Investors require a large amount of information to make an informed investment decision. The more information available to them, the faster they will be able to look it over and make a decision. This is the reason you need to have your data room packed with essential documents prior to starting conversations with investors (or at a minimum, as early as possible).

In addition to the key investment documents you’ll need for any due diligence, founders should include their most recent investor presentation, basic financials for past performance and projections, cap table, and company organization/formation documentation (including business certificates, articles of https://dataroomproducts.com/how-to-run-an-investor-data-room-for-your-startup/ incorporation, tax information, etc.). The availability of these documents in your investor data room will allow investors to quickly and easily assemble the deal memo or have a conversation amongst their partners that can lead to a term sheet offer.

Another important document to keep in your investor data room is a deal attribution analysis that displays how your team has made investments in other companies, helping to convince potential LPs that you are competent to make the right investments. You might also want to include other supplementary information, including intellectual property information, supplier and customer contracts, market research and more.

You can add documents to your data room at any point but it’s crucial that you only give access to investors who is determined to commit to a termsheet. It may delay the process when you allow an investor access to your data room before they are prepared. They could decide not to invest.