How VCs are using Grep to move faster on deal prep and operations.

Wisdom Ventures uses Grep to prepare pre-pitch investment memos before partner meetings. Initialized Capital uses Grep to speed up platform and operations work that typically lives across tabs, inboxes, and manual checking. Different workflows, same outcome: less time spent gathering information, more time spent making decisions.

The Challenge

VCs run on information, but a surprising amount of that information work still happens the slow way.

At Wisdom Ventures, the team wanted stronger pre-pitch investment prep, but they did not have a dedicated analyst function. Zoë Rogers and colleagues were approaching venture work from scientific backgrounds rather than a traditional venture pipeline. As the fund scaled and began leading more seed rounds, the cost of spending a full day building every deal memo by hand became harder to justify.

At Initialized Capital, Vivian Chaves was managing platform operations work that sometimes gets buried under manual research: updating founder resources, sourcing venues, evaluating vendor pitches, tracking sector conferences, and pressure-testing what other firms were doing. The work itself was well within scope. The challenge was that it spanned dozens of sources, and arriving at a trustworthy answer required time better spent elsewhere.

In both firms, the problem was not a lack of judgment. It was the amount of manual labour required before judgment could even begin.

Spotlight 1: Deal Prep at Wisdom Ventures

At Wisdom Ventures, Grep slotted directly into the investment process. Instead of writing deal memos after papering deals, the team now uses Grep before partner meetings to prepare pre-pitch memos for discussion. The workflow is straightforward: Zoë Rogers prompts Grep to understand the company, its traction, differentiators, risks, and diligence questions. That output is then reformatted into the fund's memo structure, alongside the pitch deck and Airtable data.

The shift matters because it changes when research shows up. Instead of documenting a decision after the fact, the team walks into the conversation with sharper context and better questions.

One example from the team: Grep surfaced legislation that might have materially impacted the startup's product, giving partners a more complete view before the conversation. For a fund with eight partners, three GPs, and no dedicated analyst role, that changes the operating model.

“Grep is effectively filling part of the analyst function as the firm scales.”

Zoë Rogers · Operating Partner, Wisdom Ventures

Wisdom's team reported that Grep replaces full eight-hour research days when assembling investment prep. Partners are arriving at meetings more prepared, with fleshed-out information and sharper diligence questions.

This is what makes the story compelling for other VCs: the product is not just speeding up research. It is helping a lean firm behave more like it has a deeper analyst bench before the meeting starts.

The workflow has already expanded

• generating key questions for partners to ask during pitches
• feeding weekly Friday operations updates
• supporting future workflows around reference checks, events planning, and partner prep
• testing podcast-style outputs for internal review

For a lean team without a conventional analyst bench, that is a meaningful capacity unlock.

Spotlight 2: Operations at Initialized Capital

At Initialized Capital, Vivian used Grep from a VC platform operations angle rather than a pure investment workflow. One of her first jobs was reviewing a startup banking guide in the founder portal, originally built in early 2025. Rates had changed, recommendations had shifted, and she did not trust the output she was getting elsewhere.

She first ran the guide through a different tool. Then she ran the same task through Grep.

“I ran it through a different LLM and I got an output and I was like, I don't trust some of these numbers. And so then I ran it through Grep and it said ‘every single figure in your list is wrong.’”

Vivian Chaves · Initialized Capital

That became the pattern. Grep was not just producing summaries. It was surfacing what needed to be fixed, showing sources, and giving her something she could verify quickly.

From there, usage expanded

• reviewing vendor pitches to understand what a product actually does, who it is for, and whether customers genuinely like it
• sourcing private dining and event venues against detailed criteria like capacity, format, pricing, and contact information
• mapping vertical conferences and speaking deadlines across specific sectors
• generating market scans of how other firms structure platform teams and programs
• creating recurring briefs and monitors so research did not have to restart from zero each time

“I don't want to spend 30 minutes Googling.”

Vivian Chaves · Initialized Capital

Vivian estimated that several of her workflows previously took anywhere from three to 12 hours when done manually.

• Updating the startup banking guide likely saved around 12 hours once current rates, bank options, and verification work were factored in
• Conference and speaking-opportunity mapping would have taken at least three hours at the level of detail Grep produced
• Venue sourcing, done thoroughly, would have taken two to three hours
• Vendor evaluation moved from a manual research task she might postpone or skip into a fast repeatable workflow

Just as important, Grep helped her validate her instincts with evidence. In one report, it reinforced a strategic shift her team had already been discussing: intimate dinners were becoming more effective than large-format happy hours. In another, it connected dots around industry events and founder communities she wanted to track more deliberately.

“The output has been of higher quality and more trustworthy, with sources to back it up, than any of the other tools I've used.”

Vivian Chaves · Initialized Capital

The Combined Wedge

The two use cases are different, but together they tell a stronger story about where Grep fits inside a venture firm.

At Wisdom Ventures, Grep helps a lean investment team create analyst-grade preparation before partner conversations happen. At Initialized Capital, Grep helps a platform and operations team move faster through high-variance work that can get lost in tabs, inboxes, and manual checking.

Grep is useful both where venture firms make decisions and where they support portfolio companies. It helps investment teams show up better prepared, and it helps platform teams execute without burning hours on fragmented research.

Different workflows. Same pattern. Grep removes the manual labor tax at the front of the process, so venture teams can spend more of their time on judgment, relationships, and decision-making.

By the Numbers

Wisdom Ventures

Initialized Capital

What's Next

Both firms are broadening where Grep fits. Initialized Capital is using it as an operating layer for recurring briefs, founder resources, sector tracking, and event planning. Wisdom Ventures is pushing further into investment prep, question generation, Airtable-connected workflows, and other internal operating systems.

In both cases, the trajectory is the same: Grep starts as a faster way to do research, then becomes part of how the firm runs.