| name | deal-sourcing-scan |
| description | Use when building or refreshing a sourcing pipeline against an investment thesis — turns a mandate into explicit criteria, a scored candidate pool, and a defensible shortlist, as internal analysis only. |
Deal Sourcing Scan
The firm's repeatable procedure for turning a thesis into a pipeline. It exists to disqualify cheaply and shortlist defensibly — never to recommend a transaction to anyone.
Steps
- Fix the mandate. Restate the thesis in one sentence, and pin the hard filters: sector, stage, geography, and check-size range. If any filter is missing, get it from the mandate owner before scanning — an unbounded scan wastes the pool.
- Write the criteria. List the positive signals that mark a company worth a closer look (traction shape, team signal, wedge, timing) and the disqualifiers that end a look early. Disqualifiers first — they save the most time.
- Build the pool. Identify candidate companies that pass the hard filters. For each, capture only the few facts that decide a first look; do not diligence at this stage.
- Score. Rate each candidate against the criteria on a fixed rubric. Keep the scale small (e.g. strong / possible / pass) and force a one-line reason per score.
- Label evidence. For every scored fact, mark it observed, inferred, or unverifiable. A candidate carried on inference alone is flagged as such.
- Shortlist. Promote only candidates that clear the bar on the written criteria, not on pitch polish. Each gets a one-pager and an explicit "why this one."
- Log the passes. Every dropped candidate keeps a one-line reason and a date, so the same ground is not re-walked next cycle.
Quality bar
- Every score traces to the written criteria, not to a gut feel.
- Disqualifiers are applied before deep reading, not after.
- Known, inferred, and unverifiable facts are visibly distinguished on every candidate.
- The shortlist is defensible company-by-company; a reader can see why each made it and why the rest did not.
- Nothing in the output reads as advice to invest; it is a pipeline of candidates for internal review.
Output format
A scored pipeline (candidate, filters passed, score, one-line reason, evidence labels, state) plus a ranked shortlist where each company carries a one-pager and a pursue rationale, and a passed-log with dated reasons.
