Behind the curtain: Legal & operational systems

What goes on behind the closed doors of a partner meeting? Why didn’t that investor back your round? Investor and Limited Partner thinking is often cloaked in secrecy—after all, nobody wants to be the one to say no to the next great Unicorn. So this year we’re taking you behind the scenes to show you how investors think. From product and tech, to culture, to finance and more, we take you behind the scenes for five-minute glimpses into how investment decisions are made.

How are you structured?
A company is a set of people guided by processes. Much of what makes a company exist is information: Legal contracts, intellectual property, data, accounting systems, and other agreements. While this might seem mundane, a significant portion of due diligence, financing, mergers, and acquisitions is devoted to the “data room”—a collection of documents that describes the state of the organization.

The fourth question, then, is whether the structure of the organization is workable. Can the business model support new hires, changes in the business plan, and ultimately, scale? Is there legal entanglement from intellectual property or software licenses? What contracts, liabilities, and obligations does the organization have today, and what will it need in the future?