The decision record
The Investment Memo Template (Built for Partnerships)
Most investment memos get written to justify a decision that's already been made, then never read again. They're a formality. That's a waste, because a memo is the one chance you get to record why you believed something before you knew how it turned out.
The point of a memo isn't to sound rigorous for an audience. It's so that three years from now, when the company is soaring or dying, you can read what you actually thought going in. Here's a template built for that, free, and built for partners who decide together.
Multi-author, attached to the live deal, searchable for years.
Free, no signup required.
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What's in it
The template covers the standard ground a memo should: the one-liner, the ask, the company and founders, the problem and market, product and traction, the business model, the competition, and an honest list of risks. Nothing exotic. The structure exists so you don't forget to ask something that matters.
Then it has the two sections that make a memo worth keeping.
The thesis, captured at the moment of decision
Most templates put "thesis" as a line item. We give it room, and we tell you to write it before you commit, not after.
Why this deal. Why this team. Why this moment. And the part people skip: what specifically would make you sell. Write that down while you're calm and the outcome is unknown. It's the only version that's honest, because once you know what happened your memory quietly edits the story to match.
Built for two to four people
Every other memo template assumes one author writing for a committee. Yours probably isn't that. You're two or three operators who invest together and have to actually agree.
So the template has a block for each partner's take. A deal isn't decided until everyone has written their line and said whether they're in. It turns a group chat into a record, and it makes the disagreements visible while they still matter, instead of surfacing them after the wire goes out.
Where the document breaks
It's single-author and static.
A Word file has one writer at a time. It can't hold three partners thinking out loud, so the real conversation happens somewhere else and never makes it into the memo.
Aleva
Multi-author. Every partner writes into the same memo.
It gets buried.
The memo lands in a Drive folder the day you sign and you never find it again, which is exactly when you would want it.
Aleva
Attached to the live deal, searchable for years.
It's cut off from the live deal.
The memo says what you believed. The capital calls, the updates, and the outcome live in other places, so the belief and the reality never sit side by side.
Aleva
The thesis sits next to the calls, updates, and the eventual outcome.
What the free version does instead
In Aleva, the memo stays attached to the live investment. Every partner can write into it. It's searchable years later, sitting right next to the capital calls and updates and the eventual outcome. The reason you invested and what actually happened end up in the same place, which is the only way you ever learn anything from your own track record.
Free, single player to start, ready in a minute.
Create your free Aleva workspace and write memos you'll actually read again.
Write it free in AlevaFAQ
What goes in an investment memo?
The company and founders, the problem and market, product and traction, the business model, the competition, the risks, and your thesis. The most valuable line is the one stating why you're investing and what would make you exit, written before you commit.
How long should an investment memo be?
Short enough that you'll actually write it and reread it. A page or two is plenty for an angel check. Length isn't rigor. A clear thesis in five sentences beats ten pages nobody opens again.
What's the difference between a memo and a thesis?
The thesis is the core argument for why this is a good investment. The memo is the full document that holds the thesis plus the facts, the risks, and, if you invest with others, each partner's take.
How do multiple partners write one memo together?
Each partner contributes their section and their take, then you decide with all of it in front of you. A static document makes this clumsy. A shared, multi-author workspace like Aleva is built for it.
Related: the Angel Deal Diligence Checklist for the work that feeds the memo, and the Capital Call Tracker for the obligations that follow the decision.