Week 3, Synthesize · Day 19 of 30
Day 19: Score one portfolio company retroactively
Pick the worst-performing investment. What did the composite say at term sheet?
Day 19 in one paragraph: Retroactive scoring on your own portfolio is where the framework either becomes part of your process or doesn't. If you find that two of your worst-performing investments scored 1/6 at the term-sheet date, that's a procedural change you can implement before the next check. You will spend about five minutes, end with a concrete artifact, and the whole curriculum stays free at this URL permanently.
Where this day sits in the 30
Week 3 turns daily checks into a watchlist and a weekly rhythm you can keep. Day 19 of 30 sits 63% of the way through, in week 3, synthesize, one of four one-week phases. This day also carries a bonus exercise for anyone with extra time. Everything in this challenge is built from public GitHub signals, the same data that powers the weekly deal-flow feed, and the day's lesson is worth roughly €99 in equivalent consulting time by the anchoring we use across the curriculum.
Yesterday
Yesterday you turned scores into questions. Today: applying the same scoring to your own portfolio history.
Why this signal matters
Retroactive scoring on your own portfolio is where the framework either becomes part of your process or doesn't. If you find that two of your worst-performing investments scored 1/6 at the term-sheet date, that's a procedural change you can implement before the next check.
The 5-minute exercise
- 1Pick one investment from 12-24 months ago.
- 2Find the GitHub state from the term-sheet date (use github.com/[org]?since=[date]).
- 3Run the composite as it would have read at that date.
- 4Note: did the score predict the trajectory? Did one signal flip?
What you’re filtering for
A retroactive score that you can compare to actual outcome. If the framework would have flagged the bet you regret, it just earned a permanent slot in your process.
Edge case
Some early-stage bets are intentionally low-composite (pre-engineering, founder-only). The framework doesn't penalise that, it just means the composite isn't the right tool for that stage. Note where the cutoff is for your own beat.
Bonus
Run this on 5 investments. The pattern usually shows up: one signal you systematically ignored. That's the highest-leverage change you can make to your own process this year.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow: the 30-second pre-read, using the composite to prep for a first meeting.
Common questions about day 19
- How long does day 19 take?
- About five minutes of hands-on work against the org you picked on day one. The reading adds another two or three. If you are short on time the exercise alone still delivers the day's point.
- Do I need any tools or paid data for score one portfolio company retroactively?
- No. Every exercise in the challenge runs on public GitHub data and a browser. The feed that automates the same checks is available, but the curriculum itself is deliberately tool-free so the habit lands before the tooling.
- What if I miss a day?
- Every day is permanent at its own URL, so you can pick up exactly where you stopped. The sequence matters, each day builds on the previous one's artifact, but the pace is yours. Many people run the 30 days across six or seven weeks instead of four.
Curriculum: /challenge · Methodology: /methodology · Paper: ssrn.com/abstract=6606558