For VCs & Portfolio Companies

Culture Due Diligence Belongs in Your Deal Flow

You audit the code. You audit the cap table. But the leadership dynamics that determine whether scale compounds value or quietly erodes it? That's "the meeting after the meeting." These are the dynamics that C-FASTR™ makes visible and measurable.

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Scale amplifies what's already there

Under growth pressure, companies don't become "new." They become more of what they already are.

Unresolved tension, avoided conversations, unclear accountability... these compound quietly until they surface as missed quarters, executive departures, or founders who can't align on the path forward.

Technical debt slows down your code.

Relationship debt slows down your execution—creating The financial impact
A Bain & Company analysis found that companies in the top quartile of organizational health deliver total returns to shareholders 3x higher than those in the bottom quartile. For portfolio companies, unaddressed relationship friction compounds into slower execution, higher attrition, and constrained growth.

Source: Bain: Organizational Health .

C-FASTR™ makes these dynamics visible early, so founders and investors can address issues before they show up as churn, missed milestones, or leadership exits.

The diligence blind spot

Traditional diligence What most diligence focuses on
Standard VC checklists exhaustively cover financials, market size, product viability, legal compliance, and leadership credentials. Culture typically appears as a brief afterthought, if it appears at all. A typical checklist mentions team dynamics only in passing, after covering everything from cap tables to customer contracts.

Source: 4Degrees: VC due diligence checklist how teams handle tension, feedback, and accountability, which are the dynamics that What the research shows
65% of high-potential startups fail due to co-founder conflict (Harvard Business School). Google's Project Aristotle found psychological safety—whether team members feel safe to take interpersonal risks—was the strongest predictor of team effectiveness. Under growth pressure, these dynamics intensify.

Sources: HBR: Cofounders need to disagree productively, Google re:Work: Project Aristotle, First Round: Esther Perel on co-founder conflict whether scale amplifies performance or dysfunction.

C-FASTR™ provides an enterprise-wide snapshot of areas where relationship quality might require attention:

C-FASTR™ Risk Heatmap showing relationship health scores across business functions

Sample C-FASTR™ heatmap: relationship health by dimension and business function

C-FASTR™ provides:

Collusion visibility

Every team has two conversations: the one in the room and the one in the hallway. We measure the gap so you can solve the real problems, faster.

Value-add that founders will use

Give portfolio leaders a practical, repeatable way to name what's happening, prioritize what to fix first, and keep hard conversations productive.

Early signal detection

Surface early warning signals of execution and retention risk—before they become turnover spikes, missed milestones, or board-level escalations.

Portfolio pattern visibility

Track relationship-health signals alongside operational KPIs across the portfolio. Spot recurring failure modes and target support where it will matter most.

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C-FASTR™ Across the Investment Lifecycle

Due Diligence

Before you invest, understand the relationship health of the founding team. Get objective data on trust dynamics, conflict patterns, and organizational readiness to scale.

Portfolio Company Support

Offer assessments to portfolio companies as a differentiated value-add. Early detection prevents culture crises from destroying otherwise promising investments.

Leadership Transitions

When a portfolio company brings on new executives or navigates founder role changes, assess the relationship infrastructure before small tensions become existential threats.

Exit Preparation

Culture strength is a value driver acquirers care about. Demonstrate healthy team dynamics and talent retention as part of exit positioning.

Discuss Your Portfolio

What you get

Concrete outputs you can use with founders and leadership teams—designed to drive action, not just insight.

Risk heatmap by dimension

A clear view of where friction is concentrated (e.g., collusion, trust, feedback).

Clear warning signals

Visibility into friction patterns that, left unaddressed, can become execution drag, retention problems, or leadership strain as companies scale.

Prioritized interventions

A practical sequence: what to address first, what to avoid “fixing” too early, and why.

Naming what's happening

A vocabulary that makes hard conversations easier to have, directly, skillfully, and without blame.

Decision-making guidance

Frameworks for driving to good decisions without avoidance or gridlock (Equip + Sustain tiers).

