Colibrí Architecture is the operating system for how a venture capital firm is structured. It reads your firm across three independent dimensions, surfaces the tensions in how the firm is built, and produces a single research-grounded view of your architecture.
The Colibrí Architecture model evaluates your firm across three independent dimensions, each of which answers a single high-leverage question about how the firm is built. The three engines run separately, and their outputs combine into a single firm-level Architecture Score.
Is the fund's deployment of capital configured efficiently for its lifecycle stage?
The engine reads how the fund is set up across capital math, ownership targets, scope, lifecycle positioning, and team capacity, and tells you whether those choices reinforce each other or pull against each other.
Do the firm's structural choices fit together?
Eleven independent checks examine specific pairs of structural choices across the firm, ranging from IC voting structure to succession planning, and surface every tension where two choices work against each other.
Is capital distributed across funds in a way that preserves diversification?
The engine reads across every fund the firm operates and flags the concentration patterns that no single fund-level view can catch, including sector concentration and single-company exposure that accumulates over time.
Every output of the model is calibrated to the firm's lifecycle stage, which means a Conviction firm and a Continuity firm are read against different reference frames. The same configuration choice can be efficient on one frontier and inefficient on another.
Read the methodology →Three views, one model, every score grounded in the same methodology. Architecture surfaces what you need to see at the level you need to see it, and shows the cohort context next to every number so the figure always carries the comparison.
The Firm Overview brings every fund the firm operates into a single cross-fund analytical view. The composite Architecture Score sits at the top, the three engine scores break down underneath, and the firm-level aggregates (total committed capital, total portfolio companies, weighted average GP load) sit alongside.
The Fund Overview drops you into a single fund's analytical view. The Composite Efficiency Index leads, with cohort percentile context for funds at the same lifecycle stage. Configuration Congruence, GP Load, deployment status, and the second-tier metrics (Return per Unit of Variance, Consistency Score, Predicted Net IRR) all read off the same configuration in real time.
The Scenario Engine is the companion module that helps you think through a specific follow-on allocation. For a chosen portfolio company, it reads the trajectory, the proposed round, the available reserves, and the firm's cross-fund exposure, and returns a recommendation, a recommended allocation in dollars and as a share of pro-rata, a timing signal, and a three-part rationale that names what is driving the call.
The Colibrí Architecture model is grounded in research from the Colibrí Institute, which has spent years studying how venture capital firms are structured, why Conviction firms operate on a different frontier than Continuity firms, and how the heavy-tailed shape of venture returns shapes what efficient firm design actually looks like.
That research is the reason the model is calibrated the way it is, and it is the reason the platform can tell a Conviction firm something different from what it tells a Continuity firm. The Institute publishes the underlying work, the platform applies it, and the methodology that connects the two is documented in full.
Conviction firms, Cadence firms, and Continuity firms occupy different points on different risk-return frontiers. The same configuration choice can be efficient on one frontier and inefficient on another, which is why every threshold in the model is calibrated separately for each stage.
A small number of outsized outcomes dominate aggregate fund performance. The model is constructed under that assumption rather than under a thin-tailed assumption, which is what gives the engine its bite when it reads concentration of conviction in a firm at the Conviction stage.
How a firm is built precedes how it performs. The model evaluates the configuration directly rather than waiting for realized outcomes, which means the platform can produce a useful view of a fund the day it is configured, not five years after the fact.
Architecture works for any U.S. venture firm, from a first-fund Conviction firm to a multi-fund Continuity firm. The model calibrates to your lifecycle stage and your firm structure rather than forcing you into a generic template.
If you operate a single fund, Architecture gives you a structured view of how it is configured, where its choices reinforce each other, and where they pull against each other. The Portfolio Efficiency engine and the Firm Design Congruence engine both work fully from day one, and the Cross-Fund Concentration engine still computes a meaningful within-fund view.
If you operate multiple funds, Architecture adds the firm-level analytical layer that single-fund views cannot produce. The Cross-Fund Concentration engine reads across every fund the firm operates, surfaces concentration patterns no individual fund view can catch, and integrates with the per-fund scores into a single firm-level Architecture Score.
