Introducing a Guide to LP Timing & Process
How allocators decide and how a GP syncs to their rhythm
We’ve just released The LP Timing & Process Guide, the one dimension of fundraising that rarely gets written about: when to show up, not just what to say.
LPs, especially the more institutional ones, do not allocate continuously. They allocate inside processes: annual planning windows, investment committee cycles, budget approvals, and re-up schedules. A GP who understands these rhythms can stop guessing and start arriving at the right door at the right moment. A GP who ignores them burns precious cycles pitching allocators who could not say yes this year even if they loved the fund.
This guide unpacks both halves of the equation.
First, the LP side: how different investor types actually move through their decision-making, from the family office that can commit on conviction to the pension fund bound by a rigid annual plan.
Second, the GP side: how to read where you are in someone’s process, how to time your outreach and your closes, and how to keep a prospect warm across the months, sometimes years, between first contact and commitment.
What’s inside
How LPs actually decide (The LP clock)
Timing & process by investor type
The annual allocation calendar
Inside the LP decision process
Timing your outreach
Reading where you are in the process
Timing the close
Staying warm between cycles
Timing & process checklist
The core insight: The same pitch, sent to the same allocator, lands differently depending almost entirely on the calendar. An institutional LP who says "keep us posted" may genuinely mean it, they simply have no allocation slot until their next planning round.
The timing & process matrix
The guide covers eight investor types. For each, we map the clock they run on, who holds the decision, how long their cycle runs, when to make contact, and where timing most often goes wrong:
HNWI - Low VC maturity
HNWI - High VC maturity
Family Office - Low VC maturity
Family Office - High VC maturity
Fund of Funds
Institutional
Corporate
Public Funds
Timing is the part of fundraising that GPs feel but rarely systematise. By understanding which clock each LP runs on, mapping the annual calendar and the internal process, timing outreach and closes deliberately, and staying warm across cycles, you turn timing from luck into a repeatable advantage. Combined with a strong fund and disciplined execution, good timing is what gets the right capital to commit at the right moment.