Last reviewed: · By the pcithbook.com editorial team
New users often open the platform, type a company name and stop there. That barely scratches the surface. This page offers a simple first-week plan to build useful habits, followed by a glossary of the vocabulary that appears in deal profiles, fund records and research reports. Menu names may differ in your version; the vendor provides online learning resources and support for clients.
A first-week plan
| Day | Focus | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Look up five companies you know well | Learn the profile layout and judge freshness |
| Day 2 | Build and save one search for your thesis or coverage area | Practise filters and saved searches |
| Day 3 | Set alerts on the saved search and a few companies | Let updates come to you |
| Day 4 | Install the Excel add-in if your firm allows it | Pull a small dataset into a spreadsheet |
| Day 5 | Read one recent research report summary | Understand methodology language and definitions |
- Ask your administrator which datasets and add-ins your plan includes.
- Agree a naming convention for saved searches with your team.
- Bookmark the vendor's learning and support resources.
- Keep a note of fields that look wrong and report them through the vendor's channels.
Private markets glossary
Definitions below are general industry explanations, written in plain English. Individual reports and providers may define terms slightly differently, so check the methodology notes of any source you quote.
Fund and performance terms
- AUM (assets under management)
- The total value of capital a manager oversees. Definitions vary; some include uncalled commitments.
- Dry powder
- Capital committed to funds but not yet invested.
- Vintage year
- The year a fund began investing or held its first close, used to group funds for comparison.
- IRR (internal rate of return)
- The annualised return implied by a fund's cash flows over time. Sensitive to timing.
- TVPI (total value to paid-in)
- Distributions plus remaining value, divided by capital paid in. Shows overall value creation.
- DPI (distributions to paid-in)
- Cash actually returned to investors divided by capital paid in. Often called the realised multiple.
- RVPI (residual value to paid-in)
- Remaining unrealised value divided by paid-in capital. TVPI equals DPI plus RVPI.
- Benchmark
- A peer group of funds, often by strategy and vintage, against which performance is compared.
Investor roles
- GP (general partner)
- The firm that manages a fund and makes investment decisions.
- LP (limited partner)
- An investor in a fund, such as a pension, endowment, foundation or family office.
- Mandate
- An allocator's stated plan or criteria for where and how it will commit capital.
- Commitment
- The amount an LP agrees to invest in a fund, drawn down over time.
- Co-investment
- An LP investing directly in a deal alongside a fund, outside the fund itself.
Venture terms
- Pre-money valuation
- The value of a company immediately before a new investment.
- Post-money valuation
- Pre-money valuation plus the new money raised in the round.
- Cap table
- A record of who owns what in a company: shares, options and convertible instruments.
- Down round
- A financing at a lower valuation than the previous round.
- Lead investor
- The investor who sets terms and usually commits the largest share of a round.
Buyout and M&A terms
- Platform company
- An initial acquisition used as the base for further add-ons.
- Add-on acquisition
- A smaller company bought by an existing portfolio company.
- Carve-out
- The sale of a division or business unit by a larger company.
- Secondary transaction
- The sale of existing interests — in a fund or company — rather than new capital.
- Precedent transactions
- Comparable past deals used to support a valuation.
- Unitranche
- A single loan facility combining senior and subordinated debt, common in private credit.
Next steps
Once the basics feel familiar, read the workflow guide for your role: venture capital or private equity and M&A. For a broader picture of the datasets, see data and research.
Setting up access for a team?
Plan contents and add-in availability depend on your contract. Read our independence note and check current information with the vendor.
Frequently asked questions
DPI counts only cash returned to investors, while TVPI adds the remaining unrealised value. A fund can have a high TVPI but a low DPI if few exits have happened.
Capital that investors have committed to funds but that has not yet been invested.
Basic lookups take minutes. Building reliable screens, alerts and exports usually takes a few weeks of regular use, helped by the vendor's training resources.