Value-Add Is Dead—Or Is It? New Playbooks for LP/GP/Founder Collaboration in a Changing Market

The Value-Add Dilemma: What’s Actually Changed?

For decades, “value-add” was a PE/VC cliché: cutting costs, plugging in advisors, opening a few corporate Rolodexes, and calling it a day. But let’s be real—2025’s market is a whole new animal. With capital now a commodity, and founders drowning in options, past models for driving returns are looking seriously tired. Is value-add dead, or just overdue for a reboot?

The short answer? It’s evolving—fast. At LeverVenture, we see value-add not as a relic, but as a living system. And right now, the real innovation is happening at the intersection of LP, GP, and founder interests.

Capital Is a Commodity—So Where’s the Real Edge?

Years of low interest rates and the rise of alternatives mean there’s more money in the system than ever before.[^1] As PitchBook and Preqin report, GPs can no longer win deals simply by writing big checks.

That means:

Plain vanilla funding is irrelevant. LPs want proof of differentiated, sector-specific value creation.
Operational tweaks aren’t enough. Founders look for partners who can jump into the trenches and help them navigate AI disruption, regulatory landmines, and aggressive competition.
Fee pressure is real. Management fees stay flat, while incentives increasingly hinge on exit outcomes, not paper gains.

Key stat: In 2024, artificial intelligence startups received 35.7% of all venture dollars globally, showing the heightened expectation for technology-led transformation.[^2]

Rethinking Value: From Boardroom Theory to Real-World Impact

To adapt, leading firms—including at LeverVenture—are pushing beyond “consultancy theater” and outdated playbooks. Here’s how:

1. Turning Tech and Data into True Performance (Especially in Our Sectors)

The value-add for Growth Equity, AI/ML, Life Sciences, and Digital Transformation isn’t about just introducing a new CRM. It’s about embedding advanced AI, automating business intelligence, and enabling decision-making at scale. For life sciences, it’s about leveraging bioinformatics and regulatory tech—not just introductions to contract manufacturers.

What’s working:

Building shared AI and analytics platforms that founders and companies across the portfolio can leverage.
Cross-portfolio workshops led by outside subject matter experts, not junior associates.
Investing alongside tech or pharma leaders as co-GPs to open R&D and distribution partnerships.

Where it breaks down:

When “value-add” turns into checkbox exercises that can’t be tracked, measured, or tied to P&L impact.
When GPs overpromise capacity or sector expertise outside their lane.

2. Embracing the New Continuation Vehicle Playbook

Secondaries, continuation vehicles (CVs), and rolling funds—these aren’t just liquidity tools, they’re now central to strategic value creation. GPs can stay in breakout winners without being forced to exit at a suboptimal time, while LPs get optionality and more tailored liquidity.

As Institutional Investor details, the number of GP-led secondary transactions has doubled since 2021, with funds raised for CVs at record highs.

Benefits:

Improved LP alignment and flexibility
More patient capital for founders and management teams
Better outcomes for everyone (when done transparently)

Caveats:

Extra layer of complexity for reporting and governance
Potential for conflicts around valuations and carry

LPs, GPs, and Founders: Resetting the Relationship

Today, the most effective collaborations are being designed from the ground up:

LPs as strategic partners: The best LPs bring more than just dollars—think access to talent pools, sector intelligence, government/ESG contacts, and co-invest capital.
GPs as platform builders: GPs provide the playbook, but increasingly also the infrastructure and data sharing that founders use daily.
Founders as co-architects: Founders now often have meaningful say in how value-creation resources are allocated, which services are actually valuable, and even drive quarterly priorities for platform teams.

Not Just “Support”—It’s Ops at the Core

Rather than bolting a value-add “team” onto the investment side, high-performing GPs fully integrate portfolio ops with investment decision-making. That’s especially true in complex areas (AI/ML adoption, clinical trial acceleration, regulatory/compliance strategy).

At LeverVenture, for example, we’ve structured our teams so that sector veterans sit alongside investment committee members—not in a separate reporting silo. Our portfolio companies get direct access to trusted domain operators, not generic “consultants-for-hire.” (More on how we do this in Beyond the Check: How Growth Equity Firms Are Accelerating Innovation in 2025.)

Proprietary Deals and the Search for Real “Alpha”

More GPs are chasing proprietary deals because they outperform auction processes—according to Harvard Business Review, this focus is now heavily weighted toward founder-originated opportunities where trust, sector insight, and unique “help” matter most.

Founders want partners who can help them:

Scale globally without overpaying for growth
Build defensible AI and IP advantages
Access cross-border regulatory guidance
Hire senior talent with proven track records in similar cycles

That means developing real, ongoing founder partnerships—not one-off “value-add” projects.

Sector Deep-Dives: What’s Working in LeverVenture’s Core Areas

Growth Equity: Building Not Just Buying

We’re seeing more GPs kickstart new platform companies with proven management teams—opting to build, not just buy. This “greenfield” approach requires trust, flexible capital structures, founder empowerment, and patient LPs willing to wait for real value delivery.

Shared services hubs for vertical SaaS and B2B platforms
AI-enabled customer acquisition engines
GTM support focused on non-traditional channel development

AI/ML: Making Value Tangible

In AI/ML deals, it’s not enough to mention “AI” on a slide deck. We’re building measured pilots—deploying ML solutions inside and across the portfolio with real feedback loops.

Check out our perspective: AI All the Way Up: Why Artificial Intelligence is Eating the VC and Growth Equity World

Life Sciences: Regulatory-Grade Value Creation

With FDA requirements always evolving, value-add here means helping founders manage complex clinical data pipelines, regulatory reporting, and evidence packages.

Access to specialist CRO partners
Regulatory strategy benchmarking vs. peer assets
Patient recruitment analytics

The Next Playbook: Flexibility and Sector “Tribes”

What’s next? Deal-by-deal and pledge funds are getting more popular—letting GPs and LPs tailor capital deployment to fit real company needs, not fund cycles. This unlocks real flexibility and tighter alignment.

Plus, we’re seeing “sector tribes” emerge: loosely affiliated networks across AI, life sciences, digital infra, and enterprise SaaS. This model allows founders, LPs, and GPs to collaborate horizontally—sharing market intelligence, pilots, and lessons learned, well beyond one firm’s walls.

What’s Not Working—and What We Need to Fix

It’s not all smooth sailing. Potential pitfalls often include:

Superficial value-add teams that sound great in LP memos but don’t deliver on the ground.
Opaque continuation vehicle economics, leading to LP mistrust.
Old-school, “my way or the highway” deal control that stifles founder and LP innovation.
Tech platforms/best practices that can’t be customized for a sector’s actual needs.

Solution? Radical transparency, humility, and clear reporting on both failures and successes.

Conclusion: Value-Add Is Not Dead. It’s Just Getting Seriously Selective.

Value-add hasn’t disappeared—it’s just reserved for the VCs and GPs who can credibly, measurably deliver it. In hyper-competitive, sector-driven private markets, that means deep collaboration, not paint-by-numbers consulting. Firms prepared to co-architect win-win structures for LPs, founders, and internal teams will win outsized rewards in the next cycle.

At LeverVenture, we’re invested—literally and figuratively—in building these new frameworks. We’d love to connect with LPs, founders, or operators who want to shape what comes next. Learn more and start the conversation at https://leverventure.com/contact.

Further Exploration:

This article is for informational purposes only. For more perspectives on growth equity and venture capital innovation, visit the LeverVenture Insights page.

[^1]: PitchBook, “2025 Private Market Outlook.”  
[^2]: Preqin, “Global Private Capital Report 2025.”