What should an LP ask about key-person risk at an AI specialist venture fund?

Key-person risk concerns continuity of judgment, relationships, and authority when a critical person cannot perform the expected role. A strong team can still depend heavily on one individual's access or decisions. The agreement determines the actual provisions and consequences.

Start with the decision

Map concentrated responsibilities and test an absence scenario. Review succession, backup access, decision authority, and applicable key-person terms with qualified advisers. Ask which relationships and operating tasks can continue independently.

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 fund focuses on companies applying or enabling AI. Its pitch claims technical sourcing advantages and rapid research. Several holdings depend on similar model providers and enterprise adoption patterns.

Different product names can conceal shared exposure. Distinguish company-level diversity from common dependencies on infrastructure, pricing, distribution, or customer budgets.

Turn the scenario into an evidence decision

Consider a review of an AI specialist venture fund in which a confident explanation arrives before the supporting records. Start with the first question in the table. Write down what an answer would change: the next interview, the experiment's scope, a request for specialist review, or a decision to wait. A question without a consequence can produce a longer document while adding little understanding.

Next, inspect the record named in the table and record its date, owner, permission boundary, and limitations. Request a look-through dependency map, dated technical diligence examples, customer evidence, and a description of human investment authority. AI-generated research needs traceable sources and review responsibilities. If the record contradicts the explanation, preserve both accounts and ask which definition, period, or workflow differs. Do not silently select the version that makes the opportunity look strongest.

Finish with a conditional statement: if the specified evidence supports the claim under these conditions, take the named next step; otherwise investigate the unresolved question. A continuity plan is more useful when it can be enacted by named people with the necessary authority. Do not assume a second team member or an outsourced provider automatically resolves an investment or contractual dependency. This worked exercise is about the decision process. It does not assert that a fictional company has met a real diligence standard or that a template can authorize an investment.

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.

1. Which work depends on one person?
2. Who has backup access?
3. Who can make decisions?
4. What do the documents provide?
5. How is continuity tested?

Questions specific to this scenario

• Which exposures are shared?
• Who checks technical claims?
• What decision changed because of the specialist process?

Request a look-through dependency map, dated technical diligence examples, customer evidence, and a description of human investment authority. AI-generated research needs traceable sources and review responsibilities.

A concrete next test

Map two fictional holdings to their model providers, buyer budgets, and distribution channels. Ask which dependency could affect both at once. Then inspect a permissioned diligence example to see who checked technical claims and who retained the actual investment authority.

Interpret the result

A continuity plan is more useful when it can be enacted by named people with the necessary authority. Do not assume a second team member or an outsourced provider automatically resolves an investment or contractual dependency.

Compare the claimed specialist edge with specific decisions it improved or opportunities it revealed. Do not treat faster document production as proof of investment performance.

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.

• ILPA: Emerging Manager Toolkit
• Investor.gov: Private Equity Funds