What is Necessary for Due Diligence to be Prepared?

This varies by the amount of money being raised and stage of development of the company. I have posted a due diligence checklist on my blog, you can find for full detail.

Any amount over $1M will likely require substantial look into all company officers, financial statements, customer records in addition to review of the company’s business plan and product(s). Expect serious investors to ask about everything you can imagine. And the more open you are, the better. Although VC will likely refuse to sign NDAs as many of these would place too many constraints on them over time, this does allow you to withhold some trade secrets and protect your “secret sauce”. This could be your source code, trade secrets and algorithms or other secrets you do not want to expose to competitors.  This is a big gray area and negotiable, but you should be careful, as VCs are not prevented from investing in your competitors after pulling out of your deal. And they can legally transfer anything they learned without an NDA.

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Typically, investors will ask to see these things as just the first step (Phase I or first visit):

1. Business plan
2. Financial statements for your short history in standard GAAP formats, including P & L and balance sheets.
3. Some proof of any customers and/or revenue received to date
4. Senior team’s detailed resumes.
5. Demonstration of your product’s front end and backend if it is a SaaS system that needs administration for examples
6. Background checks on key officers. Credit checks.

To get entrepreneurship tips, check out Bob's Blog

Bob Norton is a long-time Serial Entrepreneur and CEO with four exits that returned over $1 billion to investors. He has trained, coached and advised over 1,000 CEOs since 2002. And is Founder of The CEO Boot Camp™ and Entrepreneurship University™. Mr. Norton works with companies to triple their chances of success in launching new companies and products. And helps established companies scale faster using the six AirTight Management™ systems. And helps companies successfully raise capital.

Call (619) SCALE06 or email info@AirTightMgt.com for a complementary strategic consultation