Venture capital research support: deal sourcing, market maps, & founder diligence
When your pipeline is moving fast, the research backlog piles up quickly — inbound founder backgrounds left unverified, market landscape decks that never get built, competitive analyses that sit as half-finished notes. Trusty Oak EAs with VC research experience step into that gap, handling the structured, repeatable research work so your team stays focused on conviction-building and relationships. Whether you're mapping a new vertical or running background checks on a founding team before a partner meeting, we've done this work before.
How Trusty Oak handles research for venture capital firms
A Trusty Oak EA supporting a VC firm on research typically works from a prioritized queue you define — pulling deal sourcing data from PitchBook or Crunchbase, building out market landscape summaries using CB Insights sector reports, and compiling founder background profiles from LinkedIn and public sources before partner meetings. For portfolio work, they can run structured competitive analyses across a defined set of companies, tracking funding rounds, product positioning, and key hires on a cadence you set. Your role is to define the thesis or the question — the EA handles the sourcing, synthesis, and formatting into whatever output your team actually uses, whether that's a one-pager, a spreadsheet, or a slide deck. They work within your existing tools and templates, so the output fits your workflow rather than creating a new one. Most clients check in once or twice a week to reprioritize the queue and review deliverables.
Tools our team works with:
PitchBook · Crunchbase · LinkedIn · CB Insights
What your EA takes off your plate
The biggest mistake first-time delegators make in VC research is handing over a vague prompt — 'research the edtech space' produces a generic output that doesn't match how your firm actually thinks about a market. Before your first assignment, spend 15 minutes documenting the format you want outputs in and one example of a research deliverable your team has already found useful. That single reference does more to calibrate an EA than any written brief.
Deal Sourcing Research via PitchBook and Crunchbase
Pull company profiles, funding history, investor syndicate data, and founding team details for inbound or proactively sourced deals based on your defined criteria.
Market Landscape Mapping
Build structured overviews of a target sector using CB Insights, Crunchbase, and public sources — identifying key players, funding trends, whitespace, and notable exits.
Founder and Executive Background Research
Compile LinkedIn history, prior company outcomes, press mentions, and public references for founders ahead of partner meetings or diligence calls.
Competitive Analysis for Portfolio Companies
Track competitor funding rounds, product updates, hiring signals, and positioning changes for portfolio companies on a recurring or ad hoc basis.
Investment Thesis Research and Benchmarking
Gather market size data, comparable deal multiples, and sector-specific benchmarks to support the development or pressure-testing of an investment thesis.
Tools our team works with
We adapt to your existing stack — no forced migrations.
Apollo.io 
G2 
SimilarWeb 
LinkedIn Sales Navigator 
SEMrush 
Statista Trusted by venture capital firms
Trusty Oak supports venture capital firms including Capstar Ventures, Elsewhere Partners — handling everything from research to broader operational support.
What research support costs for venture capital firms
Drag the sliders to build a monthly plan that fits your workload.
Executive Assistants
~$35/hourSpecialists
~$50/hourFractional Executives
~$95/hourStarting at $1,000/month. One-time $300 onboarding fee includes your Strategic Delegation Plan.
Book a Discovery CallFrequently Asked Questions
Put your research backlog to work
Starting at $1,000/month, a Trusty Oak EA can take structured VC research off your plate within days of onboarding. Schedule a call to talk through what's sitting in your queue.