Ignore Mission Statements, Make a Process Statement

You're in a partner meeting. Someone suggests starting a podcast. Another partner wants to write about AI trends. Your platform lead is wants a rebrand. Your associate thinks you should be more active on Twitter.

Everyone's right. And everyone's wrong.

Without a process statement, every marketing decision becomes a negotiation.

Most VC tell some version of:

"We invest in passionate founders building innovative solutions in sectors X, Y, and Z."

This tells us very little. It doesn't distinguish your approach, reveal your values, or explain your unique perspective.

A process statement goes deeper - it captures the essence of how you operate and the specific value you create beyond capital. It becomes the centre of gravity for all your communications.

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Developing Your Process Statement

Creating an effective process statement requires honest assessment of:

1. Your genuine expertise - Not what you wish you were known for, but what you genuinely do better than most

2. Your ideal founder - Not everyone, but the specific type of founder who gets the most value from your approach

3. Your measurable impact - Not vague value-adds, but specific, tangible outcomes you help create

Once established, your process statement does more than sharpen external comms - it creates internal alignment, giving you:

• A common language about what you do and don’t do.

• A filter for evaluating opportunities, ideas and hires.

• Standards for partner behaviour and communication.

• A foundation for content that consistently reinforces your purpose.

It can even be used as a decision-making tool. Before any significant action… "Does this align with our process statement?"

Examples That Work vs. Examples That Don't

Weak: "We partner with exceptional founders building the future of commerce"

• What partnership means is undefined

• "Exceptional" is meaningless

• "Future of commerce" is every e-commerce/fintech/logistics company

Strong: "We use our operational playbook from scaling marketplace businesses to help technical founders navigate their first enterprise sales cycle"

• Specific expertise (marketplace operations)

• Specific founder profile (technical, not sales-native)

• Specific outcome (enterprise sales)

Strong: "We leverage our relationships with Fortune 500 procurement teams to help infrastructure software founders convert pilots into production deployments"

• Specific advantage (Fortune 500 access)

• Specific founder type (infrastructure software)

• Specific conversion point (pilot → production)

Notice what these do: They immediately tell you if you're a fit. If you're building consumer social, the infrastructure fund isn't for you. That's the point.

The same clarity works for LPs. A precise process statement tells them where your edge is, what kinds of founders you back, and why you’ll win in that lane. It saves everyone time, builds conviction faster, and avoids the “we invest in everything” trap.

Take it out of theory and into the wild - here’s five minutes of sharpening OCA’s positioning.

Sounds clean, but... What kind of help? What defines "great"? Which entrepreneurs?

Imagine their Hero read like…

Now we know:

• Stage → early stage

• Geography → Midwest-focused

• Value-add → capital + customer intros + talent.

Elsewhere, the About Us section adds specificity about technology and scalable services businesses.

But this lives buried on a secondary page rather than being the central organising principle.

It tells what they are (“an early stage VC firm”) rather than what they do for founders.

One statement, can tell a story, define geography, sector, and explain the value prop.

From this, your process statement now bridges the gap between "who we are" and "what we consistently talk about."

That single sentence already tells you what their content should look like. It wouldn’t be vague trend pieces or generic venture platitudes. It would be stories of founders who scaled beyond Chicago, deep dives into how regional startups land national customers, playbooks for expanding from Midwest markets to the coasts, and insights on hiring when talent pools feel limited. Every piece of content reinforces the same throughline… OCA is the bridge that takes ambitious local founders and helps them compete on a national stage.

Your Challenge this week

1. Use the formula: We [what you do] to help [who you serve] achieve [why it matters].

2. Audit your winners: List your best investments. What patterns emerge about founders, problems, and your value-add?

3. Surface disagreement: Have partners write separate statements. Where you disagree reveals your true edge i.e. when you resolve these disagreements, you discover your authentic positioning.

Write it down. Share it somewhere. Get aligned.

Laurie, Refinery Media

If you made it all the way through, thanks so much for reading! Several hundred VCs now open this every week. If it’s helped you think differently about marketing, Venture, or storytelling, please send it to someone in your orbit.