Every plan opens with a 7-day free trial, no commitment required. Take the tour first if you want to see the platform before you start.
Most of these come up in the first conversation with a prospective user. If you don't see your question here, the methodology page covers the analytical foundation in more depth, and we're happy to answer anything else over email.
Colibrí Architecture is a research-grounded platform that evaluates how a venture capital firm is built. It reads your firm across three independent dimensions, including portfolio efficiency at the fund level, internal consistency at the firm level, and capital distribution across funds, and produces a single Architecture Score that integrates them. It is designed for GPs who want a structured view of how their firm is configured, alongside the cohort context to interpret what the numbers actually mean.
The platform is built for the general partners running venture capital firms in the United States, from single-fund Conviction firms through multi-fund Continuity firms. The model is calibrated separately for each lifecycle stage, which means the experience is tuned to the kind of firm you actually run rather than forcing you into a generic template that assumes every firm looks like every other firm.
The 7-day free trial includes full access to the platform on the plan you choose, with all three engines, the composite Architecture Score, the Temporal Layer that tracks how the scores move over time, and the Scenario Engine companion module that supports follow-on allocation decisions. You configure your firm and see every score the platform produces during the trial. A card is required to start, and you are not charged until the trial period ends.
The platform requires fund-level configuration (fund size, target portfolio count, target ownership, investment period, reserve allocation, target stage, industry scope, geography, team size, GP count, and a few related fields) along with basic investment-level data once you start logging your portfolio. Most GPs complete the initial setup in 30 to 45 minutes, and the engines start producing scores the moment the required fields are populated.
The platform does not require fund admin integrations or sensitive financial data to compute its scores. Cap tables, capital calls, LP statements, and other operational data sit outside what the model reads.
Yes. Every firm's data is private to that firm. The platform uses cohort baselines that are computed in aggregate across the user base, but no individual firm's data is accessible to other firms in any view, in any export, or through any other surface. The same data sovereignty rule applies to the Scenario Engine's learning loop, which means your scenario history does not contribute to other firms' calibration.
The methodology is grounded in research from the Colibrí Institute and is documented in a versioned specification that serves as the source of truth for every score the platform produces. The methodology is independent of any external scoring framework and is proprietary to Colibrí Strategies. As the platform accumulates user data, thresholds and weights may be revised against empirical distributions, with every revision producing a version increment of the methodology document.
The full methodology page walks through what each engine evaluates, the eleven firm design checks, the lifecycle framing, and the complete definitions glossary.
A spreadsheet or a BI tool can hold any data you want, but it cannot tell you whether your firm's configuration fits together. The platform's value is the methodology, not the data storage. Architecture encodes a structured framework for evaluating firm design that would take years to build internally, and it does the work of comparing your configuration to a peer cohort that is calibrated to your lifecycle stage. The numbers themselves are not the product; the structured view of how the firm is built is the product.
No. The platform does not replace your fund administrator and does not process capital calls, distributions, partner allocations, or LP statements. Architecture sits alongside your existing operational stack as the analytical layer that reads how your firm is built, and it integrates with the rest of your operations through the data you choose to bring in rather than through direct integrations with fund admin systems.
Yes. The Portfolio Efficiency engine and the Firm Design Congruence engine work for any firm regardless of fund count, and they produce the bulk of the platform's per-fund and firm-level value. The Cross-Fund Concentration engine still computes for single-fund firms because the within-fund concentration patterns it surfaces are useful even when there is only one fund to look at, and the Architecture Score still integrates the three engine outputs into a single composite even at the single-fund stage.
The platform is offered on two subscription tiers, Foundation for single-fund GPs and Practice for multi-fund firms, each available on annual or monthly billing. Every plan opens with a 7-day free trial, so you can configure your firm and see the scores before any charge. The pricing page lists what each tier includes.
Most GPs complete the initial fund and firm configuration in 30 to 45 minutes. The engines produce scores the moment the required fields are populated, so you can see the headline numbers on your first session. Investment-level data takes additional time depending on how many investments you log, but the platform does not require complete investment-level data to produce the headline scores. You can return and add investments over time as it makes sense.