It's known that UX design is profitable: $100 of returns for $1 of investments is no joke. Potentially, good UX can increase customer conversion rates up in 4x times. 

The understanding of users and their needs is one of the top things private equity firms and VCs are looking for when deciding on the investment. Lack of it signals about issues that can be a symptom of a vague product-market fit, overconfident monetization model, wrong marketing, and other things that make startup fail. 

It's time to treat your website's design like designs of your portfolio companies 

Richard Dukas, CEO of Dukas Linden Public Relations, once said that if PE firms and VCs who don't have a website and have no material online presence won't have luck in attracting investors. The same applies to an online presence that doesn't show your potential partners what they want to see quickly. 

If that's the first time users come to your website, you have about seven seconds to communicate to them you're a perfect choice for their expertise and their money. If you don't, they're back to searching for opportunities. But how do I know what to tell them? 

UX research helps you show: you're a PE fund investors who visit your website have been looking for

Some investors are looking for opulence and super-customized experience. Some want to know why you've invested in your portfolio companies and how you improved their operations. Some want to know how exactly you led startup X to an exit. 

The list is very long. You need to prioritize. To differentiate among other PE funds - their numbers are growing, so the competition for LPs and GPs who are brilliant in what they do is heating up. You also need them to share your values, otherwise, it'll be a hungry hub. 

To do that, you need to know them. That's what UX researchers do: familiarize themselves with your audience: what they want? what do they respond to? what they're looking for in a PE firm? 

It can be a beautiful, luxurious design, minimalistic, frictionless, in grey and gold colors; it can be a table with your preferable niches of investments and approach to management, or a large title that says you think healthcare should cost less and you're here to invest in companies that help it cost less - and a contact form. 

That's why UX redesigns are so insanely profitable for companies who do them, even in B2B: 

1) They make it easy for customers to use and navigate the resource; 

2) They coherently communicate the value in a way that connects with customers. 

Remember, when you were looking for a job, the company website has been one of the first things you've researched. It impacted your decision. 

Your website’s design affects your potential partners' decision to initiate conversation in the same way.