This is the actual list we work from, in the four workstreams we run in parallel. Tick items off as you assemble them. Nothing here is a trap, and a founder who has all of it ready shortens diligence from three weeks to about one.
Four workstreams, run at the same time rather than in sequence. Click an item to mark it ready.
Not bad numbers. Bad numbers change the price. These change whether there's a deal at all, and all three are fixable months in advance and expensive to fix in week seven.
A contractor wrote part of your product and never signed an assignment. The company doesn't own the code it's selling. We see this in a large share of deals and it is entirely preventable.
A customer contract that lets the customer terminate, or requires their consent, on a change of ownership. One of these in your largest account changes the whole conversation.
Someone with shares, no separation agreement, and possibly a claim on the IP. This surfaces at signing and stops everything until it's resolved.
The buyer's verification of what they're buying, across financial, legal, technical and commercial areas. For a company under $10M in revenue it typically takes two to four weeks and twenty to forty hours of the seller's time.
Curious is a long-term holding company that buys and grows software companies with empathy.
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