What Do I Include in an Investor Data Room?

Investors want to see specific things in your data room. What should you include and what should you not include?

Corl is an artificially-intelligent platform that finances businesses in the digital economy and shares in their future revenue. If you’re interested in learning more about revenue sharing, welcome to connect with Corl directly through Twitter, LinkedIn or through our website.

Data Room Set Up

If you’re considering a funding round, regardless of financial instrument, you must…

SET UP A DATA ROOM BEFORE YOU START RAISING!

There are also some things to keep in mind when setting up your data room:

1. Recommended to use Google Drive or Dropbox. There are some other options as well, but they can be costly and both Google Drive/Dropbox have intuitive, free versions.
2. Create a folder structure that is clean and easy to navigate. Investors time is valuable, ensure your structure is as simple as possible.
3. Allow read-only rights! You do not want 3rd parties downloading/editing your company data.
4. Create separate data room access for each investor so you can tailor the content. Depending on investor, you’ll want to target some of your messaging.
5. Create an update cadence. Once a month, once a quarter. Whatever your goals are, make sure documents are fresh.

Now that you have an idea on setup/organization, here is a list of items to include in your data room regardless of the type of company you operate or stage of funding:

What should you include in a Data Room?

Company Documents

1. Amended and restated articles of incorporation.
2. Voting agreements
3. Investor rights agreements
4. First refusal & co-sale agreements
5. Stock purchase agreements
6. Capitalization table
7. Any documents/details on previous raises (if any)

Board of Director Materials

1. All board meeting minutes
2. Board consents and actions

Financials

1. Profit and loss statements
2. Pro-forma statements for next year
3. Projections

Marketing Materials

1. One-pager
2. Pitch deck
3. Branding guidelines and vision

Intellectual Property

1. Granted and filed patents
2. Trademarks
3. IP strategy

Market Research

1. Market studies
2. Competitive analysis w/ features & pricing

Sales

1. Sales process
2. Sales pipeline

Staff

1. List of all current employees, titles and salaries
2. Employee agreements
3. Future critical roles and hires
4. List of contract workers and firms

Technology

1. System architecture diagram
2. API documentation
3. Details on any large integrations
4. Product backlog export and release map
5. Screenshots of existing products

What should you not include?

There are some things to be wary of when sharing. Your company secrets, IP, and strategy have to be shared with investors, but there are certain cases where sharing in a data room may not be in your best interest.

Other options could include setting up a video call to go through or meeting in-person to show specific items. Always do research on whom you’re providing access to your data room. If they have investments in competitors or are involved with a larger competing organization, it is a good idea to address those issues in a call prior to allowing access.

Good luck with the raise and let us know if we can help.

Corl is an artificially-intelligent platform that finances businesses in the digital economy and shares in their future revenue. If you’re interested in learning more about revenue sharing, welcome to connect with Corl directly through Twitter, LinkedIn or through our website.