Use case · Investment due diligence
Back the team, after you’ve checked the team.
The model tells you what the business could earn. We tell you about the people who will run it with your money: their litigation, prior ventures, regulatory history and the companies they don’t mention.
What goes wrong without it
What a pitch meeting can’t tell you.
A history the deck leaves out
Earlier companies that failed, were dissolved or ended in litigation with their investors.
Disputes with former partners
Suits by co-founders, employees or prior investors that point to how the founder handles conflict and money.
Regulatory baggage
SEC, FINRA or NFA actions and sanctions links that would follow your fund onto the cap table.
What we check
The searches that matter most before you invest.
Every investment case runs the full package on the company and each principal. These are the searches that most often move an investment committee.
See all 28 searches →Business history (SOS, D&B)
Every company a founder has formed, run or dissolved, including the ones not on LinkedIn.
County civil · Federal district civil
Investor, partner and contract disputes involving the founders or their prior companies.
Federal bankruptcy
Prior ventures that ended in bankruptcy, and how creditors were treated.
SEC enforcement actions · FINRA · NFA
Enforcement actions, bars and disciplinary history for anyone who has raised or managed money.
News and media
Reporting on the founders and their prior companies that public records alone miss.
Education · Professional licenses
Degrees and licenses on the founder’s biography, confirmed against the issuing records.
What a finding looks like
Graded, sourced and matched to the right person.
Each finding tells you what happened, how serious it is and how we know it’s the same person, with the record attached for your file.
Sample finding · fictional subject
Federal civil — securities fraud claim
HighSubject: Elena Park, CEO and co-founder. Named defendant in a suit by investors in her prior startup, Lumenfield Analytics Inc., alleging misstated revenue in a 2020 seed round. Settled in 2022. Not mentioned in the founder biography.
- Court and case
- N.D. Cal. · 3:21-cv-0XXXX
- Identity match
- Name, DOB, prior company officer records
Complaint and settlement docket attached
Where it fits
From term sheet to the board seat.
At term sheet
Open the case
Add the company, the founders and the executives you are backing. It takes minutes in the client portal.
Before IC
Read the report
Findings arrive in about 5 business days, ready for the investment committee memo.
After funding
Keep watching
Continuous monitoring re-screens the founders daily and alerts you when something new appears.
Questions
Investment due diligence, answered.
Do you investigate early-stage founders with little history?
Yes. A short history is still searchable: prior companies, civil records, education and licenses, media and sanctions. A clean report on a new founder is a documented result, not an empty one.
Can you check co-investors or the selling sponsor?
Yes. Any company or person involved in the round can be added as a subject, including co-investors and the sponsor on the other side of a buyout.
Will the founders know?
Our standard work uses public records and doesn’t involve contacting anyone. If you prefer, you can tell founders that background diligence is part of your process.
Can you cover a whole portfolio?
Yes. Several companies and their principals can be submitted at once in the client portal, and continuous monitoring keeps watching them after the deal.