Disclaimer
This case study reflects professional experience within the VeraDaniel
team gained through leadership of an institutional manager-selection
process while serving at a U.S. public economic development finance
entity. It is not endorsed by, sponsored by, or written in partnership
with any government organization or office.
Program name, jurisdiction, and participants are intentionally
anonymized, and certain non-material details are generalized to protect
confidentiality.
A U.S. public economic development finance entity launched a $20 million seed investment initiative funded through a federal small-business credit program. The objective was to select venture fund manager(s) capable of deploying capital into eligible businesses in the sponsoring jurisdiction while meeting stringent public procurement expectations and federal compliance and reporting requirements, including a private capital match requirement within a defined window.
VeraDaniel led the program design and execution end-to-end: translating objectives into an investable mandate; drafting and publishing a public Notice of Investment Opportunity (NOI); building an evaluation framework and scoring system; assembling and training a cross-functional evaluation committee; managing fair market engagement; and producing governance-ready recommendations.
The program was structured to pursue credible, market-rate performance outcomes, with manager selection emphasizing disciplined portfolio construction, risk controls, governance, and operational readiness alongside programmatic objectives.
Broad market engagement via targeted outreach and open-access processes
A smaller set of complete NOI submissions following eligibility and completeness gating
Recommended allocation of $15 million across five managers, with a plan to return to market for remaining capital
Public and quasi-public allocators must achieve four outcomes simultaneously:
Strategy fit, underwriting discipline, governance, and operational maturity
Fairness, consistency, documentation, and repeatability
Eligibility, reporting, audit readiness, restricted uses, and private-match mechanics
Incentives, portfolio construction discipline, and risk controls that support returns
Summary: The challenge was designing a process that produced investable manager partnerships and market-caliber outcomes while remaining procedurally robust and fully executable under federal requirements.
Confirmed objectives, KPIs, and compliance constraints
Converted goals into an investable mandate and manager requirements
Authored the NOI as an auditable governance instrument
Defined eligibility, evaluation criteria, scoring, communications protocol, and timeline
Coordinated legal and compliance review
Pre-launch market soundings
Defined question window
Published consolidated FAQ for equal access
Coordinated cross-functional launch
Established secure submission workflows and standardized review templates
Independent completeness and eligibility gates prior to scoring
Cross-functional committee formation and training
Multiple independent scorers, averaging, calibration sessions
Embedded risk factors within the rubric
Ranked shortlist and allocation recommendations
Criteria-by-criteria rationale and risk notes
Implementation roadmap and approval materials
Translate objectives into an investable mandate
Publish an auditable, repeatable public NOI
Conduct market engagement while preserving fairness
Apply two independent gates before scoring
Score for repeatability, not subjectivity
Broad initial interest, narrower complete submissions
Common constraints: compliance burden, match mechanics, timing, and local execution readiness
Process favored managers with institutional operations and active pipelines
Five emerging venture managers (Fund I–III) were selected:
Two larger allocations based on execution readiness
Three smaller allocations aligned to targeted theses
All committed to sustained local presence and demonstrated ecosystem access
The evaluation process revealed clear differentiators between managers who advanced and those who did not.
Managers who received recommendations demonstrated:
Institutional readiness: Established back-office systems, clear governance structures, and LP-ready documentation
Clear investment process: Repeatable sourcing mechanisms, defined evaluation criteria, and portfolio construction discipline
Credible match-capital strategy: Detailed plans for meeting co-investment requirements with named sources and committed relationships
Disciplined portfolio construction: Evidence of concentration limits, sector diversification logic, and stage-appropriate pacing
Managers who did not advance typically exhibited:
Underdeveloped operations: Limited infrastructure, incomplete fund documentation, or unclear governance models
Insufficient match specificity: Vague references to co-investment capacity without named sources or executed commitments
Weak jurisdiction execution plans: Generic statements about local presence rather than specific community relationships or deal-sourcing pathways
Team & Leadership
Strategy Fit & Portfolio Construction
Sourcing & Local Execution
Track Record & Risk Discipline
Operational & Compliance Readiness
Alignment & Economics
Private Capital Match Feasibility
Defined anchors per category
Multiple independent scorers
Averaging with documented calibration
Thresholds with governed exceptions
This case demonstrates VeraDaniel's ability to design and execute GP searches that are:
Institutional-grade
Publicly defensible
Compliance-executable
Performance-oriented
VeraDaniel supports public and mission-aligned allocators across five workstreams:
Total private markets program design
Strategy-to-mandate translation
Competitive search execution (NOI/RFP/DDQ)
Evaluation and selection
Implementation support
When your organization is designing a private-markets program or preparing to run a competitive GP search subject to investment, governance, and public scrutiny, VeraDaniel can lead the process end-to-end.
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