Getting a startup’s data room, cap table and valuation story ready before investor meetings
A growth-stage startup was about to meet investors. We put the data room, the cap table and the valuation story in order first.
A venture-backed startup was starting a new round. The team had a strong story, but the documents behind it lived in different folders and did not always agree: the cap table, the share certificates and the filings with the Registrar of Companies.
Investor lawyers check these against each other early. A mismatch costs weeks, and sometimes goodwill.
What we did
- Step 1
Reconcile the cap table
We reconciled the cap table to the share certificates, the allotment records, the board and shareholder approvals and the statutory filings, and listed every difference.
- Step 2
Order the data room
We built the data room in the order an investor reads it: corporate, financial, tax, contracts, people, intellectual property and disputes.
- Step 3
Check the foreign investment record
Where earlier investors were non-resident, we checked that the required reports to the bank and the regulator had been made on time.
- Step 4
Write the valuation story
We helped the team explain the valuation through the numbers, the market and the comparable rounds, in one short document.
Documents that agreed with each other on day one.
The data room opened with a reconciled cap table, a clean corporate folder and a short note on every known gap and how it was being closed.
The investor’s lawyers had fewer first-round questions, and the discussion moved to the terms.
A reconciled cap table
Certificates, records, approvals and filings agreed.
A data room in reading order
Each folder was in the sequence an investor follows.
A known-gaps note
Open points were stated first, with a plan for each.
An investor forgives a gap that is disclosed and being fixed. A gap that is discovered costs trust.
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