Hiring for relationship fit

How to assess candidates for the relationship skills that matter most as you scale (Equip + Sustain tiers).

Questions From Investors

Engagement surveys are primarily sentiment instruments, designed to reveal how people feel. C-FASTR™ is primarily a behavior-based instrument, designed to reveal how people are treating each other at the ground level. We measure the six core relationship characteristics that drive healthy daily interactions: how feedback flows, how accountability functions, whether trust enables candor, etc. This diagnostic precision means teams can make targeted interventions based on observable behaviors. Unlike sentiment data, which often requires focus groups and listening sessions to interpret, C-FASTR™ is designed to go straight to root causes.

A typical assessment runs 3 to 4 weeks: one week for survey deployment and completion, one week for leadership interviews, and one to two weeks for analysis and findings presentation. Workshop delivery can follow within two weeks of the assessment.

Yes. VCs can roll out C-FASTR™ across their portfolio in waves. Volume engagements can be structured for better economics and enable cross-portfolio pattern analysis that benefits everyone.

Resistance usually comes from founders assuming this is oversight or a report card. The reframe: founders see the full findings first, and the work is about building capacity, not surfacing failures. C-FASTR™'s job is to help build relationship infrastructure that lasts under pressure. It names dynamics that are often felt but hard to articulate, and provides concrete ways to improve the patterns that drive team success.

Reporting structure is agreed upon at the start and can vary based on each client's needs and communication requirements. We prefer erring on the side of transparency, as this helps drive healthy relationships between founders and funders. One recommended structure: the portfolio company's leadership receives the full findings, and the VC receives an executive summary. Note that individual survey responses are never attributed.

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The Investment

Transparent pricing for portfolio company engagements. Volume discounts available for multi-company commitments.

Tier 1

The Pulse

$30,000

Seed / Pre-Seed (up to 25 employees)

Founders are under enormous pressure to deliver, and the best formula is great people doing great work in a great culture. The purpose of this engagement is to deliver simple, battle-tested techniques for building and sustaining great teams and an enduring culture. It will give you numbers that tell you where your team is already strong, where relationships can be strengthened, and how to improve your chances of creating something that will last as you grow.

  • C-FASTR™ diagnostic assessment
  • Up to 4 leadership interviews
  • 1 half-day workshop (4 hours)
  • Board-ready executive summary
  • 1 VC briefing call
Tier 2

The Diligence

$75,000

Series A (26-50 employees)

Not many Founders make it this far. You're building something special, and everyone knows it. One day people will say that believing in you and joining this company was the best decision they ever made. This engagement helps make that happen by providing a simple tool that makes individual and cross-functional relationships strong, smart, and effective. It delivers hard numbers about what's working, what's not, and what to do. It's a battle-tested blueprint that helps people actually enjoy working together AND win by making amazing things happen.

  • 2 half-day workshops (6 weeks apart)
  • Before/after assessment comparison
  • 4 office hours sessions
  • Leadership Implementation Toolkit
  • 2 VC briefing calls
Tier 3

The Scale-Up

$125,000

Series B+ (50-150+ employees)

You've built something special. What started as an idea is now a company with momentum, people, a reputation. The question is: can it stay special? Now that it's grown beyond what the original team can hold, how do you build a future for it that can withstand all the shit it's going to face as it grows? This engagement helps you address that. It trains your leaders to lead people in ways that inspire them to do their best work, for the company and for each other. It gives you hard data on how relationships are evolving across the org, AND it builds internal capability so the culture sustains excellence, resilience, and camaraderie long after you're gone.

