1/8 Founders, I know you are all really focused on pitching and your pitch decks but please know it is 1/2 if not only 1/3 of the battle.

The next big stage you should be ready for is Due Diligence (DD). This where many investments go to die

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2/8 Due Diligence is when investors take the time to basically make sure everything you've told them in the pitch is real. As founders, you have to have some level of delusional confidence. DD is where we get to see how delusional it is

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3/8 During DD some investors look into more things than others. Many investors will have a list of documents and references they need from you. Many founders set up a data room which is a cloud folder with most of these documents ready to go

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4/8 Some of the things investors will be reviewing are your tax forms to make sure your taxes match your financials Contracts you have, corporate docs, making reference calls to partners and customers (this is a big one for me), and more

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5/8 This is also the phase where some investors start to really dive into your overall market. It is during this phase an investor will do one of two things. They will start to get more excited about your company or less so.

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6/8 This is a very critical step in the fundraising process where things can go wrong.

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7/8 I once committed to invest in a company that dragged their feet on getting me their docs and during that time I ran into many of their customers and partners who were unhappy with their product and professionalism. end up killing that deal

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8/8 So know just because you nailed the pitch and get an investor excited that isn't the end of the road.

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