How to source deals efficiently like Buoyant Ventures

This webinar features Amy Francetic, Managing Partner at Buoyant Ventures, a female-led climate tech VC firm, and Dan Polonka, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Affinity.

The discussion focuses on how to incorporate efficiency best practices into your dealmaking, how to combine processes and technology to better source opportunities that align with your firm's thesis, and tips for portfolio companies thinking about their next raise.

About Buoyant Ventures

Buoyant Ventures closed its debut fund at $81.7 million in 2022, the largest female-owned VC fund outside the coasts. The team invests in digital technologies for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Limited Partners include Microsoft, Bank of America, and large family offices. Buoyant Ventures now has nine portfolio companies.

Prior to Buoyant Ventures, Francetic had experience founding a tech startup, running climate investment firms, and investing in climate tech for 18 years.

How the climate tech investment market has changed

As with other sectors, 2021 was a year of high valuations and activity in climate tech. The Inflation Reduction Act was passed in 2022 and this brought a lot of momentum and optimism to many in the industry who had never seen such tailwinds.

Then even as economic uncertainty emerged and broader VC struggled, climate tech showed resilience. In Francetic's experience, there's still a lot of interest in competitive climate tech deals.

How firms can source deals more efficiently

Buoyant Ventures uses Affinity to track companies that interest them, even before they start to raise. With all communications centralized in one place, it's easy to pull up what was covered in a previous meeting, and then use enriched data to pull in deal-relevant metrics like biographic and firmographic data, funding, experience, and company growth.

Having airtight processes also helps to move deals efficiently through the pipeline. Buoyant Ventures uses an integration with Airtable to capture form data from their website, pushing it directly into Affinity so a record is created in the CRM.

Finally, it's important to analyze deal data to spot trends that can improve process efficiency. For example, Buoyant Ventures has a thesis based on founder and CEO diversity. When they evaluate a company run by a diverse leader, they analyze this across their deal pipeline to understand whether standards on who they're sourcing and moving through the pipeline are being maintained or improved.

Advice for portfolio companies

Buoyant Ventures advises their portfolio companies to be cautious with fundraising in today's market. Getting feedback from investors outside your cap table can help set realistic terms, and venture debt is one way to extend runway with a longer payback timeline. Communicate regularly to investors who may have passed on a previous fundraising round, as they may want to join your next round.

Learn more about Buoyant Ventures in this case study.