“Vessel 10x’d our IR productivity. It lets us spend more time building LP relationships—and less time doing grunt work.”
— Gaurav Jain, Co-Founder, Afore Capital
About Afore
Afore Capital is a leading pre-seed venture capital firm based in North America, founded in 2015. As one of the first firms to define and institutionalize the pre-seed category, Afore backs founders at the idea stage—before product, traction, or revenue—and helps guide them through their journey to Series A.
With four funds and a reputation for spotting breakout companies early, Afore has built deep relationships with a diverse global LP base. But as the firm scaled, managing co-investments, investor updates, and fund communications with a lean team became increasingly difficult. The limitations of static portals, manual follow-up, and one-off tools like DocSend made it clear that a more scalable, immersive LP experience was needed.
Challenge: delivering on LP expectations with a lean team
Afore pioneered the concept of pre-seed investing, backing founders at the idea stage and helping them grow to Series A. But as the firm scaled to four funds and a global LP base, Gaurav and his team ran into a familiar problem: more LPs, more data, more expectations—but no dedicated IR team.
“Most of our management fee goes to supporting founders. IR is still a small part of our headcount—yet LP expectations have never been higher.”
Solution: a unified system for fundraising and LP engagement
With Vessel, Afore centralized its IR operations—from co-investment visibility to LP reporting and company storytelling.
Instead of sending one-off PDFs, Afore now builds branded, persistent profiles for portfolio companies inside Vessel. These include:
Product demo videos
Founder bios
Key milestones
Press, metrics, and updates
“It’s like Shopify for our portfolio companies. LPs don’t just get a static deck—they see the whole movie, not just a snapshot.”
This format gives LPs an ongoing view of the companies they may co-invest in, long before a deal hits their inbox.
Results: higher LP engagement, better decisions, less busywork
Afore uses Vessel to:
Share immersive company overviews for co-investments
Proactively keep LPs updated through structured, trackable workflows
Automate IR prep so the team can focus on real relationships
“In hot deals, the LPs who’ve already seen the company’s trajectory are the ones who move fastest. Vessel helps make that possible.”
Why Afore would recommend Vessel to other GPs
“It’s simple. Vessel helps you build 10x more LP relationships without 10x the team. If you’re fundraising today, this is the platform you want.”
Before & After Vessel
Before Vessel
Co-investment decks shared through DocSend links
LPs only saw companies at the moment of the co-investment ask
Repetitive manual work: answering LP questions, digging for data, sending files
No dedicated IR team; Gaurav handled updates manually alongside investing work
Reporting felt “pushed” from the GP side
Fundraising and co-investment processes disconnected
After Vessel
Immersive company pages with video, product info, founder bios, and real-time updates
LPs track company progress over months or years, leading to faster, more confident decisions
One centralized system that automates information sharing and tracks engagement
Streamlined IR workflows that free up time for relationship-building and investing
Dynamic, branded LP experience that reflects the firm’s modern, tech-forward approach
Unified platform for fundraising, LP updates, and co-investments — all tied to the same relationship data
“Fundraising is ripe for AI. There’s so much low-hanging fruit—questions, prep, follow-up—that can be automated. That’s what makes Vessel exciting.”
“We built an in-house CRM, built tools to scout founders, built community platforms. But for fundraising? Vessel fills the gap. It’s a must-have.”
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