# Portfolio support opportunity cost worksheet | SourceX

Canonical: https://refer.sourcex.si/guides/when-a-referral-program-distracts-from-core-portfolio-support
Last updated: 2026-11-05

A referral program distracts when it takes the hours, asks or goodwill that founders' own requests need. Check five signals in records you already keep: core requests waiting longer, the program's share of platform hours outrunning the share of founders it can serve, conversations the platform starts rather than founders, relationship owners declining to ask, and any founder who felt pressed. One signal means rescope. Two or more for a month, or one harmed relationship, means stop. Referral income counts as zero.

This is a different question from whether to launch: a track that won its slot on paper can still crowd out the work founders value once it runs, and nobody announces the moment it happens. The worksheet catches it from logs, and the second example at the end is a team that should stop.

## What the program borrows from core support

Core support is whatever founders come to the platform for unprompted: candidates, customer and investor introductions, finance and board help. In a 2020 NBER working paper, Gompers, Gornall, Kaplan and Strebulaev reported that venture capitalists worked about 58 hours a week and gave more of them to portfolio companies, about 19 hours, than to anything else.

Core support is also what a firm keeps when capacity shrinks. When OpenView refocused, it announced a pause on new investments from its Fund VII and redirected resources to existing portfolio companies, supported through board seats and its Expansion Platform, alongside a reduction in staff. A side program should be built to give way first.

A data licensing referral track offers a real but narrow founder benefit: a CEO learns whether the company's own records could be licensed for AI training and evaluation, and gets an introduction to SourceX if the CEO wants one. It only applies to companies with 50+ full-time employees at peak, years of documented records, rights to license them and a CEO who wants the conversation. What it borrows to deliver that is easy to list.

| What the track borrows | From whom | The core support it competes with |
|---|---|---|
| Screening and briefing hours | Platform lead or analyst | Responses to founders' requests for candidates, customers and data |
| Asks to CEOs | Partners, LPs and portfolio founders who own the relationship | The asks those same people make for customer and investor introductions |
| Conversation time | CEOs | Board preparation, hiring and fundraising |
| Agenda and newsletter space | Platform communications | Programs founders asked for |

## Five displacement signals and how to measure them

Each signal comes from a record most platform teams keep already, or can start this week. The thresholds are starting defaults chosen for this page, not SourceX benchmarks; write your own before you look at the numbers.

| # | Signal | Measured from | Default threshold | Usually means |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Core requests wait longer | Request log: median business days from a founder's request to the first useful response, against the quarter before the track | Up 50% or more for four weeks | Operator hours are being diverted |
| 2 | Hours share outruns reach | Time log by program, and the count of companies passing all four fit facts | The track's share of platform hours is more than twice the share of portfolio companies it can serve | A small group is served at everyone else's expense |
| 3 | The platform starts most conversations | Referral log: who raised the topic first | More than three in four started by the platform after the first quarter | Founder pull is weak |
| 4 | Relationship owners decline or stall | Ask log | Two or more owners decline, or asks wait more than two weeks | The goodwill cost is rising |
| 5 | A founder feels pressed | A neutral check-in question | One instance | The ask is being read as a condition of support |

Signal 5 is the one founders rarely volunteer to their investors. Ask it through someone outside the platform team: "Did any request from us this quarter feel like something you could not decline?" SourceX's own screening guidance treats an introduction made without the decision maker's knowledge as usually not a fit, so a CEO who agreed only under pressure is a poor introduction as well as a strained relationship.

## The stop-or-rescope worksheet

Fill it every four weeks, on one page, and keep the old ones; line B2 needs them.

| Line | What to enter | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | Median business days to first response on core requests, quarter before the track | Request log |
| A2 | The same measure over the last four weeks | Request log |
| A3 | The track's share of platform hours, last four weeks | Time log |
| A4 | Share of portfolio companies known to pass all four fit facts | Screening notes |
| A5 | Share of referral conversations the platform started | Referral log |
| A6 | Relationship owners who declined, or let an ask wait two weeks | Ask log |
| A7 | Any founder who said an ask felt like a condition of support | Neutral check-in |
| B1 | Signals tripped, counted against your thresholds | Lines A1 to A7 |
| B2 | Weeks the count has held at that level | Earlier worksheets |
| B3 | Referral income used in the decision | Always $0 |
| C1 | Decision: continue, rescope, pause or stop | Rules in the next sections |
| C2 | Rescope option chosen and the hours it returns | Options below |
| C3 | Revisit trigger and its date | One observable condition |

## Where the hours go, stage by stage, with income at zero

The signals say whether the track displaces core work; the stages say where. Read the row whose signal tripped.

| Referral stage | What it takes | Core work it most often displaces | Signal it trips first |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screening from what the fund already holds | Operator or analyst hours | Founders' data requests and portfolio reporting | 1 or 2 |
| Briefing the relationship owner | Partner attention | Partners' own customer and investor introductions | 4 |
| The ask and a metadata-only CEO conversation | Founder time and goodwill | Board preparation, hiring, fundraising | 3 or 5 |
| Written introduction and portal submission | Operator minutes | Little | Rarely any |
| Questions during SourceX's review and the deal | Operator minutes, in bursts | Whatever is urgent that week | 1 |

Line B3 is $0 for two reasons. One is timing and uncertainty. A reward exists only if the company completes a qualifying deal, and it becomes payable only after Acquisition Partner acceptance, Acquisition Partner payment received by SourceX in cleared funds, payment of the supplier compensation, SourceX finance approval and the partner's payment and tax details, and even then SourceX has until 60 calendar days past whichever comes later, the Acquisition Partner's final written acceptance or completed handoff, to pay it. The other is governance. A track kept alive for the fund's income invites the conflict founders worry about; [operating partner referral fees and conflicts of interest](/questions/operating-partner-referral-fees-conflict-of-interest) covers the disclosure side. Any reward is paid separately by SourceX and never deducted from the company's payout, which founders should hear in plain words.

