Due Diligence Preparation Guide
What sophisticated diligence actually examines - and how to prepare your business, your team, and your documents for the level of scrutiny that follows a serious term sheet.
Diligence is not an interruption
It is the moment the relationship becomes real. The tone, pace, and precision of a diligence process communicate more about how a partnership will function than any pre-term-sheet conversation. Treat it as the beginning of the collaboration, not a hurdle before it.
The four workstreams
Commercial (customers, pipeline, retention, market), Financial (historical, forecast, controls), Legal (corporate, IP, contracts, employment), and Technical (product, security, architecture). Each workstream runs in parallel and each requires a dedicated internal owner. Founders who try to answer everything personally slow the process and dilute the quality of the answers.
The reference process
Prepare references early. Brief them respectfully — never coach — on what the diligence is about and what the investor is likely to ask. Invest disproportionately in the calls that will happen without you in the room; those are the ones that matter most.
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