Deal flow screening
Teasers screened and enriched before a partner opens one
This is the stage before anything is signed. A teaser arrives from an adviser, half anonymised and written to flatter, and someone has to decide in a few minutes whether it is worth signing an NDA. A teaser for a business at twice your ticket size gets the same few minutes as one that fits, and criteria written down somewhere are applied from memory by whoever opened the email.
What it does
- 01Reads the approach in whatever form it arrives: an adviser’s email, a teaser, a management presentation, or all three in one thread
- 02Tests the hard criteria first: sector, geography, control or minority, and whether revenue and earnings sit inside your range
- 03Applies your exclusions, both the restrictions written into the fund documents and your responsible investment policy, so an asset in an excluded sector or a geography you do not operate in never reaches a partner
- 04Fills in what the teaser leaves out, because a teaser is written to interest you, not to inform you: filed accounts and actual earnings, ownership and whether a sponsor is already invested, group structure, and the sector context behind the numbers
- 05Works out what the asset probably is when the teaser is anonymised, from sector, geography and size, and says how confident it is
- 06Checks it against what you have already seen: the same asset from a second adviser, one the fund passed on eighteen months ago, or something that overlaps a company you already own, with the earlier reasoning attached
- 07Writes a short screening note on each one, giving the fit against each criterion, what the enrichment found, and a recommendation to pass or to take it to NDA, and logs it to your pipeline
What it changes
- Partners spend their reading time on opportunities this fund could invest in, in order of priority
- An asset that fits stops waiting behind three that never could
- The decision to sign an NDA rests on filed numbers, not the ones in the teaser
- Screening becomes consistent, because the criteria are applied the same way on a Friday evening as on a Monday morning
- Every pass carries a recorded reason, which matters when the asset comes round again, or when an LP asks how the pipeline is screened
What you can check
Every approach keeps its screening note, its fit against each criterion, the sources behind the enrichment and its recommendation, and the record is exportable. A partner can see exactly why something was set aside, and overturn it.
What it looks like
Questions
- Does it decide what we look at?
- No. It applies the criteria you have already set and shows its reasoning on each one. A partner can overturn any screen, and the override is recorded alongside the original.
- How do the exclusions work?
- They are your own: the restrictions in the fund documents, your responsible investment policy, and any informal rules you have never written down until now. Writing them down is part of discovery, and the list is yours to change.
- Where does the enrichment come from?
- Public filings and registers first, then whatever sources you already pay for. Every figure keeps a link to where it came from, so a partner can see whether a number is filed, estimated or simply what the teaser claimed.
- Is this due diligence?
- No. Due diligence starts once an NDA is signed and a data room opens. This is the screen before that, and its only job is to decide what deserves an NDA in the first place.
- Does it reply to advisers or founders?
- Only if you want it to, and only with wording you approve. Most firms start with it silent and add a holding reply later.
- What if our strategy shifts?
- It is your rule set, changed when you change it. Past decisions stay on the record against the criteria that applied at the time.
- Does it see our pipeline data?
- Only what you connect, and it stays in your environment.
Start with a conversation
The first conversation is free. We will talk through where your team’s time is going and tell you plainly whether we can help.
Last updated 14 October 2026