Data room checklist
Everything a seed data room is expected to hold, grouped by area, as a list you can keep.
Checklist
Diligence and closing · Copyable template
Data room folder structure
A folder tree you can copy straight into Drive, named the way diligence expects to find it.
A data room is not a folder you open at the end of a raise. It is a decision environment that shapes the whole process: the investor is trying to verify claims and find risks, and you are trying to control access, keep the record accurate, and learn which questions actually matter to the people evaluating you.
The structure below is eight folders and an index. Copy it as-is, adjust the categories your sector needs, and put a date, a status, and an owner on every material file. A clear label is itself risk control — a mislabelled document raises more questions than it answers.
Copyable template
What is in it
- The folder tree
- How every file is named
- The index page
- Claims, traced to evidence
- Who has access, and to what
- The request log
- The walkthrough, before you share it
- Who coordinates it
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Get the template
The template is ready. Add your email to open it, and you will also get The Raise Memo — a note for founders raising capital.
How to use it
Notes
Build it in stages. A short first-pass set is usually enough for an initial review, with deeper access following a serious conversation or a specific request. Preserve prior versions and note what changed rather than silently replacing history — the replacement looks worse than the change if it is noticed later. Never backdate, fabricate, or quietly delete an inconvenient file: a well-explained gap is manageable, while a credibility problem spreads across everything else the investor reviews. And if requests keep growing with no decision path attached, ask directly how the new material would affect the process.
Where this comes from
The thinking behind it
Take it with you
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From the publication
Read The Raise Memo
A note for founders raising capital—what investors notice, how conviction gets built, and what to do next.
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