Due diligence
on the claims that matter

What we cover

Commercial diligence tests the market and competitive claims in an investment case: size, growth, share, pricing power, the threat from substitutes and the durability of the target's position. Customer diligence tests what customers actually think, through structured interviews with current, former and prospective customers recruited off the seller's list. Management and reputational diligence examines the record of the people involved: what former colleagues, counterparties and the public record say about how they operate, and whether the story in the room matches the story outside it. Counterparty and partner diligence does the same for a distributor, supplier, joint venture partner or vendor before you sign.

Most engagements combine two or three of these. A minority acquisition might need commercial and management diligence only; a carve-out might need customer, supplier and management work in the same four weeks. We scope the combination with you and quote one fixed price.

How it is done

Every diligence engagement begins with the claims. We take the investment memo, the CIM, the pitch or the partnership proposal and write down what has to be true for it to work. Each claim is then assigned to the evidence that could test it: an interview with someone in a position to know, a document that can be checked, or a public record. We recruit and verify the people ourselves, confirm that each holds the role they claim at the organisation they claim, and record how. Interviews are run by the researcher who writes the report, not by a junior with a template.

Where the claims involve a person or a company's conduct, we work from the public record first: registries, filings, litigation, sanctions and enforcement lists, and press. Interviews then fill the gaps the record leaves. We do not approach current employees of a target without the seller's consent, and we agree compliance constraints for former employees before recruitment begins.

Deliverables

For a pre-LOI read, a Signal Brief: six to eight verified sources against the two or three claims that matter most, a signed two-page recommendation on whether to proceed and what to probe in confirmatory work, and a provenance appendix. For confirmatory diligence, a Decision Study: fifteen to thirty verified sources across the full claim set, a written report with a red flag summary, a signed recommendation, and a working session with the deal team. For funds with a steady flow of deals, the Intelligence Retainer gives you a researcher who already knows your sector and can start the same week.

Why this holds up at committee

Every claim in the report traces to a verified interview or a checked document. The provenance appendix shows who was interviewed, in what role, how they were verified and how they were reached, and lists every document opened. Lenders, co-investors, boards and vendor diligence reviewers can check the work without calling us. Where we could not verify a claim, the report says so, rather than smoothing it over.

All work is delivered under The Theory Standard. See services and prices.