## Continue, rescope, pause or stop

| What the worksheet shows | Decision | What follows |
|---|---|---|
| No signal for a full quarter, and founders ask for more | Expand within measured capacity | Size intake with the [stage-weighted workload calculator](/guides/how-many-active-referrals-can-one-operator-manage) |
| No signal | Continue | Next worksheet in four weeks |
| Signals tripped by an outside cause you can name and date, such as a fund close or a vacancy | Pause | No new asks until that date passes, then refill the worksheet |
| One signal, other than signal 5 | Rescope within two weeks | Pick the option that matches the signal |
| Two or more signals for four weeks | Stop new intake and close the track | Finish asks already promised; submitted companies stay in SourceX's review |
| Signal 5 at any time, or any harmed relationship | Stop asks at once | Apologize directly, then decide whether anything restarts |

| Rescope option | What changes | Matches signal | What it gives up |
|---|---|---|---|
| On request only | No proactive screening; CEOs who raise it are introduced one at a time | 3, or 1 | Companies whose CEOs would not have thought to ask |
| Fit facts first | Only companies already known to pass all four fit facts are approached | 2, or 4 | Network companies whose facts are still unknown |
| Owner-led | Relationship owners ask with a one-page brief; the platform answers questions | 1 | Consistency of the message |
| Hour cap | A fixed weekly cap; the queue waits its turn | 1 | Speed, and dated events that pass while companies wait |

Opt-in for founders is the default, not a rescope: the company decides, as [opt-in versus mandatory portfolio programs](/compare/opt-in-vs-mandatory-portfolio-company-programs) explains.

## Two worksheets, two answers (Illustrative)

Illustrative: invented funds and figures.

**A growth fund that should rescope.** Thirty portfolio companies, twelve of them (40%) known to pass all four fit facts. Core response time is up 10% (A1 2.0 days, A2 2.2), the track takes 9% of platform hours, and no owner has declined. But the platform started ten of the twelve referral conversations, 83%. One signal, number 3. The team moves to on-request handling for a quarter and adds a short explainer to its quarterly founder update, a choice weighed in [research, events or direct introductions](/guides/how-to-choose-between-research-events-and-direct-introductions). If founders start asking, signal 3 clears on its own.

**A Series A and B fund that should stop.** Thirty-five portfolio companies and a three-person platform team, two quarters into the track.

| Line | Entry | Signal |
|---|---|---|
| A1 to A2 | 2 business days before, 5 now: up 150% | 1 tripped |
| A3 against A4 | 26% of platform hours; 4 of 35 companies (11%) pass all four fit facts | 2 tripped |
| A5 | 9 of 11 conversations started by the platform (82%) | 3 tripped |
| A6 | Two partners declined to ask CEOs | 4 tripped |
| A7 | One founder asked whether declining would affect follow-on support | 5 tripped |
| B3 | $0 | Not used |

All five signals, and number 5 alone would decide it. The team stops asks that week. The CEO who asked about follow-on support hears directly that it never depended on this. The two companies already submitted stay in SourceX's review, because stopping withdraws nobody. Founders are told the door stays open: any CEO who asks will be introduced. The revisit trigger reads "a founder asks, or eight portfolio companies pass all four fit facts", checked at each quarterly review.

## Where the worksheet misleads

- **Outside causes.** Core response times also rise when a platform hire leaves or a fund closes. The pause row exists so the track is not blamed for a dated, nameable cause.
- **Small numbers.** Eleven conversations means one founder moves signal 3 by nine points. Read ratios with their counts.
- **Baselines drift.** The quarter before the track may have been unusual; use two where you have them.
- **One firm's announcement.** The OpenView example shows the direction a squeeze pushes a platform, not a rule for every fund.
- **Reach moves.** SourceX applies the criteria of the specific program, and a company that does not fit one may fit another later, so date the A4 count.

**Method note.** The five signals, thresholds and decision rules are this page's own framework, applied to Illustrative funds. Program facts come from the SourceX terms (Version 2026-10-22.2, since replaced by version 2026-11-04), referral stages and screening page, checked 26 October 2026. Not measured: founder outcomes from any real program, SourceX acceptance rates and payouts, none of which is published. Whether to start a track at all is covered in [the opportunity cost of another founder program](/guides/the-opportunity-cost-of-another-founder-program); how a business referral program pays is in [what a referral program is](/questions/what-is-a-referral-program); and the [overview for venture platform teams](/for/venture-platform-teams) describes the program from the fund's side.

## Next step

> **Refer a company. No cap on rewards.** Default reward on a company's first qualifying transaction: the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap; further qualifying transactions first agreed within 12 months of the first Closing pay 15%. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, including the USD 100,000 Minimum Transaction, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.

If the worksheet says continue or rescope rather than stop, [register for a partner link](/register), keep each company's screen against [who qualifies](/who-qualifies), and read the [program terms](/terms) with whoever owns the CEO relationships; related operating guides are in the [guides hub](/guides).

Deciding whether a referral track deserves platform hours is a portfolio support question; evaluating SourceX as an investment is a separate decision, and investors can request materials through the [SourceX investor overview](https://sourcex.si/investors).

This article is for information only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. Any offering by SourceX is made only to verified accredited investors through its offering documents.

## Sources

- https://refer.sourcex.si/terms
- https://refer.sourcex.si/who-qualifies
- https://refer.sourcex.si/how-it-works
- https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w27824/w27824.pdf
- https://openviewpartners.com/openview-refocuses-on-existing-portfolio-companies/
- https://sourcex.si/investors