The numbers an investor will find in diligence

Founders spend weeks refining the narrative and days on the metric definitions. The narrative is what gets the meeting. The definitions are what determine whether you keep the room for a second one.

The three numbers that must be unambiguous

Revenue recognition, gross margin, and burn. Each is routinely defined differently inside a single company, and each is precisely where a diligence question will land.

Revenue in particular has more legitimate definitions than any other line in a model. Recognition on cash, on invoice, on delivery, on acceptance — all defensible, all producing a different number. The one that matters is the one written down, applied consistently, and explained in a single sentence.

Build the bridge before you need it

The question that catches most teams is not a single metric. It is the bridge from what was reported in the data room to what the bank statements show. That bridge should exist as a document before diligence starts, not be assembled under pressure by whoever is most available.

It takes a day to build properly and is close to impossible to reconstruct quickly once a diligence process has begun.

Show the base rate

Investors do not need the most optimistic case. They need to know what happens in the low case, how long it lasts, and what you would do. A founder who has modelled the downside is more fundable than one who has only modelled the upside, because the first one has already made the decisions the second one is about to be asked for.

Know the question you cannot answer

Every company has one metric that does not currently exist because the systems to produce it do not. Find yours, write it down, and have an answer for why it is absent and what it would take to build. "We would need to instrument the billing system and that is a six-week project" is a complete and credible answer. Silence is not.