Diligence

Know what they will find. Before they find it.

Every raise, sale, board appointment and senior hire now begins with somebody searching. That search happens whether or not you have seen what it returns.

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Before they look at you Before you look at them A raise, a sale, a seat Know what diligence will surface before it does A hire, a founder, a partner The same work, pointed at the other party

The same capability, run in either direction. Most clients eventually use both.

Before a transaction

Run the search they are going to run.

An acquirer's diligence team, an investment committee, a nominations committee or a journalist preparing a profile will all do the same work. We do it first, so nothing in it is a surprise and anything correctable is corrected while there is still time.

01

The full record

Search, answer engines, press and archive, litigation and filings where public, social history, and the personal data aggregated about you and those close to you.

02

Ranked by consequence

What a diligence team will actually flag, separated from what merely exists. Most of what is online about a senior person is irrelevant and we say so.

03

Corrected where possible

Stale roles, wrong affiliations, superseded facts and removable personal records, dealt with in the window before anyone looks.

When this is commissioned

Almost always against a date. The work is scoped to the date, not the other way round.

Ahead of a funding roundBefore the data room opens and the partners start reading.
Ahead of a sale or IPOWhen the record is about to be examined by people paid to find problems.
Before a board appointmentNominations committees search. So do the journalists who cover the announcement.
Before a public roleAn industry body, a government advisory seat, a trustee position.
Before a senior hire is announcedFor the organisation making the appointment and the individual accepting it.
Before a profile runsWhen a publication has been in touch and you want to know what they will find.
On a counterparty

The same work, pointed outward.

You are about to fund a founder, appoint a chief executive, take on a partner or acquire a company. Financial and legal diligence is routine. The reputational record usually is not examined at all, and it is where the surprises live.

For investors

What the public record says about a founder and their previous ventures, including what the answer engines will tell your LPs when they ask.

For boards and nominations committees

What surfaces about a candidate before the appointment is announced, rather than in the reporting afterwards.

For acquirers

The reputational position of a target company and its principals — reviews, employer reputation, press history and the record you inherit on completion.

For partnerships

Who you are about to be publicly associated with, and what that association returns when searched.

Everything is drawn from the public record and lawful sources. This is not investigation and we are not investigators; it is a rigorous reading of what anyone could find, done properly and documented.

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