  • Up to 8 workshops + train-the-trainer
  • 3 assessments over 12 months
  • 30 hours of office hours
  • Up to 6 hours executive coaching
  • 3 VC briefing calls
Tier 1

The Pulse

$30,000

Assessment & Analysis

  • C-FASTR™ survey deployment
  • Up to 4 interviews (recommended: 1 Founder, 1 IC, representation from each function)
  • Data analysis and pattern identification
  • Comprehensive diagnostic report

Leadership Engagement

  • 1-hour leadership debrief
  • 1 half-day workshop (4 hours; introduces C-FASTR model with hands-on practice)
  • Prioritized intervention roadmap

VC-Specific Deliverables

  • Board-ready executive summary (1-2 pages, VC-legible)
  • Risk heatmap by dimension and interaction level (P2P / Manager / Culture)
  • 1 VC briefing call
Timeline: 4-5 weeks | Add-ons: $1,500 per additional interview
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Tier 2

The Diligence

$75,000

Assessment & Analysis

  • C-FASTR™ survey deployment (baseline)
  • 4-8 interviews (coverage across levels and functions)
  • Data analysis and pattern identification
  • Comprehensive diagnostic report
  • Follow-up survey deployment (weeks 11-14)
  • Before/after comparison report

Leadership Engagement

  • 1-hour leadership debrief
  • Leadership Implementation Toolkit

Workshops

  • 2 half-day workshops (4 hours each; up to 25 attendees; spaced 6 weeks apart)
  • Introduces C-FASTR model with hands-on practice

Office Hours

  • 4 sessions (1 hour each; up to 2 may be leadership-only at client's discretion)

VC-Specific Deliverables

  • Board-ready executive summary (1-2 pages, VC-legible)
  • Risk heatmap by dimension and interaction level (P2P / Manager / Culture)
  • Prioritized intervention roadmap
  • Investor Risk Brief (red flags, watch areas, recommendations)
  • 90-day progress report with trend analysis
  • 2 VC briefing calls
Timeline: 12-14 weeks | Add-ons: $1,500/interview, $8K/additional workshop (for orgs 50+)
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Tier 3

The Scale-Up

$125,000

Assessment & Analysis

  • C-FASTR™ survey deployment
  • 6-12 interviews (coverage across functions and levels)
  • Comprehensive diagnostic report
  • 3 assessments total (baseline, month 6, month 12) with comparison reports

Leadership Engagement

  • 3 leadership debriefs (1 hour each; after each assessment)
  • Leadership Implementation Toolkit (quick reference guide, conversation starters, collusion guide, team check-in templates, meeting opener questions)

Executive Coaching

  • Up to 6 hours of 1:1 coaching, available to CEO and direct reports

Workshops

  • Up to 4 C-FASTR workshops (4 hours each; up to 25 attendees; goal: full org trained in first 8-10 weeks)
  • Up to 2 Hiring for Culture Fit workshops (4 hours each; for hiring managers, interviewers, leadership)
  • Up to 2 Effective Meetings workshops (4 hours each; for managers and leadership)

Office Hours

  • 30 hours total: Months 1-6: 2 hrs/month leaders + 2 hrs/month teams; Months 7-12: 1 hr/month combined

Train-the-Trainer

  • Up to 2 internal people trained to facilitate ongoing C-FASTR conversations
  • 16 hours of training per person (includes case studies, practice facilitation, course materials)

Additional Support

  • Communications support (we draft/co-draft introduction messages for survey and workshop rollout)
  • Culture Toolkit (communications templates, cultural embedding playbook, KPI framework)
  • Crisis support: up to 4 hours included; additional at $500/hour

VC-Specific Deliverables

  • Board-ready executive summary (after each assessment)
  • Risk heatmap by dimension and interaction level (P2P / Manager / Culture)
  • Prioritized intervention roadmap (updated after each assessment)
  • C-FASTR Progress Report (after each assessment; provided to Founder and VC)
  • 3 VC briefing calls (after each assessment)
Timeline: 12 months | Add-ons: $1,500/interview, $8K/additional workshop (for orgs 100+)
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C-FASTR™ is a practical, repeatable system that can help teams build trust fast. As trust rises, alignment happens sooner: priorities get clearer, decisions speed up, and cross-functional execution tightens. The result is tangible business impact through more predictable delivery, higher engagement, and stronger customer outcomes.

Pamela Bishop

Board Member, Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey

Ready to See What Diligence Misses?

Whether you're considering C-FASTR™ for due diligence, portfolio-wide rollout, or a single company facing culture challenges, a conversation is the place to start.

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