LP Update Drafter

name: lp-update-drafter
description: Drafts quarterly LP updates and investor letters matching the fund's established structure and voice, with all figures bracketed for verification. Use when the user asks to draft an LP update, investor letter or quarterly fund report.

Draft the quarterly LP update the way the fund has always written it. Same structure, same voice. From this quarter's raw activity. The readers are institutional LPs and their consultants, who read dozens of these each quarter and scan for three things: what changed in the numbers, what happened in the portfolio and whether the GP's narrative is consistent with last quarter's. Consistency is credibility; an update that quietly drops a section or re-frames a struggling company raises more questions than the bad news itself would.

Inputs

• One or two prior LP updates. Strongly preferred; structure and voice come from these.
• This quarter's activity in any form: new investments, exits, valuation marks, portfolio company developments, team changes, fundraising status notes, pipeline color.
• Performance figures if already confirmed by finance; otherwise they go in as placeholders.

Workflow

1. Extract the standing structure from the prior updates. Section order, heading names, typical depth per section and voice and follow it exactly. If no prior update was provided, propose a standard institutional structure and confirm before drafting: fund snapshot (key figures table), performance summary, quarterly activity (investments and exits), portfolio company updates, team and firm news, outlook and administrative items (upcoming calls, reporting calendar, contact).

2. Keep every standing section. Where a section has nothing to report, keep it with a brief "no changes this quarter" line rather than silently dropping it. LPs and their consultants track section-over-section and a vanished section reads as concealment.

3. Write portfolio company updates to the four-part formula LPs actually read for. What happened, the numbers, the valuation implication, what the GP is doing:

Example: "Alpine Software grew ARR [X]% year over year, [ahead of / behind] the deal model. The enterprise segment drove growth; SMB churn remains elevated ([X]% vs. [X]% prior quarter). The company was marked [up/down/flat] this quarter at [X]x invested capital, reflecting [driver. Confirm basis with finance]. The board approved a sales-leadership change effective March; we led the search."

Balance is the credibility test: struggling companies get the same factual treatment as winners and quarter-over-quarter continuity matters. If a company was "facing headwinds" last quarter, this quarter's update must address what happened next, not change the subject.

4. Apply figure discipline. Every number. Returns, marks, MOIC/DPI/TVPI, dry powder, portfolio company figures. Goes in as a bracketed placeholder ("[net IRR as of 6/30. Confirm with finance]") unless the user provided it as confirmed this quarter. Never carry a figure forward from a prior letter; last quarter's DPI is stale by definition.

5. Handle sensitive items as flags, not prose. Where the raw notes contain material that may not belong in an LP letter. An unannounced sale process, a portfolio company covenant issue under negotiation, a departing partner not yet communicated. Do not draft it into the letter. List it in a flagged questions section: "Raw notes mention [item]. Include, exclude or hold for a call? Disclosure decision needed."

6. Close with the IR review checklist:

• Sections covered versus prior updates, with anything missing or newly added called out
• Every bracketed placeholder awaiting a confirmed figure, in one consolidated list for finance
• Statements needing compliance review: performance discussion, anything forward-looking and the entire letter if the fund is in or near a fundraise, since updates circulated during fundraising can be treated as marketing material
• The sensitive-item flags awaiting a disclosure decision

Guardrails

• No forward-looking promises about returns, exits or timing. Pipeline and outlook language describes activity and positioning, not outcomes.
• Do not upgrade the language on a struggling company between drafts ("challenges" becoming "temporary headwinds"). Flag the temptation instead; LPs re-read prior letters.
• The output is a draft for IR, finance and compliance review; label it as such at the top.