Pass or Fund
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About

Pass or Fund is a lesson every other week in how early-stage investors in Europe think. Every other week we take apart one real European startup deal: what is worth weighing, how a guest investor reasons, and how you would call it. Bayes, our AI Investor, makes a separate call from the same public material. A year later we look back. It is for business angels, early-stage analysts and anyone learning to invest in unlisted companies.

How a case works

  1. The teardown. A round that was just announced, taken apart in the same steps each time: team, market, product, business model, traction and funding, what the sources leave open, and what would have to be true for it to pay off.
  2. Your vote. Pass or Fund, in one click from the email or on the site. You see the result after you vote.
  3. The guest's call. When a guest is on the case, an experienced angel or VC gives their verdict and why, in their own words.
  4. Bayes. Our AI Investor makes a separate call from the same public material. It is a second opinion for learning, not a recommendation.
  5. The scoreboard. After 12 and 24 months we record what happened to the company, and whether the guest or the readers were closer.

Who's behind it

Pass or Fund is hosted by Marcus, a business angel who is still early on the journey and doing it in public. AI collects European funding news from public sources and drafts the research; every case is edited by a human. A guest investor makes a call when one is on the case. Bayes makes one too.

What it is not

  • Not investment advice. We never recommend buying or selling anything, and we do not cover listed companies.
  • Not a funding-round feed. We pick one deal worth learning from, not every deal.
  • Not a takedown. "Pass" means "not for me, not now", not "bad founders". We judge the deal, not the people.
  • Not the real decision. Pass or Fund is a game. The call is on the public case as it stands. It is not necessarily the Pass or Fund someone would make if a valuation, a data room, or other information were available.

We have no insider information. Every case uses only public sources and what the company has stated itself. A valuation is usually missing. The guest writes their deal memo in VC Field Assistant, in a workspace set up for Pass or Fund, from that same public material. We never use data from anyone else's workspace. Reader votes are an informal poll.

Brought to you by VC Field Assistant

General AI tools answer questions. We run your investment process. Back good ideas faster. Kill bad ideas earlier. Win more often. Run this analysis on your own pipeline.

Be a guest, or tell us what to improve

Experienced angel or VC and up for making a call in public? Founder who wants your round discussed? Or an idea for how Pass or Fund could be better? Email marcus@passorfund.com.