Structure it the way diligence is run
Mirror the workstreams the investor will use, so nobody has to ask where anything is. Five top-level folders is usually enough, each with a short index document at the top explaining what is inside and what is deliberately absent.
| Folder | Core contents |
|---|---|
| Corporate | Cap table, articles, board minutes, safes and notes |
| Financial | Management accounts, bank statements, model, cohort data |
| Commercial | Contract templates, top-customer contracts, pipeline export |
| Product & tech | Architecture overview, roadmap, security posture, incidents |
| People & legal | Org chart, employment and IP assignment agreements, policies |
The omissions that cost the most time
- IP assignment agreements for early contractors — the single most common deal-delaying gap.
- A cap table that reconciles to the actual signed instruments on a fully diluted basis.
- Cohort retention data in a raw, filterable export rather than a slide.
- Bank statements corroborating the revenue in the management accounts.
Access hygiene
Grant access per firm, keep an access log, and stage genuinely sensitive material — customer contracts with named pricing, personal data — for release after a term sheet. Withholding the ordinary corporate and financial set until late reads as a signal, not as caution.
Write the memo yourself first
Assemble the room, then draft the investment memo the investor would write from it. Wherever you cannot support a claim with a document already in the room, you have found the gap they will find. Our free memo template lays out the sections in the order a committee reads them.
Part of a guide
Investment due diligence: a complete guide
A complete guide to investment due diligence: the workstreams, the questions investors ask, the red flags that matter, the data room, and how findings become a defensible memo.