You’re Wasting Your AGM. Here’s How to Fix It.

Not many people know Mark Leonard. Those who do call him the Warren Buffett of software - and they’re not wrong.

He is a reclusive ex-VC who built Constellation Software a $100B empire by quietly acquiring niche, cash-flowing software companies, decentralising everything, and holding forever.

Up until 2021 he wrote annual shareholder letters - I’ve been on vacation this week reading through them. They are niche… but legendary in certain circles, especially among investors who love deep thinking, long-termism.

Constellation never held big AGMs or investor events - Leonard was very low-key. The reason for the letters was actually to avoid AGMs and Q&As.

BUT… AGM season is coming up… and most of us will have events… but even if you don’t, don’t miss the chance to turn your Annual recap into something that lasts (beyond photos and videos).

Traditional AGMs

I’ve been lucky enough to attend a few AGMs, as both a guest, and a contributor - virtual and in person.

Most AGMs follow a similar formula:

• Portfolio performance slides …

• Market outlook commentary…

• Generic "value-add" examples…

• Q&A + obligatory networking

The presentation gets buried in LP files (insights disappear) and the opportunity to demonstrate your thinking (your real competitive advantage!) - gets wasted on a room that already invested in you…

MEANWHILE, the founders and new investors you want to attract never see any of it!

Make Your Data Public

Your portfolio performance contains insights that extend far beyond your fund's returns. The patterns you're seeing - growth rates, burn multiples, hiring challenges -are valuable intelligence for the entire ecosystem.

Obviously… redact company specifics, or competitive intelligence. But there is a lot of alpha in your insights.

What to share:

• Anonymised benchmarking data across portfolio companies

• Trend analysis that reveals market shifts before they're obvious

• Pattern recognition that only comes from seeing dozens of companies up close

This year, a16z published their benchmarks on their AI startups growth. It was shared wildly, in part because of key and unique insights that come from their volume e.g. consumer companies outpacing B2B in the race to early revenue, median enterprise AI startups are hitting $2M ARR in year one etc etc.

Your fund’s insights might not be as wide as a16z, but they can be as deep - within your niche what does that data show that can provide real alpha in insights?

Turn Presentations Into Publications

Most AGM decks are built to inform. But with a few tweaks, they can also attract.

Take Sam Lessin at Slow Ventures. He originally put together a deck for LPs and internal discussions - a big-picture, opinionated view on where venture was headed.

Instead of letting it die in a Google Drive folder, he published it.

It went viral… over 1M impressions, huge newsletter growth, and a major credibility boost for Slow’s market perspective. He’s now turned it into an annual habit - his latest “State of VC” report (called wtf VC) is 100 slides long and still widely shared.

What’s in your AGM deck that could offer insight to people beyond your LP base?

• A shift in how startups are growing or fundraising

• A macro view from your sector (e.g. fintech infra, vertical SaaS, space, etc)

• A contrarian take that others haven’t articulated — but you’re already acting on

Others…

• Seraphim Space made their Venture AGM deck public (email-walled)

• Harlem Capital turned their AGM into a blog post: “5 Key Learnings We Shared At Our First Annual Meeting.”

The Team Perspective Strategy

For smaller teams, instead of having partners dominate the presentation, give every team member a moment to share their unique vantage point on the year.

This approach accomplishes two things: (1) it demonstrates the depth of your team's thinking and (2) creates multiple content opportunities from different perspectives.

Again a16z does a great job of this in their big ideas for [year] content series - many of the contributors are associates, advisors, the data team, policy team and so on.

This is very AGM friendly content.

Each team member’s contribution can be short framed around a personal “observation from the field” or a short insight from their seat:

• What are you seeing that others might be missing?

• What shifted this year that changed how you work with founders?

• What are the questions you’re starting to ask more often?

I actually think junior investors are some of the most underused assets when it comes to fund content, but more on that another time…

If You’re Hosting a Virtual AGM

Not every fund has the backdrop of Manhattan or the budget to fly in their LPs. But virtual AGMs - if done well - can punch far above their weight.

In fact, a virtual format forces clarity, i.e. it rewards preparation. And when it’s treated seriously, it creates something that lasts far beyond the livestream.

Pre-record the heavy lifts.

Don’t rely on Zoom energy to carry your most important content. Record your fund update, your founder segments, and your key narrative arcs ahead of time. You can cut fluff, adjust pacing, and sync visuals in a way that’s simply not possible live.

when you pre-record, you also make it re-usable…

• Podcast episodes – A fireside chat or panel discussion can be edited into a standalone audio drop. Upload to Spotify or Substack. Include it in your LP follow-up. Female Founders Fund have done this!

• Email sequences – Break your fund update into 3–5 key insights and send them out over a few weeks. Add short video clips or quote cards. It’s a way to stay present in inboxes, without asking for anything.

• LinkedIn posts – Pull 15-second clips or key quotes from your narrative and founder videos. You can turn a 5-minute segment into a few posts - each one tied to a broader theme you want to own.

Lastly, Apply The Mark Leonard Method

Leonard's letters worked because they combined three elements that most corporate communications lack:

Intellectual Honesty - He admitted mistakes, revised previous predictions, and showed his thinking evolution.

Specific Detail - Rather than vague claims about "operational improvements," he provided concrete examples with numbers.

Long-term Perspective - Each letter built on previous years, creating a compounding body of thought

Your AGM can achieve the same effect by:

• Revisiting last year's predictions and admit where you were wrong (this is possible!)

• Sharing specific, quantified examples rather than generic success stories.

• Connecting this year's insights to themes you've developed over multiple years.

Your Challenge This Week

Look at your upcoming AGM planning (or any event planning!) and ask:

… What's the one big insight that connects all our portfolio observations this year? Events are the beginning of conversations that last all year.

Laurie, Refinery Media

If you made it all the way through, thanks so much for reading! A few 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.