Investment memo template
Twenty sections, in the order a committee reads them. Every figure carries an evidence tag, every unknown is printed as an unknown, and the recommendation names the conditions that would reverse it. Free to download, use and republish with a link back to this page.
PDF, 7 pages, no email required. Analytical research, not financial or legal advice.
The rule that makes it useful
Every figure is tagged before it is argued with
A memo is only as strong as the weakest number nobody questioned. The template labels each figure so a reviewer knows, at a glance, what is evidence and what is judgement.
Verified
A third party can reopen the source and reach the same figure.
User-provided
Supplied by the company and not yet independently confirmed.
Estimated
Derived, with the calculation shown next to the number.
Assumption
A judgement call. Named as one, never dressed as data.
Part 01
The case
Open with the decision, then show the opportunity as it actually stands today.
- 01 Executive summary
- The ask, the verdict and the two facts that decide it.
- 02 Investment thesis
- Bull case and bear case written with equal effort.
- 03 Company overview
- Legal entity, stage, cap table facts, prior capital.
- 04 Problem
- Whose problem, how it is solved today, what that costs.
- 05 Solution
- What exists today versus what is still on the roadmap.
Part 02
Market and model
Every number built bottom-up, with the arithmetic on the page.
- 06 Market
- TAM, SAM and SOM from units and prices, with sources and dates.
- 07 Customer and demand
- Signals independent of the founder's story.
- 08 Competitive landscape
- Named competitors, live prices, the status-quo workaround.
- 09 Business model
- CAC, LTV, payback and margin — with the formulas stated.
- 10 Financial analysis
- Historic actuals separated from projections.
Part 03
Execution and risk
The part most memos soften. This template forces it to be explicit.
- 11 Funding requirements
- Use of proceeds tied to milestones and runway.
- 12 Team
- Founder-market fit, gaps, key-person risk.
- 13 Technology
- Build state, dependencies, IP ownership, compliance scope.
- 14 Risks
- Likelihood, impact, mitigation owner and trigger.
- 15 Opportunities
- Upside deliberately excluded from the base case.
Part 04
Decision
A verdict a committee can challenge line by line — and reverse on stated conditions.
- 16 Exit potential
- Named acquirers and dated comparable multiples.
- 17 Key assumptions
- Everything the case rests on, in one list.
- 18 Diligence gaps
- What is still unknown, printed as unknown.
- 19 Scoring
- Weighted score with the weights fixed before scoring.
- 20 Recommendation
- A decision, a price and a set of conditions.
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