raise-vet

name	raise-vet
description	Use to vet a VC fund's legitimacy before spending real research on it — a cheap background check that answers "is this fund actually real and active, or a zombie?" Runs eight evidence-based checks and writes a stub fund dossier with a legitimacy score. Run before raise-match. Use when asked to "vet a fund", "check if a VC is legit", "is this fund still active", or "screen this investor".
allowed-tools	WebSearch WebFetch Read Write
metadata	{"track":"fundraising"}

raise-vet — the cheap legitimacy gate

Most of a target list won't survive first contact — zombie funds with no dry powder, firms that haven't led a round in two years, theses their portfolio doesn't back up. raise-vet is the inexpensive pre-filter that catches them before raise-match spends four research sub-agents on a dead end. It answers "is this fund real and writing checks?" — not "does it fit us?" (that's raise-match).

Invocation

raise-vet <fund name>

Steps

1. Load the profile. Read .spine/raise/profile.md for stage/sector calibration (a fund can be alive but wrong for you — that's fine here, vet only judges vitality). If it's missing, stop and tell the founder to run raise-init. Derive the fund slug (see ../raise-init/references/namespace.md).
2. Run the eight checks with a small number of targeted searches (this is the cheap pass — don't fan out sub-agents):
   • Vitality — date of last announced investment. >18 months silent = zombie risk.
   • Health — active current fund with dry powder? Recent key-partner departures?
   • Thesis authenticity — does the actual portfolio match the stated sector thesis?
   • Lead capacity — evidence of leading rounds, not only co-investing.
   • Stage honesty — stated stage vs. the real entry stage of recent deals.
   • Check-size reality — stated range vs. observable deal sizes.
   • Signal-to-check ratio — conference/content volume vs. actual new deals.
   • Founder sentiment — public patterns: ghosting, slow decisions, reneging.
3. Score and judge. Sum to a legitimacy score (0–100) and a verdict:
   • legit (80–100) — active, real checks. Proceed to raise-match.
   • probable (60–79) — yellow flags; proceed if fit looks strong.
   • watch (40–59) — material poser signals; de-prioritise unless a warm intro exists.
   • poser (0–39) — don't spend cycles; move to the next fund.
4. Write the stub dossier. Write .spine/raise/funds/<slug>/dossier.md with the structured handoff header (legitimacy_score, legitimacy_verdict, and a fit_score/recommended_action left blank for raise-match) followed by a ## Legitimacy section: a one-line verdict, the eight checks as a table with evidence and a 🟢/🟡/🔴 per check, and any open questions. Cite sources; mark unknowns as Unknown, never invent dates or deal data. If a dossier already exists, refresh only the header's legitimacy fields and the Legitimacy section — never discard a raise-match analysis.
5. Report. Tell the founder the score and verdict, and the next move: legit/ probable → "Run raise-match <fund> for the fit analysis"; watch → "only if a warm intro exists"; poser → "skip — run raise-funds for better-matched funds".

Spine I/O

• Reads: .spine/raise/profile.md; .spine/raise/funds/<slug>/dossier.md (if present).
• Writes: .spine/raise/funds/<slug>/dossier.md (header legitimacy fields + Legitimacy section).

Notes

• Vet is the cheap pass — a few searches, no sub-agent fan-out. The expensive research is raise-match's job, and it only runs on funds that clear this gate.
• Legitimacy ≠ fit. A fully legit fund can still be wrong for your stage; a perfect-thesis fund can be a zombie. You need both reads.
• raise-match is the sole assembler of dossier.md (see ADR 0017) — vet writes only the stub it will build on.