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Guides

What investors and acquirers actually check before they wire.

Diligence isn't a mystery — it's a fixed set of questions a lead's counsel, an acquirer's deal team, or an underwriter runs, in a predictable order, before money moves. These guides lay out that set with worked examples and the real dilution math, so you close your gaps before the other side finds them for you.

The dilution figures below are computed by the same deterministic engine that runs the paid report and the free on-page estimate — so the guides and your report can't disagree. Diligence practice follows public US-market sources (YC, NVCA model docs, Cooley GO); confirm anything jurisdiction-specific with your own counsel.

The 90 diligence questions, by category

The full seven-category kill-list — cap table, corporate hygiene, IP, related-party, revenue, key-person, compliance — with what each question is really testing and the document that clears it.

"startup due diligence checklist / what do investors ask in diligence"

The data-room folder index

The exact folder tree to build before a room goes live — generalized from an exchange-listing-grade data room, trimmed to what each stage needs, with the file names to use.

"startup data room checklist / how to structure a data room"

Red flags investors kill deals over

The findings that don't get negotiated — they end the deal or re-price it hard: the prior-employer IP claim, the unmodeled SAFE, the off-ledger equity promise — ranked by how much each costs you.

"what kills a startup deal in diligence / diligence red flags"

Founder-side diligence prep timeline

A week-by-week plan to walk into a live room already clean — what to fix 8 weeks out, 4 weeks out, and in the final sprint, so nothing surfaces mid-deal.

"how to prepare for due diligence / diligence prep timeline"

The option-pool shuffle, priced

Why a "standard" pool refresh quietly moves several points of ownership off you before the new investor is diluted at all — with the exact math and an on-page calculator.

"option pool shuffle / does the option pool dilute founders"

SAFE conversion: cap vs discount, worked

How a post-money SAFE actually converts at a priced round — cap price vs discount price vs round price, MFN, and stacking — with a worked three-SAFE example and a calculator.

"how does a SAFE convert / post-money SAFE cap vs discount"
Want your own company scored against all of this?

The free estimate on the homepage gives you a dilution number in two minutes, no signup. The $79 report scores your kill-list, orders your gaps by deal impact, and computes your exact post-round split from your cap table.

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