♞ Data Room for Early Stage Founders

In partnership with

What should your data room look like?

Before we jump too deep into the content of your data room, let’s talk about what a data room is. When raising capital, there will come a point in the process (generally after you’ve reached out to an investor, had your first meeting, sent a memo and had confirmaton of interest in investing) where you need to start providing the key information required for investors to start their due diligence and ensure that they are comfortable investing in you.

Generally speaking, you will provide the data room access before you get a term sheet, investors will look through it, and then after you have signed a term sheet/their lawyers will go through it in more detail before closing the deal.

Now that you know what a data room is, let’s jump into what it should include for early-stage founders.

1. Company Overview

   1. One Page Memo

   2. Pitch Deck

   3. Case Study/Customer Testimonals/Surveys (any high-level traction proof that isn’t data-based)

2. Team

   1. Team Bios

   2. Employment Agreement

   3. Employee Share Option Agreement

3. Core Corporation Documents

   1. Incorporation Documents

   2. Company Bylaws

   3. Shareholder Agreements

   4. Investment Documents

      1. Cap Table

      2. Prior Round Investment Documents

      3. This Round’s Investment Documents

4. Legal Documents

   1. Patents

   2. Trademarks

   3. Copyrights

   4. Company Policies

   5. Any agreements signed that don’t fit into the other categories listed here

5. Financials

   1. Tax filings

   2. Past expenditures/budgets

   3. Future budgets

   4. Financial modelling/projections

6. Customers

   1. Customer Contracts/Agreements

7. Product

   1. Demo

   2. Roadmap

8. Press/PR

   1. Links to social media

   2. Press Kit

   3. Media Mentions

   4. Awards/Recognitions

Are you looking to grow your business? Here is how I can help:

📱 Book a Strategy Call to get 1:1 feedback on your pitch, pitch deck and/or fundraising strategy. (If you need general startup advice, then reply to this email, and I’ll let you know if/how I can help.)

Onwards and Upwards,

Liam Gill