The leading venture capital accelerator, VC Lab, unveils Decile Base, a new A.I. tool to answer any questions and provide guidance on venture capital. Decile Base allows VCs, LPs, and others in the startup ecosystem to get customized venture assistance on business, legal, accounting, and tax matters. The free tool fills the knowledge gap in venture capital, offering accessible, fast, and accurate insights.
“The majority of information about venture capital on the internet is too complicated, inapplicable, or just plain wrong,” says Adeo Ressi, CEO of Decile Group, the parent company. “Decile Base provides strong insights instantly, saving managers from calling $1,700 per hour fund attorneys or other vendors for answers to basic questions. It’s a long overdue source of truth for venture capital online, and it lowers the barriers of entry to the industry.”
Decile Base provides an LLM for answering questions and providing guidance, and a Quora-style knowledge base that is used for A.I. training. VC Lab trained the LLM with materials from running 13 cohorts of the VC accelerator, which launched about 400 global VC funds. This includes over 1,000 questions from managers answered by experienced VCs, along with articles, legal agreements, guides, and curricula produced by senior fund experts in the VC Lab community.
“As VC Lab continues to run multiple cohorts of our accelerator per year, our data set is constantly evolving with market trends. Decile Base accurately represents the most robust knowledge base in the industry,” says Ressi.
The LLM can answer most venture-related questions already, such as:
- How is a SAFE represented on the cap table?
- How do pro-rata rights affect venture returns when there is no follow on round?
- How much impact does recycling capital have on fund economics?
“I’m excited to see the impact of Decile Base on the venture community worldwide,” says Ihar Mahaniok, Managing Partner of Geek Ventures, a $21 MM seed fund from the VC Lab program. “There are many ecosystems with no venture knowledge at all. Decile Base will fix that.”
Decile Base also helps to resolve more complex issues that managers would traditionally struggle to address, even with professionals, by providing answers with advice. Here are a few recent examples:
- Q: How difficult is it to recycle fees?
Base: Recycling fees in a first fund is generally not recommended as it is complicated to manage, can delay starting a second fund, and can be difficult to explain to inexperienced limited partners. Therefore, from a practical standpoint, it can be quite difficult and is often not worth pursuing. - Q: Can a non-profit entity invest into a fund?
Base: Yes, a non-profit entity can invest into a fund. However, it's important for the non-profit to ensure that the investment aligns with its mission and complies with any regulations or restrictions related to its non-profit status. It's recommended that non-profits seek legal and financial advice before making such investments. - Q: How much capital should I call on my first closing?
Base: For the first closing, it's typical to call about 20% to 25% of the committed capital from your limited partners (LPs). This capital is used to cover organizational expenses and to invest in the first portfolio companies. However, the exact percentage can vary based on the terms of the Limited Partnership Agreement (LPA) and the needs of the fund. - Q: Who is Taylor Swift?
Base: I can't confidently answer this question, please start a new Decile Base post to have this question answered.
Decile Base is instructed to answer only the questions that can be sourced from material in the knowledge base, and it will skip things that it does not know, like Taylor Swift (above). VC Lab encourages managers to work with professionals in addition to the support of Decile Base, especially with important decisions, since large language models (LLMs) make mistakes.
Decile Base has averaged over 1,000 unique searches per week during the private beta from the VC Lab community. Try Decile Base today:
Review some of the top questions on Decile Base below:
