Due Diligence Rooms

    Due diligence meeting agenda

    The agenda is the coverage specification. Every line names the dimension it evidences, so a question the meeting never reached becomes a gap against that dimension rather than a silence nobody notices.

    The diligence review, run weekly for as long as a candidate is live. The agenda is built so that a question nobody got to reads as an open gap rather than as a quiet green tick — which is the failure mode of every diligence checklist that gets marked complete on the last day.

    A row is
    Candidate
    Grouped by
    Diligence Phase
    Cadence
    every 7 days
    Lines
    8

    Also called: Diligence stand-up · Workstream review · Technical deep dive · Reference call debrief · IC pre-read

    The running order

    8 lines in the full specification, 3 of them scoped to a stage — so any one candidate is measured against 6–7 of them. Run every 7 days. The order is the running order.

    1. 1
      Market and competitive findings
      Evidences Market Validation
    2. 2
      Product and technical assessment
      Evidences Product & Technical
    3. 3
      Financial review against the model
      Evidences Financial Review
    4. 4
      Legal, structure and cap table
      Evidences Legal & Structure
    5. 5
      Customer and channel references
      Evidences References
    6. 6
      Scope, workstream owners and dates
      Evidences Risks & Red Flags · only at Scoping
    7. 7
      Open red flags and what would close them
      Evidences Risks & Red Flags · only at Commercial, Technical, Legal & Final
    8. 8
      Recommendation to investment committee
      Evidences Risks & Red Flags · only at Legal & Final
    The bar moves with diligence phase

    Not every line applies at every stage

    3 of these 8 lines are stage-scoped. A flat agenda asks every row the same questions regardless of where it has got to, which manufactures gaps that are not gaps — and false gaps drown the real ones, which is the whole reason an uncovered question is allowed to mean something here.

    Scoping
    6 of 8 lines
    • +Scope, workstream owners and dates
    Commercial
    6 of 8 lines
    • +Open red flags and what would close them
    Technical
    6 of 8 lines
    • +Open red flags and what would close them
    Legal & Final
    7 of 8 lines
    • +Open red flags and what would close them
    • +Recommendation to investment committee

    Lines shown are the stage-scoped ones. The rest are in force at every diligence phase.

    What the room listens for

    The six dimensions this room scores

    Each carries a weight in the roll-up. A dimension with no evidence behind it is not scored at a middle value — it renders as unknown, and below the coverage floor the row reads never covered rather than green.

    Market Validation
    20% of the roll-up

    Whether the market claim survived contact with people outside the company.

    independent source citedcompetitor interviewpricing benchmarked
    Product & Technical
    20% of the roll-up

    What the technology actually is, what it depends on, and what it would cost to scale.

    code or architecture revieweddependency identifiedscaling cost modelled
    Financial Review
    20% of the roll-up

    Whether the numbers reconcile to source and the model rests on stated assumptions.

    figures reconciled to bank or ledgerassumption testedcohort rebuilt
    Legal & Structure
    15% of the roll-up

    Cap table, IP ownership, contracts and anything that binds after closing.

    cap table verifiedIP assignment checkedmaterial contract reviewed
    References
    15% of the roll-up

    What customers and partners say when the company is not in the room.

    off-list reference takenrenewal intent statedcomplaint surfaced
    Risks & Red Flags
    10% of the roll-up

    What is open, who owns closing it, and what would change the recommendation.

    issue logged with an ownerclosed with evidenceescalated to IC
    When a line is missed

    A question nobody asked is a fact about the room

    Because each line names a dimension, the gap scanner can say which one went uncovered and for how long. These are the four states it raises, and each one is a different problem with a different fix.

    Never covered

    The line has never been reached in this room. The dimension has no evidence at all.

    Unanswered

    It was raised and the room moved on without landing an answer.

    Gone stale

    It was covered, but not within the 7-day cadence this room type expects.

    Unowned

    There is an answer and an action, and nobody's name is against it.

    See it score a board

    Due Diligence Rooms is one of eleven configurations of the same engine. The demo runs on fictitious candidates and sample data — every number traces back to something somebody said in the room.