Questions specific to this scenario
- Where do fees arise at each layer?
- Which companies overlap?
- How are underlying reporting delays handled?
Request a look-through portfolio summary, fee-layer explanation, underlying cash-flow schedule, and the method used to reconcile reports. Identify missing or delayed underlying information.
A concrete next test
Trace one hypothetical company exposure through two underlying funds and the investing vehicle. Ask where fees, valuation dates, cash flows, and information delays enter each layer. Count the shared exposure once for analysis instead of treating two fund names as independent company diversification.
Interpret the result
Reserves create flexibility only within the fund's actual constraints. Avoid treating a fixed reserve percentage as universally optimal or assuming every promising company will receive support on acceptable terms.
Compare total exposure and costs across both layers. Keep the vehicle's distributions distinct from paper values reported by underlying managers.
Sources and method
These primary resources provide background for the concepts. The fictional scenario, calculations, and worksheet are ADIN educational examples; the sources do not report or validate those invented results. Reviewed October 11, 2026.